Heritage outlasts Santiago in football season opener, 42-35

Heritage running back Angelo Serena speeds toward Santiago defender Brendan Kim in the Patriots' win. (Photos by Kristi Jo Aguirre)

By Doug Spoon, Editor

It turned out to be a wild one until the end Friday night, but the result was a testament to Heritage High’s talent and resiliency.

Fighting through turnovers, penalties and the kind of mistakes typical of football season openers, the Patriots used a determined defense and strong offensive line to score a 42-35 victory over visiting Santiago High of Corona. Playing before a huge home crowd, Heritage pulled out the win on sophomore Angelo Serena’s 4-yard touchdown run with just 27.4 seconds remaining.

Thus started the head coaching career of Andre Smith, who brought an impressive resume as a top assistant at Rancho Verde and Murrieta Valley into his new position at Heritage.

“These kids are great kids,” said Smith (left). “And the turnout tonight was awesome. When you’ve been grinding all summer long and the kids finally get to see what it looks like when they do it, that’s exciting.

“We gave up some big plays, but it’s game 1. Part of it was we put the defense on the field way too much tonight. We turned the ball over. There was a blown coverage here and there, but those things are correctible. The defense is what we’re going to hang our hat on. The scoreboard won’t show it tonight because of the turnovers, but the defense played a good game."

Almost all of the damage done by the Santiago offense was on long pass plays when the receiver got away from Patriot defensive backs. Sharks quarterback Dominic Tubbs passed for 343 yards and 4 touchdowns, but 221 of those yards came on just four long passes. One of those covered 65 yards to wide receiver Bryce Parker for a touchdown that cut Heritage’s 28-7 halftime lead to 28-13 in the first minute of the third quarter.

After Heritage was forced to punt on its next possession, Tubbs drove the Sharks 55 yards in six plays, capped by an 11-yard TD pass to Parker, cutting the Patriots’ lead to 28-20. That’s when the fun really began.

Following a 36-yard kickoff return by Jason Chupany, the Patriots drove 51 yards in 5 plays to score on a 1-yard touchdown run by Serena, moving Heritage’s lead back up to 35-20. That was one of four TD runs on the night by Serena, who carried 27 times for 207 yards.

“He’s just a 10th grader,” Smith said about Serena. “He’s tough. But he had a good game because the O line guys are great. It starts up front. Conan Tautala, Anthony Fraund, Damien Sanchez, Nathan Guerrero, and Jamison De La Cruz. Jamison didn’t play a lot last year, but he jumped in there at center and played a great game.”

Santiago pulled closer again on a 75-yard touchdown pass from Tubbs to Parker early in the fourth quarter, moving to within eight at 35-27. When the Sharks got the ball back, they fumbled it away on the first snap when Patriots defensive end Aurelius Thomas stripped the ball away from the ballcarrier and Uzo Agubata recovered.

Unfortunately for the Patriots, Serena lost a fumble soon thereafter and Santiago recovered. Tubbs’ 36-yard touchdown pass to Austin Kurtz a few plays later and a two-point conversion pass to Parker tied the score at 35 with 4:13 remaining.

Then the Heritage offense really showed what it could do.

With Serena carrying the ball 8 times, Heritage drove 65 yards for the winning score, capped off by Serena’s 4-yard TD run.

Heritage linebacker Kanye Young advances a recovered fumble in the first quarter against Santiago.

 Quarterback Hayden Lara finds some running room of his own during Friday night's game.