It appears there will either be a single champion or co-champions to conclude this year’s Grossmont Valley League banner chase.
Valhalla High School will host Friday’s championship game against the El Capitan Vaqueros, who are riding a four-game winning steak into the 7 p.m. game. The host Norsemen had a five-game winning streak snapped two weeks ago but appear back in the saddle after handing host West Hills a 38-24 defeat last week.
Valhalla is 6-3 overall while El Capitan is 5-4. Both teams are looking to enhance their playoff positions. The Norsemen rank 29th among section teams while the Vaqs are 46th.
The math is simple. An El Capitan victory hands the Vaqueros the league title outright at 5-0. A Valhalla win will level the teams at 4-1 in the league standings.
Waiting in the wings are No. 40 West Hills and No. 45 Santana, both with 6-3 overall records. With two league losses, they are now out of banner contention but playing for higher playoff seeds.
Junior Hayden Passanisi passed for 63 yards, hitting on five of eight attempts, with two touchdowns in last Friday’s 41-0 win against visiting El Cajon Valley (0-4 in league, 2-7 overall). Junior Michael Castillo (three carries, 72 yards) scored two rushing touchdowns while seniors Daunte Painter (two carries, 54 yards) and Elijah Arzu (one carry, 10 yards) also scored via the turf.
Junior Cota Lachappa (three catches, 40 yards) reeled in both touchdowns passes.
The Vaqueros rolled up 315 yards in total offense and scored six touchdowns. Senior Ethan Soule and sophomore Robinson Silva co-led the El Cap defense with 11 tackles. Soule also had a sack.
Valhalla has shown from the get-go this season that it can score points — and a lot of them. Against West Hills, the Norsemen racked up 459 yards in offense — 323 through the air and 136 on the ground.
Junior quarterback Adrian Wilson logged 359 yards in total offense himself — 323 passing and 36 rushing. He threw two scoring passes and also rushed for a score.
Sophomore Camryn Conley led VHS with three touchdowns — two rushing and one receiving. He recorded 176 yards in total offense — 51 rushing and 125 receiving. Sophomore T ‘Marrion Williams had 135 receiving yards.
Senior Jayden Hunter had 13 carries for 49 yards and one touchdown while junior Desmond Demara had four catches for 53 yards and one TD.
The Norsemen scored six touchdowns. They also played defense with four interceptions — two by Williams and one each by Hunter and junior Amar’e Young.
The Wolf Pack accumulated 338 yards in offense — 170 passing and 168 rushing — and scored three touchdowns. Senior quarterback Evin Dill passed for two touchdowns but was intercepted four times. He also rushed for one score while rushing 21 times for 105 yards.
Sophomore Xavier Moffat had three catches for 114 yards and one touchdown. Senior Zach Waters had one TD catch for two yards.
Moffat racked up 154 yards in all-purpose yards, adding 40 rushing yards. Waters had two sacks on defense.
Dill led the Pack with 275 total yards.
Senior E.J. Lee-Fields paced West Hills defensively with 13 tackles while senior Adan Torres had 12 tackles and junior Marcus Leath had 11 stops.
Purple Nation
Santana registered 335 total yards against Monte Vista. The Sultans completed four touchdown passes in the game — two by senior Ethan Miller (160 yards) and one each by sophomore Landon Braaksma (58 yards) and senior Ethan Smith (10 yards). The trio had 228 passing yards combined.
Junior Julian Mayers rushed seven timers for 69 yards and one touchdown.
Besides throwing for a score, Smith also caught a 58-yard touchdown pass. Senior Denton Goar had three catches for 65 yards and one touchdown while senior Brenden Varner, normally the place-kicker, had three catches for 30 yards an one touchdown. Sophomore Alex Markevicz had one TD catch for 17 yards.
Senior Kolton Thornton had three catches for 44 yards while also making 10 tackles on defense and scoring on a two-point conversion.
Senior Dillon Timanus keyed the Sultans with 14 tackles while juniors Tatum Morehouse and Cameron Cipro each had 13. Santana had nine tackles for losses.
Varner collected three PAT conversions.
