Christian Patriots 17, Valhalla 48

Its that time of the year, when one team advances to the semifinals next week and marches plays on.  For the other, they simply have to lace up the sneakers and get ready to play round ball for the next few months aka basketball.  That was the case on Friday night for the Christian Patriots as they lost at Valhalla 48-17.  Setting up for what should be a very good game between #4 Mount Carmel.  The Sundevils beat Westview 48-14.   In the first quarter of the game at Valhalla, Christian scored on the first play of the game from scrimmage going 80 yards when Adrian Petty looked like he was shot out of a canon and sped through the Norsemen defense to give the Patriots an early 7-0 lead.  Then Valhalla answered with a 4 yard touchdown of their own to tie the game at 7-7  Back and forth we went, Christian then added a 37 yard field goal to take an early 10-7 lead.  But that was the last time the Patriots would post any more points or have a lead, as Valhalla ran off 41 straight points to blow the game open.  Lead by Junior running back Rahshaun Sharpe, scored three touchdowns on the night, and Junior running back Jerome Johnson added two more scores.  The two running back accounted for five touchdowns on the night to advance to bonus football beyond Thanksgiving which means the playoffs for at least another week.  The Norsemen defense was stingy and suffocating only allowing one touchdown on the night while sacking, harassing, and intercepting Christian senior quarterback David Jeremiah all night long.  The Patriots end their season with an 8-4 record.  Valhalla the one seed improves to 9-2 on the season and will host Mount Carmel November 27th at 7pm, the winner of that game will face the winner of #2 seed Rancho Bernardo or #6 seed Otay in the Division II final the following week.  

PREVIEW: If you are playing High School Football at the tail end of November and a week before Thanksgiving your playing for something truly special at this point.  Well beyond a league title, it’s bonus football or  free football, playing with house money, a chance to win a championship.  In Division II this Friday night at 7pm number one seed Valhalla will host eight seeded Christian.  Christian defeated West Hills last week 34-20.  The Patriots roll in with an 8-3 record, while Valhalla is 8-2 coming off of a bye week and well rested.  Both teams play equally as good on the road or at home, the Patriots are 4-1 on the road,  while the Norsemen are 4-1 at home.  Valhalla has a pretty stout defense only allowing 21 points just once this season and that was nearly two weeks ago against Grossmont, but Valhalla prevailed 32-21.  The only other time they gave up a plethora of points was against Helix in a 42-14 loss on October 23rd.  So the Norsemen will go as far as their defense takes them.  The offense isn’t too shabby to boot,  they can light up the scoreboard as well averaging just over 29 points per game.  

Christian Patriots offense scores at even a higher pace by almost seven more points a contest scoring 36 points per game.  It will be a battle of a high scoring potent offense against a pretty sound and stingy defense.   They say defense wins championships, and offense puts fans in the stands, in any event this should be an outstanding game.  The winner of this game will advance to the semifinals next week to play past Thanksgiving on November 27th.  They will face the winner of #4 Mount Carmel vs #5 Westview.   You can watch all the highlights on the Prep Pigskin Report Friday night on KUSI at 10:30pm.  Also, keep tabs with updates periodically on twitter and fun pictures from the game on Instagram as well.