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Valley Christian High senior wide receiver Seth Dahlenburg hauls in a 21-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Austin Abrahams late in the first half as the Defenders went on to defeat Gahr High 49-23 last Friday in the season-opener for both teams. It was the first of two touchdown passes for Abrahams, who also scored four rushing touchdowns. He combined for 322 all-purpose yards. PHOTO BY STEVE FERICEAN.
August 27, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
What a difference a year can make. It was Aug. 25, 2023 when head coach Brendan Chambers made his Valley Christian High coaching debut against Gahr High. In a contest that saw both teams combine to score on five of six fourth quarter drives, the game was decided when Chambers decided to go for a potential game-winning two point conversion with no time left in the game.
The conversion failed, giving Gahr a 21-20 road win. Fast forward to last Friday night at Hanford Rants Stadium, and Chambers wasn’t about to come anywhere close to the late game dramatics of last season’s meeting. A pair of defensive plays from junior defensive end Max Douglas within the first 5:25 of the game led to a pair of first quarter touchdowns from senior quarterback Austin Abrahams. The quick start enabled the Defenders to rout the Gladiators 49-23 as Abrahams accounted for six of the seven touchdowns V.C. scored.
“I think that was one of the best games I’ve ever had,” said Abrahams. “I had a pretty good game versus Big Bear last year. But this one, I felt like I ran the ball, and I threw the ball and just overall, yeah, one of my best performances.”
“It was a great team effort all around,” said Chambers. “I feel like defensively, we have a lot of stuff we need to improve on. But they were physical and that’s what we’ve been preaching all [summer] camp. The most balanced team is going to win; whoever wants it more is going to win, and they did a great job tonight.
“Offensively, [Gahr] came out with a different front than what we would see,” he continued. “The offensive line struggled a little bit, but they got it down as the game went on. It was just a great game all around.”
On the second play of the game, Douglas recovered a fumble at the Gahr 20-yard line and five plays into V.C.’s first possession, Abrahams scored on a seven-yard run. Then on the third play of the ensuing possession, Douglas sacked Gahr junior quarterback Roman Acosta for a seven-yard loss on third and four. The Gladiators were forced to punt, and the Defenders eventually went up 14-0 after Abrahams went in from a yard out to cap off another five-play drive.
“That was huge; Max making those plays, applying the pressure…the whole D-line and linebackers did a great job applying the pressure, making it tough for [Acosta] to do anything,” said Abrahams.
Gahr would get a 29-yard field goal from senior Noah Hernandez just 13 seconds into the second quarter. But Abrahams would continue his hot start to the game, adding an eight-yard touchdown run to his game’s performance just over four minutes into the stanza, making it 21-3.
But the Artesia Blvd. neighbors refused to go away and found the end zone for the first time in 2024 when senior running back Ja’Shon Wallace ended a 5:07 drive with a two-yard run. Then with 58 seconds left in the first half, Abrahams showed that he can throw the ball as well, connecting with senior wide receiver Seth Dahlenburg. The back and forth half continued as the Gladiators responded quickly as Acosta scored on a 14-yard run with four seconds left in the half, making it 28-17 in favor of V.C.
“We got a good start when we got that fumble and were able to get six points on the board really, really fast,” said Chambers. “It changed the momentum of the game; they were trailing us the whole time from that point on. The defense really did set the tone. They were flying around, being physical.”
Both teams were putting up good numbers in the first half with Abrahams completing seven of 11 passes for 92 yards and gaining another 82 yards on 10 carries. The only other V.C. running back with first half yardage was junior Karsen Wesley, who had five yards on half a dozen touches.
“In the beginning of the week, we were watching film and coach Chambers put on the last play of the game from last year where we lost it on the one-yard line,” said Abrahams. “I just kept that in the back of my head the whole game and I think everyone on the team did that. We just didn’t want to repeat that, and that just pushed us to play harder [in this game].”
For the Gladiators, Acosta was just as sharp, ending the half with six straight completions and had 116 yards through the first 24 minutes. The recipient of most of those yards was senior wide receiver Markell Slaughter, who caught four passes for 52 yards.
The Defenders went right back to work to begin the second half, orchestrating an eight-play drive that ended when he threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Sean Bouma. That would be the lone score of the third quarter, but another stellar defensive play led to V.C.’s sixth touchdown.
On fourth and 15 from the V.C. 40-yard line, the Gladiators decided to go for it instead of punting. Junior linebacker Cole Hefner sacked Acosta for a 10-yard loss and the Defenders ran nine plays to wrap up the stanza, then made it 42-17 on the first play of the fourth quarter courtesy of a six-yard run from Abrahams.
Hefner would sack Acosta again on the sixth play of Gahr’s next drive. But Slaughter responded by scampering 40 yards for the final touchdown for the blue and gold. Slaughter, who is a jack of all trades for the Gladiators, ended with 105 yards on eight receptions and 98 yards on 10 carries.
“[Slaughter] is a great player, right,” said Chambers. “We knew that all along; that we were going to have to stop him. He’s a heck of a ball player. When they put him at [the] wildcat [formation], it was an adjustment for us, and we just had to slow him down.”
The last touchdown of the night came from junior running back Tyson McNeese, who went in from six yards out with 5:50 left to play. V.C. scored on seven of its nine possessions. The two times it didn’t score was a quarterback kneel down to end the first half and a two-play, 11-yard drive to end the contest.
Abrahams finished with 14 completions in 22 attempts for 212 yards and led the Defenders with 110 yards on 15 carries. Junior tight end Lucas Witt caught six passes for 79 yards and Dahlenburg added 70 yards on three receptions.
“He’s our guy,” said Chambers. “We’re trying to snap it to him and let him make plays and just be himself. He was slow, I feel like, in the passing game. But as the game went on, he got his feet underneath him and was able to throw the ball a lot better. But in the running game, he’s just dynamic. He is very slippery; he’s hard to tackle, he’s smart and makes good plays.”
“I think we were going into the game thinking that we were going to run a lot to see how that works,” said Abrahams. “Once we started running more, then the passing started opening because the backers were coming up.”
Wesley finished with 42 yards on a dozen carries while McNeese added 35 yards on four touches for the only other ball carriers. Bouma and junior wide receiver Dylan Teays each caught a pair of passes for 44 and 16 yards respectively while on defense, Abrahams had six tackles and senior defensive back Jayce Shields and junior defensive back Oliver Boateng each added four tackles.
“I enjoy playing defense for sure,” said Abrahams. “Let’s say I make a mistake on offense, I can go out there and try to make up for it on defense, or vice versa. I really enjoy playing both sides of the ball and I think it’s fun to hit people.”
Acosta, who had completed nine straight passes during one stretch, was 14 of 19 for 170 yards with Slaughter catching eight of them for 105 yards. He also picked up 98 yards on 10 carries while Wallace had 46 yards on six carries and caught three passes for 11 yards. On defense, senior linebacker Isaiah Portillo had seven tackles while five players had three tackles.
V.C. will visit Calvary Chapel Santa Ana High on Saturday night with the game played at Segerstrom High while Gahr will face another city rival in Cerritos High on Friday. The Gladiators will be the designated visiting team.
