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Valley Christian High senior defensive back Oliver Boateng tackles Isiah Lemus of Warren High in last Friday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 9 quarterfinal game. The Defenders held on for a 10-7 win on a rainy night. PHOTOS BY STEVE FERICEAN.
By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
November 17, 2025, 2025
Valley Christian High junior quarterback Liam Sweeny scrambles around the left side for a 30-yard gain on third and five midway through the second quarter in last Friday night’s CIF-Southern Section Division 9 quarterfinal game with Warren High. His run helped set up the eventual game-clinching 20-yard field goal from senior Gavin Harper as the Defenders got past the Bears 10-7.
When Valley Christian High junior quarterback Graham Lunzer went down with a broken left fibula injury in the second quarter of his team’s 26-9 victory over Chino High in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 9 playoffs, head coach Brendan Chambers had to alter his game plan. Then, after preparing for Warren High and noticing that there would be a great chance of inclement weather, he had to change his plans again.
As it turned out, with or without Lunzer or the weather, the Defenders relied on the one constant that has put them in this current position—their defense. On a soggy night in western Cerritos, V.C. limited Warren to half a dozen first downs and under 150 yards total offense as the Defenders (9-3) held on for a 10-7 win. V.C., the sixth-seeded team in the division, will travel to 10th-seeded San Dimas High on Friday in one semifinal game.
“We know our defense has played really well,” said Chambers. “Even when we’ve struggled offensively, [our defense] has come up huge for us these last five or six games. We knew the weather was going to be a factor, so we put in some different packages; we thought we would go heavy and try to move the ball. We kind of saw some film on Norwalk doing that and we thought we might be able to slip through a couple of tackles and just kind of keep that clock rolling.
“The offensive line and running backs did a great job,” he continued. “But really, hat’s off to the defense; they stepped up huge. I think the weather was a huge factor. You get those guys in a dry climate with those athletes, and it would have been a tougher game.”
Chambers was referring to the film from Warren’s 17-7 first-round win over Norwalk High. But the other story line was on Lunzer, who won’t be able to walk for at least four weeks. Lunzer had passes for over 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns and was V.C.’s leading rusher with 519 yards and 14 more touchdowns. He was replaced by junior Liam Sweeney, who completed six of 11 passes for 92 yards and threw two touchdowns against Chino. He also appeared in three regular season games, going 13 of 22 for 175 yards and a touchdown, and saw some action last season alongside Austin Abrahams.
Because of the elements and with Sweeney under center, Chambers put in a heavy set and a jumbo set and, for the most part, the Defenders rode the legs of senior Cole Hefner as they tried to manage the clock throughout the game.
Early on, it worked as the hosts chewed up seven minutes on their second possession, which resulted in the drive being stalled at the Warren 26-yard line. But when a 17-yard loss on an attempted punt went against the third-place representative from the Gateway League, V.C. was sitting pretty at the 11-yard line. Four plays later, Hefner tossed a two-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Oliver Boateng on fourth and one. Hefner had gained two yards on a direct snap the previous play.
“We have a similar play where we run out of a bunch set,” said Chambers. “So, we put in that jumbo package where Cole goes to [a] wildcat [formation]; we have a couple of plays off him. One of them is we kind of just follow all the guys on the side where we have three guys behind the line. [Warren] kind of overloaded it because we just ran basically a stretch there. We lined up and we were going to run the same play; they shifted everyone over and I called a timeout. We just knew that getting Oliver in space would be tough for them to bring down. The shift was too far, and they only had two guys on the back side, and Oliver did a great job getting around them. The one block we needed, we got, and it was just a big play for us.”
Junior linebacker Sam Melcher would then recover a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. However, the rain would wreak havoc as it was the first of three fumbles in the next five combined plays. Senior Isaac Morales would have the last of those fumbles, which led to V.C.’s second-longest drive of the game.
Starting at their own 48-yard line, the Defenders ran eight plays and moved to the two-yard line where a one-yard loss from Hefner on third down led to a 20-yard field goal from senior Gavin Harper with 3:51 remaining in the first half.
“It was hard for me to send out the field goal unit,” said Chambers. “I thought we did a good job getting down there. I just felt like if we could get up two scores the way they wanted to throw the football, and the wet conditions, that was the best move for us to get up two scores and then really play ball control.”
The Bears would run 22 plays in the half and gain 55 yards as they would cross midfield three times, not getting past the V.C. 48-yard line. Meanwhile, V.C. was one of eight on third-down conversions, but the one came on a 30-yard keeper by Sweeney around the left side on the drive that led to the field goal. It would be the longest run of the game by any V.C. player. In fact, the next longest run was seven yards.
The second half would get off to an uneasy start for the Bears as quarterback Jordan Malikin threw seven straight incomplete passes and 12 of the team’s 14 plays in the third quarter. The Defenders, though, were content in controlling the clock as they had the ball for over nine minutes in the stanza.
Warren avoided the shutout six plays into the fourth quarter as Malikin threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Julian Padin. The next time it had the ball, Warren began at V.C.’s 37-yard line and got to the 13-yard line before a three-yard loss on third and two led to a 34-yard field goal attempt from Abraham Morales, which would fall short with 3:35 left in the game.
Five straight runs by Hefner would lead to the eighth punt from senior Dylan Teays, but with 35.6 seconds left to play and Warren beginning at their own 29-yard line with no timeouts left, the Bears were subjected to four straight incomplete passes.
With the absence of Lunzer, Hefner was the ultimate workhorse, gaining a tough 63 yards on 35 carries. Three other ball carriers would combine for 35 yards on 10 carries while Sweeney completed five of 11 passes for 39 yards.
“We knew that their [defensive backs] and linebackers were pretty good in the open field with tackles,” said Chambers of the running game. “So, we were pretty content just getting a couple of yards that we could and keeping that clock going. Especially once we got the early lead, we were just trying to slow the game down. We knew with the wet conditions, it was going to be hard for them to chuck the ball. We knew that’s what they wanted to do.”
Junior defensive back Blake Butler had seven tackles, Hefner had five tackles, and Boateng, Morales and senior lineman Jameson Miller all added four tackles as Malikin completed 11 of 35 passes for 106 yards. But Warren’s rushing attack would be stymied as five ground gainers combined for 57 yards on 15 rushes, not including the 17-yard loss on the punt attempt.
“The last two games, looking back from Chino and Warren, are probably the two best defensive performances that we’ve had,” said Chambers. “Both those teams were bigger than us up front, especially tonight; probably a little more athletic on the outside. But our DB’s just stepped up huge and contested every single throw.”
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