In its first Freeway League game of the season that also turned out to be a homecoming game, the Sunny Hills football team left its opponent in the dust with a 45-7 trouncing of Sonora Oct. 4 at Buena Park High School’s stadium.
Head coach Peter Karavedas dedicated the win to the team’s seniors.
“We really wanted tonight to be all about our seniors,” Karavedas said. “We’re just really happy to send our seniors out with a big homecoming win…. They played really well in all three phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams.”
The Lancers (5-1) set their offensive push early in the first quarter when wide receiver and defensive back senior Wilson Cal caught quarterback senior Luke Duxbury’s pass in the corner of the end zone.
“[Scoring the first touchdown] was special, especially as this is my last homecoming game,” Cal said.
Running back senior Jun Ahn also scored two touchdowns in the game.
“It feels good [to have won] because it is our first league game, so we’re trying to send a message to our league,” said Ahn, who credited the team’s defense for the victory.
The Lancers shut out Sonora for the majority of the game with the Raiders scoring their only touchdown with seven seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. By then, the coach took out his starters and replaced them with bench players.
“The key to tonight’s success was our defense,” Ahn said. “We shut them down … and then we did what we had to do with our offense.”
Karavedas hopes the team’s performance against Sonora will be a good indication of what the rest of the season will look like.
“It’s great to see our kids playing at a high level,” he said. “We get the feeling that we’re getting better every week.”
Coming into Friday’s first Freeway League matchup, Sonora (2-4) had shut out two of its opponents — a 22-0 victory against Pomona Aug. 22 and an 18-0 win against Lynwood Sept. 5. Since that Lynwood win, the Raiders had yet to score any points in their two-game losing streak.
Their shutout streak could have continued for a third game had the Sunny Hills defense not given up that last-minute touchdown drive from the Raiders.
Nevertheless, Karavedas said he left the game feeling more than satisfied with how the team played.
“You saw all of our weapons on display tonight,” he said. “You saw Luke Duxbury throwing great passes, you saw Wilson Cal, Brandon Roberts and Jun Ahn all making plays, so it was great to see us be able to run the ball, throw the ball and be successful.”
Karavedas said he hopes students will continue coming out to support the team and watch future games, especially since the next one on Oct. 11 is considered an away game against Buena Park (1-5) but will still be played in the Lancers’ home stadium at Buena Park.
“I just want to create a great memory, not just for our players, but for our whole school community,” he said.
