La Serna turned a halftime deficit into a 42-28 victory over Valencia on Friday night, scoring 22 points after the break to move into the second round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs. Grady Long accounted for 258 total yards in the win, and La Serna now heads to San Jacinto next Friday night.
The result mattered immediately because it ended one round and opened the next. San Jacinto advanced with a 13-6 win over St. Bonaventure, setting up the second-round matchup after La Serna improved to 10-1 and kept its postseason run alive.
Long was the engine. He rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns, scored on runs of 1 yard and 45 yards, and completed 4 of 7 passes for 136 yards with one interception. La Serna also leaned on a balanced ground game, piling up 320 rushing yards as a team while Daniel Moreno added 120 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns and Jordan Bonilla ran for 84 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns.
The game was tight early and swung both ways before La Serna took control. Long put his team ahead 7-0 on the fifth play from scrimmage with a 45-yard run, Valencia answered through Nico Funez on a touchdown reception from Evan McCalister, and McCalister later broke free for a 54-yard score to give Valencia a 14-7 lead. Bonilla tied it at 14-14 on a 10-yard run in the second quarter, and from there La Serna found the second-half burst it needed.
That comeback made the difference after the break, where the offense kept finding answers while the defense held Valencia in check enough to protect the lead. Long said the ground success was no accident, saying the team had been using it later in the season and had shown it over the past couple of weeks. He also pointed to the week before, when La Serna beat Downey, as part of the reason this group avoided a letdown.
The playoff path now gets sharper. La Serna goes on the road to San Jacinto next Friday night, and that matchup comes after a first-round win that showed this team can absorb a punch, reset and finish. For Long and La Serna, the season is still moving forward.
