It came down to the final offensive snap for the Simi Valley football team Friday night.
Trailing 29-25 with under two minutes remaining, QB Jesse Sereno led his team 73 yards down the field on a 14-play drive to secure the victory. On the final play of the game, Sereno scored on a QB sneak from 1 yard out with a good push from his teammates to clinch the 25-22 victory over Huntington Beach in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 6.
Simi Valley advances to the Division 6 championship next week to take on Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach. The title game will be the second ever appearance in school history for Simi Valley and the eighth section title game head coach Jim Benkert has reached.
“The kids played their hearts out tonight. It’s a tribute to the next guy up and it’s a tribute to putting the fire out,” Benkert said. “If you talk to these guys there was never a doubt that there we were gonna go down and score because that’s the way we are made.”
The game was a tale of two halves for Simi Valley with the defense performing well and forcing two turnovers, including an interception returned 26 yards for a touchdown by Dominic Demaio to help them jump out to a 10-0 lead before halftime. Huntington Beach had a chance to score late in the first half but a bad handoff exchange led to a Simi Valley fumble recovery.
“It was just another team win, no individuals again, it’s just this team,” Demaio said. “We’re a well oiled machine and we’re ready for that CIF Championship.”
At the start of the second half Huntington Beach scored on its first three possessions as Simi Valley had a tough time dealing with Oilers freshman quarterback Brady Edmunds and the explosive Huntington Beach pass attack. Edmunds threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter and Jaxson Brown had a short touchdown run to help give the Oilers a 22-17 lead after three.
Bruce Hawkins ran the ball effectively for Simi Valley finishing with 18 carries for 70 yards and had a 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Sereno finished the game 27 of 43 for 154 yards and the one touchdown run. Conner Calabrese had nine catches for 83 yards for Simi Valley and Demaio had five catches for 31 yards.
Jayden Clarke had a 16-yard touchdown run with a couple minutes left in the game to put Simi Valley up 25-22. Following the Clarke score, Edmunds threw his third touchdown pass of the night to give Huntington Beach the three point lead on the drive prior to Sereno scoring a touchdown on the final play of the game to win it for Simi Valley.
Edmunds finished the game 17 of 28 for 340 yards and three touchdowns with the one interception. Troy Foster finished the game for Huntington Beach with five catches for 135 yards with two touchdowns and Hunter Gray had six catches for 159 yards and one touchdown.
“We have a gritty team that battles every week,” Huntington Beach coach Brett Brown said. “Our kids never felt out of it and we unfortunately just lost by a yard.”
