South Hills High School Varsity Football Team

COVINA – South Hills High School compiled 168 yards in kick returns in the first half but still came up short in a 30-29 loss to Colony in Thursday’s season opener at Covina District Field.

The visiting Titans jumped to a 23-16 halftime lead on the strength of a balanced offense anchored by quarterback Bryan Harper.

Huskies running back Jamel Hart was injured and missed most of the third quarter, but returned to help South Hills battle back to a 23-23 tie.

A 16-yard scoring run by Chaz Nelson with a minute left in the game gave Colony the 30-29 advantage.

South Hills quarterback Vince Hernandez ran 33 yards up the middle with 18 seconds to play, then threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Hart to bring the Huskies to within a point.

Danny Sheehan, though, missed on an extra-point attempt after a costly false-start penalty thwarted a two-point try that could’ve won the game.

Hernandez finished 10 of 21 for 102 yards.

“Winning is giving it your all,” South Hills coach Steve Bogan said following the difficult loss. “I saw a lot of good things, and we also made a lot of mistakes.

“It’s our job to fix the mistakes, but I really believe we can fix those errors. It is still early in the year.”

Bogan said he was happy with his defense’s efforts, especially in the second half.

“Guys stepped up, especially after some of our top players went down,” he said.

“We’ve got a very fixable product. We will just continue to get better each and every week.”

The Titans got on the scoreboard first when a five-play drive culminated in a 26-yard touchdown pass from Harper to Darius McCants.

Jacob Farias rank back the ensuing kickoff 69 yards to set up South Hills’ first scoring opportunity.

Hart scored on a 6-yard run to give South Hills a 7-6 lead. The teams traded scores to close out the opening quarter, with Farias scoring on a 99- yard kickoff return.

The third quarter was a scoreless affair, but defensive efforts allowed the Huskies to keep up with Colony throughout the second half.

Both teams failed to score early in the second half, the Huskies missing on a 38-yard field-goal attempt and their defense keeping the Titans out of the end zone by sacking the Colony quarterback.

From: sgvtribune.com ~ Ariel Carmona, Correspondent

You might think that after an entire offseason to stew over last year’s 3-7 record, the South Hills High School football team would be ready to come out on fire in today’s season opener and set things straight.

Not so, according to Huskies coach Steve Bogan, who will lead his team into action at Covina District Field against Colony at 7 p.m.

“We’re not about vengeance, or setting things right, or righting a past wrong,” Bogan said. “I’m very happy about last year’s season. The kids developed and got better and better. With what we have, our main goal every year is to get better, and I thought that team improved tremendously.

“Some of the kids now weren’t involved last year, and some were. It’s a mixed bag. Some guys are out there to maybe make a story right in their own minds, and others are out there just to play football.”

South Hills should give a much better account of itself this season thanks to several key returners, including quarterback Vince Hernandez and running back Jamel Hart. The real ace in the hole for Bogan is receiver Jamie Canada, who’s back from a knee injury and could give the offense the explosive element it was missing last year.

The Huskies must find improvement on defense, though, after allowing 35.6 points per game last season. Fortunately for Bogan, several defensive starters return, and Canada could be a force in the secondary.

Colony should present a nice test for South Hills after going 7-4 last year and finishing second behind Chino in the Mt. Baldy League. The Titans were the beneficiary of a transfer by quarterback Matt Simko to their team from Claremont.

The Huskies were able to get some information on Colony last week, and from what they saw, Bogan knows today’s game won’t be easy.

“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Bogan said. “They are up-tempo, no-huddle, and that’s always a bigger issue early in the year than later. You can just tell they’re very strong in the skill-athlete positions. You can tell they know what they’re doing and they’re well-coached.”

With expectations high again at South Hills, Bogan is like all Huskies fans: anxious to see just how improved this team will be. That makes tonight’s opener somewhat like opening a present.

“It’s like we’ve been working in the classroom but never taking any tests,” Bogan said. “Now we’re getting a chance to really find out what our strengths and weaknesses are.

“There’s definitely excitement. We want to find out where we’re at so we know what to do next.”

From: sgvtribune.com ~ Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer

Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer