Herrick Completes Record

Michael Herrick of Valencia threw for 273 yards Friday night to become the state’s all-time leader for yards passing.

Herrick, who led Valencia to a 34-7 victory over Saugus in a Foothill League game at College of the Canyons, has 9,996 yards passing in his three-year career, surpassing the 9,971 yards by Keith Smith of Newbury Park from 1991-93. He also passed Chris Czernek of Newbury Park, who had 9,821 yards passing from 1994-96.

Herrick completed 13 of 24 passes with two touchdowns as the Vikings clinched the third and final automatic playoff spot for the Foothill League.

La Puente Bishop Amat 28, Santa Ana Mater Dei 7 -- Coach Mike DiFiori was getting dizzy trying to decipher the scenarios that would get his Bishop Amat team into the Southern Section playoffs, but he knew one thing for sure: To get in, the Lancers had to win Friday night against Mater Dei.

Behind the team’s best defensive performance of the season, Bishop Amat upended the visiting Monarchs in a Serra League finale, but the Lancers (6-4, 2-3 in league play) have little hope of making the Division I playoffs after finishing in a three-way tie for third with Santa Margarita and Los Angeles Loyola.

“We did everything we could,” DiFiori said. “Now it’s out of our hands.”

A series of coin flips determined that Loyola, which beat Bellflower St. John Bosco, 24-3, on Friday, will be the No. 3 team. Santa Margarita received the No. 4 spot and will get one of two at-large berths. Huntington Beach (5-5) of the Sunset League would get the other.

Mater Dei, win or lose, had already clinched a share of the league title and the Monarchs (6-4, 4-1) will enter the playoffs as the No. 1 team from the Serra League by virtue of a victory over co-champion Anaheim Servite.

Bishop Amat’s impressive performance led to its first victory over Mater Dei since 1990, DiFiori said. Bishop Amat’s defense forced four Mater Dei turnovers and stopped the Monarchs three times on fourth down.

Three of the Mater Dei turnovers occurred inside the Bishop Amat 30-yard line and one of the failed fourth-down attempts was a fourth-and-inches play at the Lancer 19.

-- Peter Yoon

Anaheim Servite 35, Santa Margarita 34 -- The turnaround might not be complete, but Anaheim Servite is certainly headed in the right direction. The No. 22 Friars held off a frantic comeback Friday night against No. 21 Santa Margarita and won, 35-34, at Saddleback College, clinching a share of their first Serra League title.

Santa Margarita had cut the deficit to one point on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Jon Daniels to tight end Nick Pizzurro with 26 seconds remaining in the game, but the Eagles, who had missed a point-after attempt earlier in the half, chose to try for two points and Daniels’ pass to Ryan Maxwell was off target.

Servite (7-3, 4-1) came into the season with just three Serra League victories in its last 18 league games. The Friars finished 2-8 last season and 0-5 in league. The school replaced Larry Toner as coach in the off-season with John Barnes, only to have Barnes resign the same day and return to Los Alamitos. In stepped Troy Thomas, formerly of Encino Crespi, and he has managed to kick-start a team that had just five returning starters on both offense and defense.

“I think it’s a tribute to our senior class,” Thomas said of the group that had never won a Serra League game even at the lower levels. “They stuck this thing out, even though they had rough times.”

But it was sophomore running back Dennis Shoemate and junior quarterback Dan Klein who made the biggest plays against Santa Margarita (5-5, 2-3).

Shoemate rushed for three touchdowns in the first half to help the Friars take a 21-14 lead. He also had two key sacks in the second half to halt Santa Margarita drives. His 28-yard reception set up Servite’s go-ahead touchdown on Klein’s one-yard sneak with 1:49 remaining and he recovered the on-side kick in the closing seconds and returned it about 40 yards.

Klein completed 14 of 20 passes, including all eight attempts in the first half, for 164 yards and rushed for 106 yards in 19 carries.

Santa Margarita senior running back John Angelo rushed for 165 yards in 20 carries, the second straight week he has set a season high in yardage, and tied a school record with four rushing touchdowns.

-- Dan Arritt

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 24, West Hills Chaminade 17 -- Fourth-quarter interceptions by Drew Abeyta and Mike Stanton helped the Knights break a 17-17 tie and pull out their 32nd consecutive victory in a game at Chaminade that decided the Mission League title.

Third-ranked Notre Dame (10-0, 5-0) had to overcome a 17-3 deficit.

Quarterback Garrett Green guided the Knights on a critical 80-yard drive at the end of the first half, culminating in a five-yard touchdown pass to Jess Strickland to move within 17-10. Notre Dame tied the game at the outset of the third quarter when Rodney Glass ran 74 yards for a touchdown. Glass finished with 155 yards in 19 carries.

Chaminade quarterback Kyle Thompson had been effective for much of the game, completing his first eight passes for 133 yards. But Abeyta intercepted a Thompson pass with 9 minutes 15 seconds left on the Chaminade 25, setting up the go-ahead touchdown, a seven-yard run by Glass.

From the game’s outset, when Chaminade (8-2, 4-1) put together an 83-yard, 13-play scoring drive, Notre Dame found itself in unexplored territory. Then came a fumbled kickoff on Notre Dame’s 15-yard line when Kyle Kohli slipped and lost the ball on the artificial turf. Soon Notre Dame was behind 14-0.

-- Eric Sondheimer