South Hills High School Varsity Football Team

LA VERNE – In a Sierra League football shootout Friday night, South Hills and Damien combined for offensive fireworks that threatened to ruin Damien’s homecoming game.

The two teams combined for 25 points in the span of five offensive plays in the fourth quarter.

Damien senior running back Jalen Castille broke away for a 75-yard touchdown run to regain the lead for Damien, 45-38, with 5:53 to play in the game, allowing the Spartans to eventually escape with a 47-38 win.

The Spartans sacked South Hills’ Vincent Hernandez for a safety with 4:49 remaining, and Damien (6-1, 2-0) ran out the clock from there.

“They have a great offense; they made great plays, we made some great plays, and we made one more than they did,” Damien coach Greg Gano said.

“That’s the bottom line.”

After trailing 30-14 at the half, the Huskies scored two touchdowns and recovered a Damien fumble at their own 43-yard line. Senior Danny Sheehan’s 36-yard field goal gave the Huskies their first and only lead of the game, 31-30, with 7:15 left in the fourth.

Damien responded with a 62-yard Gage Pucci touchdown pass to Travion Boykins on the next play from scrimmage. Pucci’s two-point conversion made it 38-31.

South Hills answered with a touchdown on the very next play, a 71-yard pass from Hernandez to Jamie Canada, to tie the score at 38 with 6:42 to play. Two plays later, Castille slipped one tackler and was off to the races for the decisive touchdown.

“The kids are improving, they’re getting better,” South Hills coach Steve Bogan said of his defense. “There were a couple plays we’d like to have back.”

“At key times they hit us with a couple big plays, and if we could’ve gotten one or two of those back, it would’ve been different.”

Castille opened the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run to give Damien a 7-0 lead with 5:53 left in the first. Damien added a safety on the next possession before South Hills (3-4, 0-2) answered with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Brayton Newton. Boykins’ 14-yard touchdown run gave Damien a 16-7 lead.

Canada’s 75-yard touchdown reception from Hernandez on the next possession cut the lead to two with 5:32 left in the half. Damien junior Andre Gano’s 50-yard interception return for a touchdown gave the Spartans a 23-14 lead. Pucci’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Josh Savage made it 30-14 at the half.

A 53-yard reverse touchdown pass from Canada to Sheehan cut the lead to 30-21 to open the second half. Jamel Hart’s 2-yard touchdown run to open the fourth cut the lead to 30-28.

Canada had 10 catches for 193 yards and two touchdowns.

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COVINA – South Hills High School tried going toe-to-toe with Charter Oak, but the video-game-like efficiency of Chargers quarterback Travis Santiago was too much to deal with.

On a night Santiago threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for 54 yards and three touchdowns, his evening might be best remembered for scrambling out of trouble and running over a defender for a first down that few quarterbacks have the guts to try.

When it was all over, Charter Oak had amassed over 500 total yards and ran South Hills off the field 63-28 in the Sierra League opener at Covina District Field on Friday.

Charter Oak, ranked sixth in the Inland Division, improved to 5-1 and 1-0 and the Huskies dropped to 3-3 and 0-1.

Back to Santiago.

“I’ve only been doing this for 44 years, the competitiveness and toughness in that kid is up there with the best of them,” Chargers coach Lou Farrar said. “He (Santiago) makes plays with his feet that matches the ability of his arm.

“I don’t know what to say, I’ve seen a lot of high school football games and high school football players. His ability to compete, think and his football IQ is phenomenal. There can’t be a better quarterback anywhere around here.”

Sophomore Kurt Scoby was nearly as difficult to contain, rushing for 154 yards and three touchdowns. Even receiver Aaren Vaughns contributed with seven catches for 121 yards, and Chris Gilchrist scored twice.

South Hills quarterback Vincent Hernandez threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns, and Jamel Hart rushed for 65 yards and two touchdowns to help keep the Huskies within striking distance, trailing 21-14 in the second quarter.

But the Chargers closed the quarter with 21 consecutive points to open up a 42-14 halftime lead.

“You could put them almost anywhere and that team is going to score points,” South Hills coach Steve Bogan said of Charter Oak. “They’re loaded. There’s lots of bullets in that gun and the bullets kept coming.”

And it didn’t take long for them to start firing.

After Gilchrist returned the opening kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown, Santiago completed a 37-yard pass to the 4, and then he ran it in a couple of plays later, scoring from a yard out for a 14-0 lead.

South Hills cut the lead in half on Hernandez’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Brayton Newton, making it 14-7.

But Santiago continued beating the Huskies with his feet too, scoring on a 5-yard run to make it 21-7.

After Hart cut the lead in half again with a 2-yard touchdown to make it 21-14, the Chargers broke the game open.

After Scoby scored on a 3-yard run, Santiago showed his brilliance on the next drive, completing a 33-yard pass and a 21-yard pass, then finishing the drive with a 16-yard TD run – the Chargers going 70 yards on three plays to go up 35-14 with 3:49 until halftime.

Scoby later scored his third touchdown of the half to put the Chargers up, 42-14, at the break.

Santiago, who along with teammates Gilchrist and Vaughns started at South Hills before transferring to Charter Oak, knew there would be a lot of emotion.

“I was dedicated to this game,” Santiago said. “I was here my freshman year, but I came to compete with my team tonight and we played together as one.”

Scoby’s 16-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter and Gilchrist’s 31-yard touchdown reception put the game out of reach for good.

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Danny Sheehan’s role on the South Hills High School football team is a week-to-week thing.

Need him to fill in at quarterback for injured starter Vince Hernandez? No problem.

Need him to play wide receiver when Hernandez is healthy? No problem.

Need him to hit the game-winning field goal as a place-kicker?

Consider it done.

All this from a senior who strongly considered not playing this season because of a serious concussion suffered last year. For the Huskies’ sake, though, thank goodness football is in Sheehan’s blood.

“We’d be in a lot of trouble if we didn’t have him,” South Hills coach Steve Bogan said. “He has a Jim Thorpe-like quality; multi-talented and can kick, throw, play baseball, play football. It’s not surprising to us that he can step in and play any role we need filled.

“We’re grateful, but we’re not surprised.”

The original plan this season was for Sheehan to handle kicking duties and serve as a nice No. 2 receiver next to standout Jamie Canada. Due to Hernandez’s shoulder injury, that plan has been scrapped. Sheehan is the quarterback until Hernandez returns. His foot is also the one South Hills turns to when the Huskies are in a close game.

Thursday, Sheehan’s job was to drive the Huskies from their own 20-yard line into scoring position to break a 28-28 tie against powerful Los Osos in the final two minutes. Sheehan did just that, then hit the game-winning 27-yard field goal with 10.1 seconds left to send South Hills to a 31-28 victory.

“I’m just going to do whatever Coach Bogan asks me to do to help our team win,” Sheehan said. “If he needs me to play quarterback, I will play quarterback. My team needs me to step up, so I do it. It’s not like I also play defense.”

Sheehan’s game-winning kick Thursday took the sting off of a potential game-tying extra point he missed earlier in the season against Colony. In that game, the Huskies scored near the end of the game, decided to go for two, but a penalty pushed the Huskies back and they decided to kick the extra point. Unfortunately, though, Sheehan missed and South Hills lost, 30-29.

“That one hurt,” Sheehan said. “I felt like if we went into overtime, we had the momentum on our side and we could have pulled through. I felt like I really let the team down, but they helped me and picked me up and helped me push through it.”

So when Sheehan again got a chance to help his team with his leg, he wasn’t about to pass it up. South Hills had blown a 21-0 lead against Los Osos, but had a chance to eek out the victory with a field goal from Sheehan. But things started eerily similar to the Colony miss as he set up for the kick.

“It was kind of deja vu because we had a false start again,” Sheehan said. “I was thinking I was going to nail it because I didn’t want that taste in my mouth again. I had all the confidence in the world. I didn’t want to let my team down again.

“When I hit it, I was super excited. It was a good team win.”

Handling multiple roles on a football field is no surprise given his bloodlines. Sheehan is the son of former Covina coach Dick Sheehan, who is now the Superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District.

Before that, Dick Sheehan was the principal at Northview.

Danny Sheehan also has two uncles who played football at South Hills.

“I know the game,” Sheehan said. “I grew up around football with my dad being a coach.”

Despite the family lineage, baseball is Sheehan’s first love. He’s a second baseman and leadoff hitter for the Huskies’ strong baseball program. And because baseball is Sheehan’s biggest endeavor, his dad gave him the OK to give up football, especially after last year’s head injury.

“I was deciding this year whether or not to play football again,” Sheehan said. “I really figured that down the line I would miss it if I didn’t because I come from a football family.”

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From: sgvtribune.com ~ Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer