Crescenta Valley football falls to Arcadia in Pacific League championship bid
ARCADIA — Ownership of the Pacific League football championship will reside outside the San Fernando Valley for the first time in five years.
Arcadia High made sure of that with an exclamation point Friday evening in Pacific League play, dispatching visiting archrival Crescenta Valley, 43-10, in the regular season finale.
With the win, the CIF Southern Section Division VIII No. 5-ranked Apaches (8-2, 7-0 in league) capture the first title outside of the area since Muir in 2013, their first league crown since 2011, which they shared with Burroughs, and first outright title since 2003.
The victory was also the largest for the Apaches over the Falcons since a 42-7 win in 2005.
Division VII No. 6-ranked Crescenta Valley (8-2, 5-2), which would have secured a share of its third league crown in six years with a victory, instead finishes third in league behind Division V No. 10-ranked Burbank (7-3, 6-1).
All three teams qualified to next week’s CIF Southern Section playoffs.
“Well, tonight we just got our butts kicked,” Crescenta Valley coach Paul Schilling said. “They were just a better team than us. They just outplayed us. When you have a game like this, you have to be perfect.”
There were few highlights for the Falcons, who received an 80-yard second-quarter rushing touchdown from quarterback Cole Doyle and a 33-yard field goal from Kevin McCollum with 5:31 left to wrap up the scoring.
Doyle, who was taken out of the contest with 10:30 remaining, took a beating and finished with 96 yards in 18 carries, while completing eight of 15 passes for 119 yards and one interception return for a touchdown.
Arcadia did a wonderful job of controlling the line of scrimmage and dropped Doyle seven times behind the line.
Crescenta Valley tallied 60 yards and five first downs on its first drive, which stalled at the Arcadia 20, and tallied 211 yards and 11 first downs the rest of the contest, while committing two turnovers.
Arcadia, on the flip side, picked up at least a first down on all but one drive.
Apaches quarterback Dylan Guerra was sensational, completing 11 of 13 passes for 247 yards and one touchdown — a 38-yard strike to Dyllan Wright with 9:59 in the third quarter that put the Apaches up, 33-7.
Arcadia’s hero, though, was senior defensive back Damarco Moorer, who turned in two rushing touchdowns and a 65-yard interception for a score at 8:03 in the third that gave Arcadia a 40-7 lead.
Torry Blumfield added a four-yard rushing touchdown for Arcadia, while field goal kicker Cristian Reyes booted successful attempts of 29, 39 and 42 yards to cap Arcadia’s scoring.
In the aftermath of victory, Arcadia coach Andrew Policky received a celebratory hug from his mentor and former Apaches coach Jon Dimalante.
Policky, who once finished 0-10 as Hoover’s coach in 2011, savored the victory.
“There was a long road to this point, so it feels pretty good,” he said. “We had a group of kids who worked their tails off and I’m happy for them and proud of them.”
Policky also had a message for league detractors who criticized his program and the number of transfers it’s received, which is over 20 in the last four years.
“Piss on you and you can all go to hell,” Policky said. “Some of the stuff is just ridiculous man. The CIF has looked into us on so many different things and people are still coming after us.”
