Valencia proves its fighting spirit against Hart

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I’m still having trouble coming to grips with Valencia and Hart‘s 21-21 tie on Friday night.

No. 4 Hart seemed like the obvious favorite, at least to me, but I knew the Indians had some weaknesses. Those weaknesses made on and off appearances against Westlake, Canyon and even popped up a couple times against West Ranch last week.

The inability to put away a game and put up a consistent effort on both sides of the ball for a full 48 minutes have been concerns for Coach Mike Herrington and his Hart staff. Despite this, the Indians found ways to win and sometimes won by so much that these ‘little’ inconsistencies almost seemed like coach-inspired nit-picking.

Valencia figured out a way to capitalize on these issues. Canyon almost pulled it off a couple weeks ago, but this time, Hart couldn’t kick its way out of trouble. And the Vikings found ways to keep the damage inflicted by RB Delano Howell and QB B.R. Holbrook, pictured above, to somewhat tolerable levels.

The Vikings illustrated the odds a team can overcome when it’s desparate to keep its playoff hopes alive against a team that’s been their biggest rival since prep football landed in the western Santa Clarita Valley in the mid 1990s.

Unfortunately, the first tie in the Santa Clarita Valley since 1985 (Hart-Saugus played to 0-0 thriller) is a bittersweet result for the Vikings. They need to defeat Canyon in the regular-season finale on Nov. 9 to make the playoffs (barring any other weird outcomes, of course). If Hart beats Golden Valley (it will) next week and Saugus (I don’t know), it’ll be Foothill League champs for the first time since 2003.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image by Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times