Column: Brian Bonner lives up to his number, carrying Valencia to victory over West Ranch
On a warm, pleasant Friday night in the Santa Clarita Valley, where football stars used to be as well known as the roller coaster rides at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia High might have another player to rekindle the excitement.
Sophomore running back Brian Bonner is the first Valencia player to wear No. 34 since Shane Vereen, who left to play college ball for California in 2007, then professionally with the New England Patriots. Like Vereen, Bonner is fast, having run 100 meters in 10.85 seconds as a freshman. As he blossoms, so will the Vikings.
“He’s a special player,” coach Larry Muir said.
There were hints of Bonner’s talents during a 42-14 rout of West Ranch that has Valencia (7-1, 4-0) on track to win the Foothill League. He had a 56-yard touchdown reception and returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown before it was nullified by a penalty.
“I always wore the number as a kid,” Bonner said of 34. “I found out it was worn by Vereen and it’s an honor to wear his number.”
Valencia scored four touchdowns over a dominant opening 13 minutes that included four interceptions and a fumble recovery. There also was a blocked field-goal attempt by Jordan Cardenas, resulting in a touchdown return by Nick Seymour that gave the Vikings a 35-7 halftime lead.
Valencia was called for 22 penalties, and that left Muir a little stunned when addressing his players afterward.
“That’s about as ugly as football as we’ve played in a long time,” he told them.
Muir has revised his offense this season with more shifts and players going into motion. Mostly gone are the spread-offense days that helped Valencia win 11 consecutive Foothill League titles, the last in 2019.
“We got stagnant,” Muir said. “We had to reinvent ourselves.”
Valencia also was hurt by the pandemic. In 2020, the Vikings couldn’t do their year-round training, particularly in the weight room. It affected their culture.
“We went through the COVID thing and it threw us off,” Muir said.
They didn’t win league titles in 2021 or 2022. But with a reinvigorated senior class, led by linebackers Reid Farrell and Tony Testa, it’s a return to playing “Viking football.”
They upset Bishop Amat and gave unbeaten Rancho Cucamonga one of its toughest games before losing 22-20.
On Friday, Isaac Shin, Cardenas, Gavin Corbet, Farrell and Luke Cruz all had interceptions.
“I feel good where we are at,” Muir said.
Valencia is projected to be in the Southern Section Division 2 playoffs. And wait for the Vikings to turn loose Bonner.
Coaches never want their teams looking ahead. It appears Frank McManus of Mater Dei and Jason Negro of St. John Bosco accomplished their task one week before their annual game to decide the Trinity League title.
Mater Dei defeated JSerra 42-0. The Monarchs had seven sacks and quarterback Elijah Brown completed 20 of 22 passes for 329 yards and four touchdowns. St. John Bosco defeated Servite 56-27. Caleb Sanchez completed 16 of 18 passes for 343 yards and five touchdowns.
Let the competition begin to secure a ticket to Friday’s 7 p.m. game at St. John Bosco. It will be televised by Bally Sports.
City Section football is down to a final three with three weeks left in the regular season. Birmingham, Garfield and Carson have separated themselves and are clearly the teams to beat in the Open Division playoffs. The only question is who gets the No. 2 seed behind Birmingham?
Carson is 8-0 and if it wins out to take the Marine League title, strength of schedule could be decisive. Garfield is 6-1 and cruising in the Eastern League. Birmingham is 5-2 and hasn’t lost to a City Section opponent since 2017.
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