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By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
November 17, 2025, 2025
With Cerritos High losing to Ramona High 48-22 last Friday in a CIF-Southern Section Division 9 quarterfinal game and Gahr High falling to Valley View High 28-21 in Division 11 action, Valley Christian High is the lone area football team alive in the postseason. That means that the HMG-Community News Game of the Week is V.C. at San Dimas High on Friday.
This game pits the sixth-seeded Defenders (9-3) against the 10th-seeded Saints (7-5). V.C. relied on its defense to get the program to its seventh semifinal appearance since 2001 after a hard fought 10-7 win over Warren High last Friday. Junior quarterback Liam Sweeney attempted only 11 passes, completing five of them for 39 yards while senior Cole Hefner rushed 35 times for 63 yards. Hefner also threw a two-yard touchdown pass to senior Oliver Boateng in the second quarter.
The Defenders have outscored their last three opponents 92-16 and have allowed single digits four times this season. Offensively, V.C. suffered a major blow in the first round playoff game against Chino Hills High when junior quarterback Graham Lunzer broke his left fibula. He was leading the team with 2,065 passing yards and 519 rushing yards while accounting for 23 touchdowns through the air and 14 on the ground.
That means Sweeney will have to patrol the offense and once again, the weather will dictate if the Defenders, the second place team from the Ironwood League, use Hefner like they did last Friday, or if they will throw, which is more to their liking. Hefner has rushed 94 times for 365 yards this season but V.C. has half a dozen dependable receivers who have all either caught over 10 passes or have over 100 receiving yards.
Boateng leads the plethora of receivers with 54 catches, 923 yards and 13 touchdowns, followed by seniors Sean Bouma (33 receptions, 503 yards, three touchdowns), Hefner (27 receptions, 332 yards, three touchdowns), Max Douglas (16 receptions, 190 yards, two touchdowns), Dylan Teays (12 receptions, 126 yards, three touchdowns) and junior Byron Louis (14 receptions, 251 yards, three touchdowns).
On defense, Hefner’s three and a half sacks and junior linebacker Sam Melcher’s three sacks account for over half the team’s production in that category while Bouma and Louis have combined for five of the nine interceptions opposing quarterbacks have thrown.
San Dimas, the fourth place team from the Valley Vista League, eased past Riverside Poly High 28-9 last Friday, icing a close game with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns. Jacob Gallegos was nearly a one-man show, rushing 29 times for 248 yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns. Keenan Hoyt added 64 yards on 10 carries and scored the other two touchdowns as the Saints run the Wing-T offense.
“I watched a little bit of their film, and they run the Wing-T, which is a polar opposite of what we just saw where they’re 95 percent run and throwing the ball about five times,” said V.C. head coach Brendan Chambers. “[Gallegos] is a great player, but they have other guys who can run the ball really, really well, which makes that offense difficult. When you can have multiple guys who can run the ball well, and they’re going this direction and pulling different people, it’s going to be a challenge for us defensively.”
Gallegos leads San Dimas with 1,253 yards and 13 touchdowns while Hoyt is second with 772 yards and six carries. However, the Saints have a pair of other running backs-Daniel Baeza and Liam Loyola, who have combined for 922 yards and six touchdowns. When quarterback Branson Meredith does pass, his favorite target is Gallegos (11 receptions, 308 yards, three touchdowns).
The irony about the matchup for V.C. is that Warren’s first round win was over Norwalk High, 17-7, and the Lancers pride themselves in running the double wing offense with a pair of 1,000-yard ground gainers. Had Norwalk defeated Warren, the Defenders, according to Chambers, would have had a tougher time given the inclement weather last Friday.
“I think the way the conditions were, I think Warren was a good matchup just because they were so pass heavy,” said Chambers. “Norwalk running that double wing, Wing-T stuff…that would have been right into their elements where they would pick up four yards a carry. Either way, it would have been a close one and it was going to come down to a touchdown, no matter who we played.”
San Dimas has scored over 30 points in four of their seven wins and over 20 in two others. The other win was an opening-season forfeit over Burbank High. The Saints went through a stretch where they lost five of seven games, never scoring more than 20 points in those five setbacks. In fact, San Dimas has been held to single digits three times.
V.C.’s offense has scored 100 more points than San Dimas and the defense has given up 52 fewer points than the Saints. The game will be won on the line, and the weather will play a huge factor in the outcome. As of the beginning of this week, there is a better than 35 percent chance of rain, but nothing like this past Friday.
“I think for our offense, they don’t look as big as Warren on film,” said Chambers. “I think it’s hard to be bigger than Warren…so, I think that’s going to help us out with our offensive line. If the rain goes away, we might be able to throw the ball a little bit and try to get Dylan and Oliver and Sean and Byron and Max involved in the passing game. It’s going to be a fun matchup. But with the way our defense has been playing, I do like our chances going on the road against them.”
A V.C. victory means it will either host 16th-seeded Ramona High or travel to fifth-seeded Hesperia for a post-Thanksgiving division championship game.
Prediction: V.C. 28, San Dimas 21
Last week’s predictions: 1-2
Season to date: 45-25
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