Chino Hills football erupts against Notre Dame, storms into Division 3 semifinals

SHERMAN OAKS — When it rains, it pours.

It wasn’t only the droplets of water hitting fans and players alike at Notre Dame High, but the amount of points on the field as well. Chino Hills scored 40 straight, to be exact.

That 40-point run proved to be the difference-maker as Chino Hills erupted for a 54-26 victory over Notre Dame in a CIF-SS Division 3 quarterfinal on Friday night.

“Really proud of this specific group, and just really grateful for the opportunity to have shared this experience with them,” Notre Dame head coach Evan Yabu said after the game. “A lot of work goes into these, these football games. We started our offseason, I want to say about a calendar year ago in November.”

The 40-point barrage started in the middle of the third quarter after Notre Dame (6-6) took a 26-14 lead with 6:33 remaining. Chino Hills running back Jacob Jimenez scored on a 4-yard touchdown run, and mistakes just piled up for Notre Dame after that.

Notre Dame turned the ball over on downs at its own 40-yard line to give Chino Hills (10-2) a short field to work with, and later in the game, multiple sacks, along with fumbles by Notre Dame quarterback Wyatt Brown, kept giving the Huskies’ offense opportunities.

Jimenez made sure Notre Dame understood the mistake it was making. After the Knights turned the ball over on downs, Jimenez scored on a 42-yard touchdown to give Chino Hills a 27-26 lead. It was all Huskies after that, and especially Jimenez, who finished with 192 total yards and three touchdowns.

“It’s their offensive line. Their quarterback does a really good job of orchestrating it and finding ways to make it hard to know what’s coming at the tail end of the play,” Yabu said. “But [Jimenez] certainly was exceptional, man. He was hard to tackle.”

For Notre Dame, the offensive focal point of the night was USC commit Luc Weaver. His dominant 6-foot-3 frame was evident whenever Brown threw his way, and he finished with five catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

He started the scoring in both halves with a 43-yard touchdown in the first and a 36-yard touchdown in the second.

“Luc’s best days are ahead of him, for sure,” Yabu said. “He’s made a big impact on the program. … I think he’s kind of changed the model for what it takes to get to some of the goals and this game certainly, he made some huge plays and some huge moments and kept us in the football game.”

Chino Hills advances to face Oxnard Pacifica in next week’s semifinals.