Stremick’s Debut at Quarterback Is a Dandy : Preps: Villa Park senior plays both quarterback and defensive back as Spartans beat Valencia, 31-28.

Sam Stremick was asked if he was tired after Villa Park’s season-opening nonleague 31-28 victory over Valencia Thursday at El Modena High.

Stremick, a senior quarterback and defensive back for Villa Park, took a breath and said “I’m dead.”

Stremick’s exhaustion came from playing both offense and defense much of a game in which he threw one touchdown pass and ran for two more, including the game-clincher late in the fourth quarter.

Stremick had eight interceptions as a defensive back for the Spartans last season, but was asked to add quarterback to his resume this year.

His first official outing was pretty impressive as he completed 11 of 20 passes for 180 yards. He last played quarterback three years ago on the freshman team.

Stremick also rushed six times for 76 yards.

“It was a lot more tiring than I expected,” Stremick said. “At the start of the game my legs were dead, but by the second quarter, I felt a lot better when I got more into the flow of playing quarterback.”

His biggest play of the game came near the end.

Villa Park was ahead, 24-21, and driving toward another score. On second-and-one at the Valencia 36, Stremick faked a handoff into the center of the line, and dashed around the right end.

He got near the sideline before many of the Valencia players realized they’d been duped and he raced in for a touchdown with 3 minutes 5 seconds left to play. The score gave Villa Park a 31-21 lead.

Valencia rallied, however. The Tigers scored with 1:48 left when Eric Young completed a 37-yard pass to Richard Black for a touchdown which cut the Villa Park lead to 31-28. Black, a tight end, drifted over the middle about 10 yards, caught the pass and raced to the end zone.

Valencia tried an on-side kick but Villa Park’s Ryan Wann hauled in the ball and fell to the ground. From there, Villa Park relied on a combination that had worked much of the game--the blocking of the line and the running of Chris Bell--to run out the clock.

Bell finished with a game-high 157 yards in 28 carries. He also scored Villa Park’s first touchdown on a one-yard run with 6:48 left in the first half.

“Our offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage,” Villa Park Coach Pat Mahoney said. “But I think we got a little tired toward the end with so many people going both ways.”

Eric Young, a junior, was 12 of 19 for 187 yards and three touchdowns for Valencia. His other scoring passes were for seven and eight yards.