IRWINDALE — Rio Hondo Prep rushed for 438 yards and ran themselves right into the CIF-Southern Section Division 7 football finals for the second consecutive year with a convincing 42-21 semi-final win over West Torrance Friday night.
The Kares (11-1) will host Warren, a 41-17 winner over Yucaipa, in the championship game next week.
The Kares are the defending Division 9 champions while Warren (6-7) drops down from Division 3.
“It means the world to get back (to the finals) at this level,” Kares coach Mark Carson said. “We never thought we’d get here. It’s a great credit to our guys who grind it out every day.”
The Kares scored on their first possession, a 60-yard scoring run by junior Noah Penunuri who had been fighting the flu and missed the entire week of practice.
“Our linemen definitely have that play down,” Penunuri said. “(Elijah) Gavia got a block and our receivers, (Tyler) Dang and (Joshua) Curtis hit hard and I just got loose.”
Penunuri carried the ball 29 times for 202 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the Kares ground attack.
The Kares took a 21-14 lead with 1:29 left in the first half but the Warriors battled back behind senior quarterback Eli Brandt. They looked like they were driving for the tying score when Gavia intercepted a pass and ran it back to the Warriors’ 43-yard line with 58.6 seconds left.
“Gavia’s kind of our screen guy,” Carson said. “He can sniff those out and I think that was the third one this year. He’s not the most fleet of foot and might not get to their quarterback but he drops back and gets the ball.”
Penunuri and Nate Curtis took turns running the ball to the Warriors’ 16 and then quarterback Yanick Diaz completed his only pass of the night, a 13-yard toss to Curtis at the three-yard line with 3.5 seconds left in the half.
Instead of kicking the chip-shot field goal, Carson rolled the dice and gave the ball to Curtis around the right side for a touchdown as time expired in the half.
“That was Yanick’s only completion of the night,” Carson said. “It was a great bounce back after that interception earlier. Then Curtis got it in there and that was huge getting up by two touchdowns at the end of the half.”
Curtis also had a big night rushing for 128 yards on 12 carries.
The Kares took the second-half kickoff and marched 62 yards in eight plays. Curtis capped the drive with a 31-yard score, his third touchdown of the night.
He stiff-armed a defender then broke two more tackles inside the 10-yard line for a 35-14 lead.
Caeden Holcomb and Nathaniel Shine added 108 yards on the ground between them as the Kares controlled the ball for more than 20 minutes of the second half.
Holcomb scored the final touchdown of the game on a 13-yard run.
“Holcomb’s a beast,” Carson said. “We wouldn’t be here without him. He’s our middle linebacker, he blocks and he had some great carries tonight.”