{"id":87388,"date":"2024-12-14T16:24:50","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T23:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=87388"},"modified":"2024-12-15T02:11:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T09:11:16","slug":"rio-hondo-prep-vs-vanden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=87388","title":{"rendered":"Rio Run Ends in State, 42-41"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Noah Penunuri ran for 223 yards and five touchdowns for the Kares. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Peterson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Long Beach) – Noah Penunuri was stopped a half-yard short of the goal line on the last play of the game and Rio Hondo Prep fell to Vanden 42-41 in overtime Saturday night in the Division 3-A State Final at Veterans Stadium at Long Beach City College. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nate Curtis ran for 146 yards in the devastating Rio Hondo Prep ground attack. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

It was one of the few times Penunuri was stopped all night. After Vanden went up 42-35 in overtime on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Kalani Mcleod to KJ Davis the Kares answered in five plays with Penunuri scoring from two yards out to make it 42-41. Rio Hondo Prep head coach Mark Carson then decided to roll the dice and go for the win but Penunuri’s run to the left side was stopped just short and the Vanden celebration began.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Penunuri ran for 223 yards and five touchdowns and was the workhorse all night for the Kares. The game was tied at 21 at the half but Rio Hondo Prep gained some momentum to open the third quarter by recovering an onside kick at the Vanden 49. The Kares took advantage when Penunuri scored on a one-yard run eight plays later to give Rio Hondo a 28-21 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vanden responded with an 87-yard drive that was capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass from Mcleod to Chris Clark to tie it at 28 with 2:35 left in the third quarter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Kares came right back on the next possession when Penunuri, who else? scored on a 14-yard run to make it 35-28 with 8:16 left in the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Vanden wouldn’t go away. Less than five minutes later Zack Tayeh capped a 73-yard march with a two-yard jaunt to tie it at 35 with 3:49 left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Kares had a chance to win it with eight seconds left but a 36-yard field goal was just wide left sending it into overtime where the Vikings prevailed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The teams traded scores in the first half. Tayeh scored on a one-yard run to put Vanden up 6-0 after the extra point was missed. But Penunuri busted off a 62-yard touchdown run to make it 7-6 Rio Hondo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later in the first quarter Jaishon East caught a six-yard strike from Mcleod to make it 13-7 Vikings. The Kares answered with 14 straight points in the second quarter. Penunuri hit paydirt on a two-yard run and on the next series Caedan Holcomb rumbled in from a yard out to make it 21-13\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vanden got even just 16 seconds before the end of the first half on five-yard scramble by Mcleod. The Vikings then converted the two-point conversion on a Mcleod pass that was tipped into the hands of East to tie it at 21 heading into the break.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a wild back and forth second half and overtime it all came down to a painful half-yard for the Kares.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Vanden Mcleod threw for 329 yards and three touchdowns with Clark catching eight passes for 110 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Rio Hondo Prep Nate Curtis joined Penunuri in the devastating running attack with 146 yards on 15 carries. The Kares rushed for 381 yards and six touchdowns overall on the night but they fell just short of the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vanden finished the season 13-2 after the State Championship victory while Rio Hondo Prep finished 13-2 overall as well and also has a CIF Division 7 championship under its belt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Rio Hondo Prep defense forced a fumble but the player was ruled down. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Long Beach) – Noah Penunuri was stopped a half-yard short of the goal line on the last play of the game and Rio Hondo Prep fell to Vanden 42-41 in overtime Saturday night in the Division 3-A State Final at Veterans Stadium at Long Beach City College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87388"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87418,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87388\/revisions\/87418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}