Simi Valley’s last-second score spoils Huntington Beach rally
Under threat of rain, the skies never truly opened up, but the game certainly did in a back-and-forth second half between Huntington Beach and Simi Valley in the CIF Southern Section football semifinals on Friday.
A light drizzle did little to put out the offensive fireworks, which saw the teams produce seven touchdowns and the most dramatic of finishes after the break.
Simi Valley’s Jesse Sereno took the snap and leapt over the line from less than 1 yard away, and the host Pioneers stunned Huntington Beach with a last-second touchdown to win the game 32-29 and advance to the Division 6 final.
“My line was saying that they want me to run the ball up the middle,” Sereno said. “I said, ‘I’m not going to complain about that,’ and I got the job done.”
Simi Valley (8-5) will play at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa (6-7) on Saturday in the section championship.
Sereno’s quarterback sneak provided the third lead change of the final three minutes. The Pioneers had taken a 25-22 lead on a 16-yard run by wide receiver Jayden Clarke, but the Oilers had answered back with Brady Edmunds’ passing touchdown to Hunter Gray.
It all broke right from there for the Pioneers, whose execution in clock management allowed them to run 15 plays in the final 93 seconds. Starting the drive at its own 27-yard line, Simi Valley took a couple deep shots at the Huntington Beach 34, but both fell incomplete.
Left with a fourth-and-7, Sereno’s 8-yard dash extended the drive. He spiked the ball, then completed a 15-yard pass to Dominic Demaio and then a 10-yard pass to Eddie Santiago just in front of the right pylon. Sereno won the game on the next play.
“He was not to be denied,” said Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert, who now has 301 wins in his career. “That was the game, and we knew it. We came out of a timeout. Back to that play, we practice it all week, and we practice it live, which you don’t normally do, but we really felt like we needed to be able to do that in certain situations, so we worked on that quarterback sneak against our defense to be successful.”
The game was devoid of offense in the first half. Simi Valley went into the break with a 10-0 lead via an interception along the Pioneers’ sideline by Demaio that went for a touchdown and a 30-yard field goal by Jack Reed as the half expired.
Edmunds’ fumble inside the Simi Valley 5-yard line was the undoing of the Oilers’ best chance to score before halftime, but the freshman quarterback was nearly perfect in the second half, leading four touchdown drives in five possessions.
After getting the ball to start the third quarter, it took just five plays for the Oilers to end the shut out, as Troy Foster took Edmunds’ pass in for a 54-yard score. The duo hooked up again on the next Huntington Beach possession, Edmunds showcasing his arm strength to get it to Foster speeding toward the back left corner of the end zone for the 31-yard touchdown.
With the deep passing game connecting, the middle of the field opened up for Gray, who made the catch on a crossing pattern and sprinted up the right sideline for an 85-yard gain. Jaxson Brown crashed into the end zone on a 2-yard run on the next play, giving the Oilers their first lead of the contest at 22-17 with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
“We were so close, like one second away from winning,” said Justin Tauanuu, the Oilers’ USC-bound offensive tackle. “Everything just doesn’t go our way, but this team, I love this team a lot. I’ve been here for all four years while I played in high school. I’m going to miss them.”
Huntington Beach (6-7) was looking to reach a CIF final for the first time since winning the Southwest Division title in 2013. Simi Valley will now have a chance to win its first football championship.
“I didn’t talk anything about scheme at halftime,” Huntington Beach coach Brett Brown said in addressing his team’s second-half response. “I just told them to take a deep breath and calm down. We had some plays that we missed in the first half. The turnover on the 3-yard line, that hurt us a little bit, probably could have been 7-7 instead.
“Our kids showed a lot of heart and a lot of character. They came back and put up 29 points in the second half, scored when we needed to, and we just had to get one more stop.”
Edmunds, who threw for 353 yards and three touchdowns, became Huntington Beach’s single-season leader in passing yards with 2,684. Michael Chislock threw for 2,505 yards in 12 games during the 2011 season.
The Oilers lived on the edge in the playoffs. All three postseason contests were decided by one-possession margins.
“Heartbroken,” Edmunds said of what he felt after his first postseason defeat. “We went through it after the CdM game, the last league game. At 4-6, we don’t know if we’re making playoffs or not, and this is the worst thing ever.”
CIF Southern Section Division 6 semifinals
Simi Valley 32, Huntington Beach 29
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Huntington Beach 0 - 0 - 22 - 7 — 29
Simi Valley 0 - 10 - 7 - 15 — 32
FIRST QUARTER
None.
SECOND QUARTER
SV — Demaio 27 interception return (Reed kick), 7:23.
SV — Reed 30 FG, 0:01.
THIRD QUARTER
HB — Foster 54 pass from Edmunds (Brown 2 run), 9:33.
SV — Hawkins 2 run (Reed kick), 8:09.
HB — Foster 31 pass from Edmunds (Armendariz kick), 5:56.
HB — Brown 2 run (Armendariz kick), 0:10.
FOURTH QUARTER
SV — Clarke 16 run (Weber pass from Sereno), 3:06.
HB — Gray 12 pass from Edmunds (Armendariz kick), 1:41.
SV — Sereno 1 run (Reed kick), 0:01.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
HB — Edmunds, 4-27; Young, 7-19.
SV — Hawkins, 20-85, 1 TD; Clarke, 5-31.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
HB — Edmunds, 17-27-1, 353, 3 TDs.
SV — Sereno, 27-45-0, 194.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
HB — Gray, 6-157, 1 TD; Foster, 5-135, 2 TDs.
SV — C. Calabrese, 9-77; Santiago, 7-45.
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