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It’s only fitting that the San Juan Hills football team wore black and blue for their pants and jerseys, respectively, on Friday night, Sept. 8, as the Stallions bruised Newport Harbor at the Badlands.
San Juan Hills coach Rob Frith declared Friday a “challenge game,” and his Stallions passed with flying colors, as senior Sullivan Land rushed for 185 yards with rushing and receiving touchdowns and sophomore quarterback Timmy Herr threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more in a 41-14 nonleague victory at San Juan Hills High School.
The Stallions are 4-0 for the first time since 2015 and the first time under Frith. San Juan Hills will aim for 5-0 at Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach next Friday, Sept. 15. Mira Costa (0-3) fell to Damien of La Verne, 56-23, on Friday.
San Juan Hills ran for well over 300 yards against Newport Harbor and set the tone early. The Stallions forced the Sailors 3-and-out on the opening drive, and San Juan Hills’ first four offensive plays earned first downs before Herr plowed a 4th-and-1 sneak eight yards into the endzone.
“I’m just happy we set a challenge for our guys to come out and be the most physical team on this football field tonight,” Frith said. “We just challenged our guys. Come out and be nasty. Be nasty between the white lines. Take it to them physically in all three phases of the game.”
San Juan Hills held down Newport Harbor to just 11 yards rushing and 3 for 11 on third-down conversions. Sophomore Xavier Seward registered two sacks for San Juan Hills.
San Juan Hills leaned on its offensive line of seniors Trevor Newkirk, Cash Hardy and Evan Miller and sophomores Tyler Fields and Cooper Javorsky, along with some help at H-back from linebackers Weston Port, a junior, and Jake Javorsky, a senior.
“That O-line played phenomenal,” Herr said. “They balled out. They’re the real MVPs of this game. 100%.”
The line carved holes for Herr to score on his two first-half sneaks nd for Land to take on most of the workload. Land did most of his grinding between the 20s before busting loose on a 67-yard touchdown run in the third quarter for the 34-7 lead.
“The thing about this team that I love is that there’s so many unselfish and unsung heroes,” Frith said. “Last week, Sullivan Land carried the ball five times. That was it. We scored 50 points. Tonight, he ran the ball a bunch and he rushed for over 180 yards. There are other unsung heroes out there tonight, and maybe next week is their night.”
Newport Harbor got back within one score late in the second quarter thanks to a short field from a shallow punt and penalty by San Juan Hills. The Stallions responded with a nearly five-minute, 11-play drive that saw Land carry the ball six times before Herr hit senior Washington commit Jason Robinson Jr. on a 9-yard in-route for a touchdown with 33 seconds left in the half.
San Juan Hills led 21-7 at halftime.
The Stallions pulled away in the third quarter. Herr converted a 3rd-and-2 with a 29-yard run up the middle, and finished the drive with a 18-yard drop-in-the-bucket over the shoulder of Robinson for a three-score lead.
After another Newport Harbor 3-and-out, Land exploded on the next play with the 67-yard touchdown run to effectively seal the game.
Land caught a four-yard swing pass for a touchdown from Herr in the fourth quarter for the 41-7 lead.
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