Cuccia Passes, Runs and Holds On to Give Sunny Hills a Victory

For a split second, Sunny Hills tailback Jacob Cuccia considered running with the ball. Instead, he threw a pass that he’ll never forget.

Cuccia’s 38-yard halfback option pass to Richard Sanchez with 1:04 remaining in the Southern Section Division VII championship game set up the winning touchdown in Sunny Hills’ 14-13 victory over Rancho Alamitos.

Cuccia, who was a quarterback during his freshman year at Whittier Christian, said he started working on his passing skills for the option play Tuesday. And when the Lancers faced a third-and-eight at Rancho Alamitos’ 48, it was time to try the play.

Coach Tim Devaney ordered an unbalanced formation that called for Cuccia to sweep left. If the Rancho Alamitos cornerback came up to try and make the tackle, Cuccia had the option of throwing the ball.

“They executed the play almost perfectly,” Devaney said.

Cuccia said he had no doubts that the play would work.

“(Rancho Alamitos cornerback) Jeff Byrd had been flying up on our sweeps the whole game, so I thought we had a good chance of making the play work,” he said. “I threw the ball in his (Sanchez’s) direction and then heard the crowd reaction. At first, I thought maybe he scored.”

Not a chance. Cuccia got that honor himself, scoring a touchdown on a four-yard sweep with 38 seconds remaining. All this, despite playing with a deep thigh bruise.

“I was just dying,” he said. “I couldn’t believe coach called me up. But there was no way they were going to keep me out of the end zone.”

Still, Cuccia’s work wasn’t finished. He was the holder for kicker Eric Smith’s successful conversion that gave Sunny Hills its third divisional title in 13 years under Coach Tim Devaney.

“It’s funny, but when we warmed up before the game, I fumbled several snaps,” Cuccia said. “But I wasn’t going to mess up this one. When I saw Rancho Alamitos blow its kick, I knew we had a chance to come back.”

It was a season of the comeback for Cuccia. Last year, he was dismissed from Whittier Christian’s football team in late October and later from the school for disciplinary reasons.

Cuccia spent the remainder of the year bounding between two public high schools, Sonora and Sunny Hills, while admittedly trying to get his life together. It was a life first shattered by his parents’ divorce and later by a series of events that led to his father, Bill, resigning as Whittier Christian’s basketball coach.

“I really didn’t know if I was going to school this year,” he said. “I want to thank Coach Devaney and his staff for giving me a second chance. Coming to Sunny Hills allowed me to make a fresh start. . . . This was the most emotional moment of my life.”