By Cary Osborne
Signal Sports Editor

Two teams who came into the season as unlikely Foothill League champions are each a win away from the title.

And both teams meet tonight at 7:30 p.m. at College of the Canyons when Valencia (5-4, 3-1) plays Saugus (6-3, 3-1) in each team’s regular season finale.

“I really try not to get wrapped up in this stuff,” said Saugus head coach Jason Bornn. “It doesn’t mean we don’t play intense or with passion. If you’re not motivated at this point, there’s nothing I can say or do to get you fired up.”

Said Valencia head coach Larry Muir: “We haven’t talked a lot about (the title). It’s more about finishing the league off the right way. For us, we still have something to prove.” 

Let’s get scenarios out of the way first.

If Valencia wins, it will share the Foothill League title with Canyon.

But the Vikings would be the top seed for the Northern Division playoffs from the Foothill League because they defeated the Cowboys 34-7 on Oct. 21.

A loss could make Valencia the fourth-place team in the league, meaning the Vikings have to hope for an at-large bid.

If Saugus wins, it shares the league title with Canyon, but is the No. 2 seed because of a 51-28 loss to the Cowboys on Oct. 14.

A loss puts the Centurions in third place in league, assuring a first-round playoff game on the road.

Now to the game itself.

This has the potential of being an ugly one — which is not so ugly in Bornn’s eyes.

He looks back to last Saturday’s LSU-Alabama college game — a 9-6 LSU overtime victory — as a beautiful ugly game.

This Saugus-Valencia matchup could be a lot of running, a lot of defense, not a lot of passing yards and a field-position battle that comes down to who takes better care of the ball.

This is the sort of game that plays into Saugus’ favor because the Centurions are so adept at eating clock and keeping the ball out of the other team’s hands. Valencia has needed every bit of the clock to score points this year, having struggled for much of the season to succeed because of a lack of a consistent big-play threat.

Yet Saugus will run the ball against a Valencia front seven that is the strength of the Vikings team.

Muir said he’s not concerned about that running game wearing the Vikings’ defense out.

Yet he points to one player who could give Valencia fits.

“The issue is Jared Carbajal,” Muir said of the Saugus quarterback who has ran for 1,010 yards this season. “He is the one that has big-play potential. He can move the chains. He’s the one who makes things go. If he’s in a rhythm running the offense, it’s going to be a rough going for us.”

If Carbajal is forced to pass, Saugus might be in trouble because he has completed just 46 percent of his passes this season.

Bornn is not worried because he said Carbajal has developed “touch,” meaning he knows how hard or what kind of ball he needs to throw in which situation.

Likewise, Valencia doesn’t want quarterback Sean Murphy to try and play like University of Houston gunslinger Case Keenum.

They want him to manage the game.

So for Saugus and Valencia, the other guys on offense become X-factors.

For Saugus, that’s guys like running back Colton Jackson, who ran for 109 yards in last Friday’s 35-14 win over West Ranch, or bruising running back Tyler Watt, who can give the Centurions a lot or a little on offense.

For Valencia, it’s a receiver like Tedric Thompson, who has the ability to be a big-play target, or the Vikings’ offensive line, which Muir has pointed to as a unit that needs to have a big game.

On defense, Saugus is getting better and better and Bornn said the key lately has been nose tackle Denley Rodriguez, who Bornn described as being dominant last week.

For Valencia, it could be the linebackers and safeties who need to make sure that if Carbajal or someone else gets past the defensive line that he doesn’t get any farther.

It’s a big one.

And few people thought it would be this way.

Saugus was thought of as a good team, not a great team coming into the season because of a void of superstars.

“Because there are no superstars, there are no egos, no drama,” Bornn said. “It’s a team for all intents and purposes that’s just that.”

Valencia wasn’t supposed to be a league champion because it lost its superstars from last year to graduation.

One of these teams will be a champion by day’s end.

By Jon Stein
Signal Staff Write

Saugus running back Colton Jackson, right, tries to break away from West Ranch linebacker Devin Georgio on Friday evening at College of the Canyons.

The Saugus Centurions nearly used every weapon in their possession on Friday night when they took on West Ranch at College of the Canyons. 

Saugus used its bruising rushing attack to build an early lead and mixed in just enough passes to secure a 35-14 victory.

Saugus (6-3, 3-1) opened the game for the second straight week by recovering the opening kickoff, and quarterback Jared Carbajal capitalized with a 6-yard touchdown run to cap the drive.

Carbajal finished the game 2-of-5 passing with 83 yards and one touchdown, while rushing for 98 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.

Carbajal surpassed 1,000 yards rushing on the season on a 7-yard scamper in the third quarter. 

Saugus running back Colton Jackson added 108 yards on 14 carries and running back Quentin Hendrix added 41 yards on nine carries and a 59-yard touchdown catch.

West Ranch (5-4, 1-3) wasn’t nearly as productive.

Wildcats running back Jeff Coprich exploded in the first half for 122 rushing yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns.

As a team, though, the Wildcats managed just 116 total yards of offense in the first half, as no one other than Coprich found success moving the ball.

He finished with 130 yards on 19 carries, as Saugus began to stack the box and take advantage of West Ranch’s one-dimensional offense in the second half.

West Ranch quarterback Gabe Peralta, starting in place of Gerrit Mouw, threw for 36 yards on 3-of-6 passing with one interception.

With Saugus leading 21-7 with 1:29 to play in the first half, Coprich exploded on the first play of the ensuing drive, going 62 yards for his second touchdown of the night.

With the win, Saugus remains tied for first place in the Foothill League standings with Valencia and Canyon. 

The Centurions will have a chance to clinch a share of the league title when they take on Valencia on Friday at College of the Canyons.

By Jon Stein
Signal Staff Writer

There’s no other way to put it — it was an odd night of football on Friday night at Canyon High between Golden Valley and Saugus highs.

The teams continually found ways to lose possessions, with each team losing the ball three times, including three straight kickoffs to open the game in which the kicking team recovered the ball.

It was the Centurions who fixed their problems first, and ran their way to a 36-27 victory over the Grizzlies.

Saugus went deep into its playbook to put Golden Valley (1-7, 0-3) away, converting successful onside–kick attempts on its first two kickoffs of the evening — including the game’s opener.

Quarterback Jared Carbajal led the Centurions (5-3, 2-1), going 5-of-8 for 56 yards passing and a touchdown, and rushing for 118 yards on 15 carries and one touchdown.

One of those yards came on a 4th-and-1 play when Carbajal pretended to look toward the sideline before taking the snap and gaining a first down.

Saugus running back Quentin Hendrix would score on the drive with 8:14 remaining in the second quarter to put Saugus in front 15-6.

Despite the victory, the Saugus defense routinely had trouble stopping the Grizzlies’ offense.

Running back Earl Johnson continually burned Saugus defenders, finishing with a game-high 165 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns.

Like Saugus, Golden Valley was prepared to take chances.

With 42-seconds to go in the half, and a fourth-and-goal from the Saugus 7-yard line, quarterback Reid Soliman rolled left and found wide receiver Chris Lozano in the end zone to pull within 15-12 at the break.

Unfortunately, for every play in which Saugus had trouble stopping the Grizzlies, Golden Valley aided the Centurions with untimely penalties.

The Grizzlies committed 12 penalties for 99 yards, routinely thwarting opportunities to seize momentum. 

None hurt more than a roughing-the-kicker penalty that kept a Saugus drive alive late in the third-quarter.

After the penalty, Carbajal took the ball deep into Golden Valley territory on a 30-yard quarterback keeper, before a Grizzlies’ personal-foul penalty gave Saugus the ball at the 11-yard line.

One play later, Carbajal ran 11 yards into the end zone with 2:10 remaining to put Saugus up 29-19.

Colton Jackson added another touchdown with 10:21 to go and the Grizzlies notched the final score with a 10-yard pass from Soliman (103 yards passing and one touchdown on 13-of-22 attempts) to wide receiver Chase Lewis with 3:23 left.

By Joey Gulino
Signal Assistant Sports Editor

After 30 minutes of scoreless football, it came down to which team would make the first big mistake.
Hart did. The Indians made two, actually.

And Saugus didn’t let them go to waste.

Saugus quarterback Jared Carbajal, right, runs from an approaching Hart defender, Aaron Porter on Friday night at College of the Canyons.

The Centurions struck for a pair of third-quarter touchdowns off two turnovers and beat Hart 24-10 on Friday at College of the Canyons.

“We’ve been talking about it for seven weeks now,” said Saugus head coach Jason Bornn, “playing a game where we don’t give other teams opportunities.”

Instead, Saugus (4-3, 1-1) was handed extra opportunities by Hart’s special teams. After the Indians forced a three-and-out early in the third quarter, returner Tim White muffed the ensuing punt, giving Saugus the ball at its own 48.

The Centurions mounted a 10-play drive that culminated with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Jared Carbajal to Zack Garcia to put Saugus up 6-0 after a missed extra point.

Things got worse for Hart almost immediately. Griffin Scott muffed the ensuing kickoff and gave Saugus possession at the Hart 28-yard line.

Saugus tailback Quentin Hendrix burst down the left sideline for 19 yards on first down, and one play later, he scampered in for a 9-yard touchdown.

Following a successful two-point conversion by Carbajal, Saugus was up 14-0. And the Indians paid for their miscues.

They had a chance to take the lead in the first half, but kicker Rhett Almond missed field goals from 29 and 24 yards out.
“Two missed field goals in the first half, the dropped punt, dropped kickoff return, that tells the game,” said Hart head coach Mike Herrington. “That swung the game, swung the emotion.”

That said, Hart (5-2, 1-1) still wasn’t out of the game heading into the fourth quarter. 

Saugus kicker Angie Weiner hit a 29-yard field goal as the third quarter ended, but the Indians responded on the next drive.

Quarterback Connor Wingenroth hit Tim White for a 54-yard pass that set up Hart with a first-and-goal from the Saugus 8.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Wingenroth’s second effort allowed Hart to cut the lead to 17-7 with 9:49 left.

But Saugus came up with a big fourth-down play of its own on the next drive to seal the victory. 

On fourth-and-3 from the Hart 31, Carbajal hit tight end Cody Taylor down the middle for a 31-yard touchdown.

Carbajal said he knew the offense needed to capitalize on the second-half opportunities created by the defense, which held Hart to 292 yards of offense.

“We couldn’t ask much more of them,” Carbajal said. “We knew it was our time to step up and we did.”

Almond booted a 39-yard field goal with 4:30 left but Hart got no closer.

Carbajal accounted for 118 total yards, including 64 on the ground, although his numbers took a hit when he was forced to fall on a bad snap for a 29-yard loss. 

Hendrix finished with 94 yards rushing on 16 carries.

Bornn said he was encouraged by the way that all three phases of the game contributed to the victory.

“Everything works in conjunction with each other,” he said.

Wingenroth outplayed senior Cory Mayes, with whom he shared snaps at quarterback, and threw for 122 yards on 4-of-12 passing. 

Running back Dylan Edwards had 124 yards on 23 carries, although he only rushed for 16 yards in the second half.

Hart’s season so far bears a striking resemblance to last season, when it went 4-1 in preleague play, beat Golden Valley to open the Foothill League schedule and then lost a hard-fought game to Saugus.

Herrington said his team has no choice but to move forward.

“The coaches will go back to work and see what we can do,” he said. “We’ve got to teach these kids how to win in the Foothill League.”

Saturday, October 8th, 2011
The Paseo Club
27650 Dickason Drive, Santa Clarita, CA 91390

7pm – Midnight

Additional tickets available in advance for $20 from your team representative or $25 at the door.  Each ticket gets $300 in play money and one drink ticket.

VOTED OUR BEST EVENT OF THE YEAR

Casino night is not just an event, it is a fundraiser to raise the funds to keep our football program running!  Food & drinks will be available as well as Blackjack, Roulette and Craps tables for your enjoyment.  In addition there will also be a live and silent auction featuring many gift certificates & gifts from businesses all over the Santa Clarita Valley.

Please show your support by attending and enjoying a great evening full of fun.

Prizes and raffles:

• Live and Silent Auctions
• Chance to win up to $1,000 CASH and other cash prizes
• Weekend getaway to a cabin in Big Bear
• 1 night stay at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles
• Footballs signed by the players of each division