Rancho Cucamonga football holds off Valencia

VALENCIA – “The biggest thing… you never wanna accept losing.”

That message was a point of emphasis for Valencia head football coach Larry Muir after the Vikings lost to Rancho Cucamonga 48-14 on Friday night.

It wasn’t all bad for the Vikings in their final non-league contest – they came back to tie the contest at 14-14 late in the second quarter after a 1-yard touchdown from star running back Brian Bonner – but one of San Bernardino County’s elite programs proved to be too much for Valencia in the second half.

Valencia continued to battle in the third quarter, but faced with a fourth-and-5 at Rancho Cucamonga’s 29-yard-line and trailing 21-14, junior quarterback Brady Bretthauer’s pass was dropped by an open receiver, giving the Cougars possession and a much-needed reprieve with 7:57 left in the third quarter against a Valencia team that looked like it could cause problems for Rancho.

Less than a minute later, Rancho Cucamonga extended its lead to 28-14 when junior Keyonn Chatman ran 63 yards for a touchdown.

And the Cougars all but put the finishing touches on their win when receiver Tyree Wilson took a screen 66 yards for a score to give Rancho Cucamonga a 21-point lead.

All things considered though, there were positives that Muir took out of their game.

“Hopefully it [the loss] gives us a great sense of what we can and can’t do and what we gotta grow from, but it’s gotta be an action. It can’t be just learning from it, but we gotta do something with it. So if we learn from it and we do something with it, then we’ll get growth and we’ll see where we’re at on the other side.”

Valencia fell to 0-4 – something that the tradition-rich Santa Clarita Valley program isn’t accustomed to – Muir is eager for his team to experience the other side of a gameday result.

“For these kids I want them to experience a win and what it feels like on the other side, but we’ll keep growing, we’ll keep plugging away and we’ll get better,” Muir said.

Junior running back Brian Bonner – who scored a touchdown in the loss and is considered one of the top players in California – explained the differences between the first and second halves postgame.

“I think the first half we played a lot faster. We ran faster, played harder. But the second half, we got a little bit too relaxed so things started to fall apart,” Bonner said. “That’s another thing we gotta work on is finishing through the game. There’s always two halves to a football game, so next week we’re gonna work on what we made mistakes on and get better.”

For the junior, Valencia’s effort was a positive.

“Everyone’s energy was good. We weren’t playing scared. Everyone was firing off the ball, giving 100 percent every single play.

The results haven’t been there for Valencia so far this season, but the Vikings are trying to find solutions to their struggles with league play approaching.

And for Muir, the theme of not accepting losing again remained at the front of the head coach’s mind.

“It’s been a rough first four weeks of the season but there has been growth, there has been some things that we’ve gotten a lot better, but as long as we don’t accept where we’re at, I think we’ll be okay.”