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Palos Verdes High rarely plays at night — it only started occasionally playing under lights two years ago.
But with championship games come accommodations, receiving city permission — from the streetlights-less Palos Verdes Estates — to host the Southern Section Division 5 championship on Friday night. As the South Bay breeze swept into the stadium, hundreds of fans who were denied entry because of the sellout, and fifth-ever night game, set up camp on the white stone wall and coinciding hill in between the stadium and Via Pacheco road.
Camren Hughes gave them something to celebrate. The junior safety began a 23-point unanswered, fourth-quarter run to lead the Sea Kings to their first CIF championship since 2014 after Palos Verdes (9-5) claimed a 23-7 victory over La Serna.
Down 7-0 with just more than seven minutes to go in the game, Hughes tallied his second interception of the contest — hauling in an errant pass and returning the ball 85 yards to the end zone. After Giuseppe Virzi, a junior defensive lineman, forced a fumble on a strip-sack during the next drive, sophomore quarterback Ryan Rakowski evaded three defenders on his way to the end zone for an eight-yard score and a lead the Sea Kings would not relinquish.
“It’s heaven — heaven on earth,” Hughes said about his game-altering second interception.
For a team that began the season 2-4 and battled for two overtime wins, coach Guy Gardner said he was proud of how his team scrapped their way through the season to claim hardware over La Serna (10-4).
“It’s special, right?” he said. “It doesn’t happen all the time. I don’t know if we would have predicted this in the beginning.”
Gardner praised his younger players, battling through the season after losing an effective senior class a year ago.
One of the underclassmen, his sophomore…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/palos-verdes-uses-defense-claim-061251982.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-11-30 06:12:00
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