South Hills High School Varsity Football Team

COVINA -South Hills High School, the No. 2 seed in the CIF-Southern Section Southeast Division, gave up a 21-point lead before battling back to knock off Bonita, 28-21, in a first-round playoff game Friday night.

With the score tied, Jamel Hart sprinted 15 yards for the game-winning score, capping an 80-yard drive, with 10:52 left in the game.

“We put ourselves in that position,” Huskies Coach Steve Bogan said. “Some dumb penalties and a couple of plays put our backs against the wall.”

Playing without injured quarterback Jake Shirley, the Huskies stuck to their ground game. Geoffrey Vaughns and Hart rushed for a total of 334 yards.

“Our offensive line dominated,” Bogan said. “That was huge and a credit to coach (Albert) Rodriguez. We ran more zone blocks tonight than we have all year.”

Leading 21-0 the Huskies appeared to lose their composure, getting involved in trash talk and ending the game with six major penalties.

After one 15-yard penalty, Bearcats quarterback Garrett Pendleton hit Deron Holmes on a screen pass for a 32-yard touchdown with 1:02 left in the half.

A muffed punt put the Huskies in a hole at their own six. A bad snap was recovered in the end zone by the Bearcats Erik LeVay to close the gap to 21-14.

Another fumble gave the ball back to the Bearcats at the Huskies 5-yard line. Josh Yepez caught a 5-yard pass from Pendleton to tie the score at the end of three quarters.

“All of our kids can feel proud they gave it their best shot,” Bearcats Coach Eric Podley said. “We made some big plays but we just didn’t have enough at the end.”

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San Gabriel Valley Tribune ~ http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_13839209

ROWLAND HEIGHTS – South Hills High School won an outright San Antonio League championship with its seventh consecutive victory, a 42-14 win over Rowland on Friday night.

The Huskies (8-2,4-0) were led by senior Geoffrey Vaughns. He rushed for 172 yards on 18 carries and scored five touchdowns.

“They (Rowland) ran virtually a goal line defense,” Huskies coach Steve Bogan said. “They had a lot of people up in the box to disrupt us and our offensive line was able to zone block and we got some big runs.”

Sioasi Aiono, Peter Nonu, Cody Goss, Josh Wiley and Jeff Vargas did the blocking for the Huskies as they rushed for 265 yards and protected quarterback Jacob Shirley, who passed for another 216 yards.

The Huskies scored on their first possession, moving the ball 86 yards in four plays, capped by Vaughn’s six yard run.

Nonu recovered a fumble at the Raiders 10-yard line and the Huskies were back in the end zone two plays later to make the score 14-0.

“You can’t make mistakes against a good football team,” Raiders coach Craig Snyder said. “It was 21-7 and we were going in to score when we got that questionable call. Then they drove and we didn’t tackle. That (Ify Umodu) is a heck of an athlete.”

The Raiders (8-2, 2-2) had moved the ball to the Huskies 16-yard line when a dropped ball was ruled a lateral. The ball was recovered by the Huskies’ Alec Griffin at the 14 with 1:23 left in the half.

The Huskies moved the ball 86 yards in eight plays for a score. Shirley hit Umodu for a 41-yard score as time ran out in the half.

“Ify was supposed to run out of bounds,” Bogan said. “That kind of turned it around and took some wind out of their sales.”

The Huskies defense held the Raiders’ Josh Onovughe to 56 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries.

“Without (Michael) Ball, they’re not quite as good,” Bogan said. “(Leonardo Freeman) is a heck of an athlete. He’s a great receiver and he’s doing the best he can for them (at quarterback). It’s hard when you lose a kid that good.”

San Gabriel Valley Tribune ~ http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_13787011

COVINA – It had been a few weeks since South Hills High School routed West Covina and was in a meaningful game, which left coach Steve Bogan wondering how fine-tuned his Huskies were with visiting Walnut in town needing a victory to keep its playoff hopes alive.

It didn’t take long to get his answer.

South Hills scored on its first possession and never looked back in a 48-27 victory at Covina District Field.

Huskies senior Geoffrey Vaughns had two first-half interceptions, which led to quarterback Jacob Shirley’s 60-yard touchdown pass to Ify Umodo, and another 18-yard touchdown pass to Umodo for a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Sophomore Jamel Hart scored two touchdowns and rushed for a team-high 98 yards.Hart’s 32-yard touchdown gave the Huskies a 27-0 lead at half, and his 23-yard touchdown with 8:42 left in the third quarter stretched the lead to 41-0.

Shirley finished 10 of 13 for 115 yards and Vaughns also rushed for 46 yards on just four carries to lead the CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division’s second-ranked Huskies to a 7-2 record, including 3-0 in the San Antonio League.

The Huskies can clinch the league title outright with a victory at Rowland next week.

“Our first drive help set the tone, but the interceptions (by Vaughns) kind of solidified it and sealed which way the game was going to go,” Bogan said. “Those picks kind of took the wind out of their sails.”

Vaughns has done so much that Bogan likened him to Leroy Keyes, a former Heisman Trophy candidate with Purdue in the mid 1960′s.

“He’s such a big playmaker for us,” Bogan said of Vaughns. “He’s wise, talented and has a great football sense. He made big plays for us, no doubt about it.”

Walnut, which was ranked No. 2 in the Southeast Division after starting 5-0, was the odd team out in league. South Hills, Rowland and West Covina all earned playoff spots with the Mustangs’ loss.

The Mustangs tried making a run late after the Huskies emptied their bench.

Leonard Rhodes scored on 9- and 10-yard runs, Milan King returned a fumble 11 yards for a touchdown and Camron Woods returned a fumble 96 yards for a score as the Mustangs scored 27 consecutive points to trim the Huskies’ lead to 41-27 with 2:21 left.

But after Woods’ touchdown, Isaic Ramirez returned the kickoff 52 yards for a touchdown to make it 48-27 and that was that.

Walnut quarterback Austin Cooper threw for 190 yards and Rhodes finished with 72 yards to lead the Mustangs.

San Gabriel Valley Tribune ~ http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_13735573