MidValleySports.Com

By Matt Schuler

(Whittier)- Whittier Christian quarterback Stephen Anderson threw for over 320 yards and the Heralds avoided a late game collapse, scoring the go ahead touchdown with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter to defeat league rival Village Christian, 29-26, Friday night at Whittier College.

The win gives the Heralds the Olympic League championship for the first time since sharing the title in 2006 season.

“It feels great,” said Coach Sergio Gradilla. “We haven’t won an Olympic league title in quite a while. It feels good, I’m glad the way our guys battled back.”

Following a VC punt and trailing by four, Anderson threw a go-route to fellow senior Cameron Stanley, who caught the pass and converted it into a 40-yard touchdown to give Whittier Christian a field goal lead with 5:18 left to play.

The senior-duo hooked up 10 times for 2 touchdowns and 148 yards.

Village Christian actually held an early 6-0 lead after punching in the first points of the game on an Amjed Aboul-hosn 1-yard touchdown run, but the extra point was missed.

WC answered back with two consecutive touchdowns and the score was 16-6 with 3:44 remaining in the first quarter after Stanley jumped up and over the defender, catching the fade route at its highest point in the back corner of the end zone for his first of two touchdowns.

“We expect them to make big plays like that,” Gradilla said. “We rely on our seniors to win us games.”

Aboul-hosn led the ground attack for VC and finished the night with 178 yards and three touchdowns. Aboul-hosn, who has over 1,100 rushing yards on the season, kept his team in the game after the passing attack was not evident for the Crusaders.

“We wanted to pound those guys,” said VC coach Jeff Cortez “Be physical up front and try to control the clock as much as we can.”

But a safety, two missed extra points, and a roughing the kicker call hindered the Crusaders.

“Well that whole drive we dropped an interception and then we roughed the kicker,” said Cortez. “There are a lot of things that happened that didn’t go our way.”

Whittier Christian plays L.A Baptist next week.