Despite the countless injuries and heartbreaking losses, the Valley Christian Warriors (7-6) finished off their season by accomplishing their goal of a CCS championship, 51-20, over the Aptos Mariners in a Division III matchup Saturday afternoon at Independence High.
“I’m happy for our seniors,” said coach Mike Machado. “We had tough luck this year, but we talked about finishing and tonight the boys finished.”
Junior quarterback Jay MacIntyre led the Warriors patiently on offense, passing for 116 yards and three touchdowns. The Warriors penetrated early as MacIntyre handed off to sophomore running back Kirk Johnson who ran for a 69-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 in the first quarter.
The Warriors defense remained stout and capitalized on the Mariners miscommunication and nerves, as junior lineman Byron Baker recovered a fumble to put the Warriors back on offense. MacIntyre remained patient in his pocket, as his line stepped up to protect him, and found senior receiver Bryce Novak in the end zone from 14 yard out to finish off the first quarter up 14-0.
The Mariners struggled to get some momentum going against the Warriors pressurized defense.
At the start of the second quarter MacIntyre dumped a pass to Severson who powered his way into the end zone from 34 yards out to increase Warriors lead to 20-0.
Aptos seemed to find some rhythm and shake off the nerves of a championship game as junior quarterback Alex Joh handed off to senior running back Elijah Marta several times on a march down the field. Joh connected with Dalton Weitzel to put the Mariners in scoring range and senior running back Brodie Bennet finished off the drive with a 12-yard run to put the Mariners on the board at 20-7.
MacIntyre responded by finding Novak up the field and Brandon Alexander in the end zone from 17 yards out to make it 27-7. Aptos finished off the half in the final seconds as Joh dropped back to find his tight end Alex Bonsall in the end zone.
MacInytre was huge on both sides of the ball with a total of 8 tackles (5 solo, 3 assisted) and an interception he ran back for a touchdown. Most teams wouldn’t put their quarterback at defense, but with MacIntyre ability to make plays, it’s hard not to. The Warriors defense remained dauntless holding the Mariners to seven points in the second half.
“Everyone stepped up,” said senior running back Ryan Severson. “There wasn’t just one player making a lot of the plays. We had Jay come out on defense make a couple of turnovers and the linemen all played well. We played like a team tonight.”
Although the Warriors will be losing seniors, they are still a young team and returning MacIntyre and Johnson are just the beginning. The Warriors celebrated splashing each other with the celebratory Gatorade and in the final seconds dumping coach Machado with the traditional ice water twice.
