Crescenta Valley Passed Out

Air Valencia?

Valencia High, which for three seasons has ground its way to area football prominence, transformed itself into a passing team on Friday night against Crescenta Valley in the first round of the Southern Section Division III playoffs.

With the focus on UCLA-bound running back Manuel White, the Vikings passed for 320 yards and four touchdowns in a 55-21 rout at Glendale High that wasn’t that close.

“We spent all week preparing to stop two running plays that I don’t think they ran all night,” Coach Alan Eberhart said, whose team allowed 610 yards.

Junior quarterback Kyle Bauer regularly found receivers uncontested behind the secondary and completed nine of 13 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns.

Stephen Stokes, who caught one of them, also completed a school-record 95-yard touchdown to Pedro Fernandez on a fake reverse.

Fernandez caught four passes for 182 yards and a touchdown.

“We’ve always believed in our passing game,” said Coach Brian Stiman of Valencia, whose team passed for 1,280 yards in 10 games.

With White in the backfield, the Vikings (8-3) have rarely needed to pass.

Against Crescenta Valley (8-3), he rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns in 21 carries, his 30th career game of more than 100 yards and 15th of more than 200.

White, who last week became the third player in region history to surpass the 6,000-yard mark in his career, has 6,329 yards.

He needs 24 yards to overtake No. 2 Justin Fargas of Notre Dame, who had 6,352, and 287 yards to supplant George Keiaho of Buena, who rushed for 6,615.

He will try to surpass Fargas next week against second-seeded Notre Dame.

“It’s kind of interesting that we’re playing them when he tries to [pass Fargas],” Stiman said.

White, who committed this week to UCLA, takes his run for the record in stride.

“If I get it, that would be great,” he said. “If I don’t, I don’t.”

Valencia scored on eight of its first nine drives and led, 55-0, before pulling most of its starters in the third quarter.

Wes Jones of Crescenta Valley returned a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown to break the shutout and added a one-yard scoring run.

Scott Larson scored on a three-yard run for Crescenta Valley.

The Falcons were attempting to win their first playoff game since 1992.

Crescenta Valley was 8-1 but lost its regular-season finale to Arcadia to fall into a three-way tie for the Pacific League championship and draw a difficult first-round opponent.

It was the second consecutive season that the Falcons were ousted by Valencia. The Vikings won last season, 42-19, on their way to the division semifinals.

White’s two-yard touchdown run on the Vikings’ first drive began a 28-point first-half eruption in which Valencia scorched the Falcons for 375 yards in 25 plays.

Bauer connected with Brian Miller for a 10-yard touchdown pass and Stephen Stokes for a 49-yard score. Bauer later connected with Miller for a 22-yard touchdown.