SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
The overly used schoolyard cliché is simple, but the message was clear Friday night for first-year Coach Brendan Chambers’ Saddleback Valley Christian football team.
After losing in last year’s CIF-SS East Valley Division semifinals, top-seeded SVC needed little motivational reinforcement to outlast Crean Lutheran, 20-14, in Friday’s semifinal at San Juan Hills High.
“We played well offensively early on,” Chambers said. “A couple of key injuries hurt us, especially there in the second half, but we stayed tough and learned from it.”
The Warriors move on to face Grace Brethren in next week’s final. SVC will be the home team, at a location to be determined, for the final.
To punch their finals ticket, the Warriors (13-0), who lost to St. Margaret’s, 28-7, in last year’s semifinals, had to play gritty in every sense. The game was played with a bank of stadium lights out due to a reported “blown fuse.” The outage blanketed half of the far sideline in darkness.
As if that wasn’t enough, quarterback Cade Henjum was nursing an injured leg. Chambers elected to start running back David Molina behind center, and the senior finished with eight carries for 66 yards. He also added a 28-yard scoring toss to Dalton Lohman on the Warriors’ first drive, capping a meticulous 12 play, 91-yard march.
After Crean was forced to punt on its ensuing possession, Molina came up limping following SVC’s fourth play of the drive.
Henjum was quickly forced into action, and on his first snap, he connected with Savai’i Cravens, who made a spectacular catch over his defender near the Crean 20 and ran into the end zone for a quick score. After a blocked extra-point attempt, the Warriors led 13-0 with 40 seconds left in the first quarter.
“I know that my brothers have my back, and they’re there to protect me no matter what,” said Henjum, who finished with 122 passing yards. “That’s what keeps me going.”
But Henjum wasn’t done. With 5:51 left in the second quarter, he hit Cravens (five catches, 105 yards) down the left sideline for a 29-yard touchdown, pushing the halftime lead to 20-0.
Crean Lutheran (9-4) forced five turnovers in the second half, and made a key fourth-and-15 stop at their own 17. The ensuing drive culminated in Daniel Albright’s 10-yard scoring run, cutting the deficit to 20-7 with 9:41 left.
An SVC fumble at the Warriors’ 22 set up Crean’s other score, a 1-yard push by Albright with 1:05 remaining.
