Summerville Football Wins Division Championship
Written by Mike Woicicki:
Summerville 38 – Stone Ridge Christian 12
On Saturday afternoon the #1 Summerville Bears took a ride to St. Mary’s High School in Stockton to play for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section, Division 7 championship against the #2 Stone Ridge Christian Knights.
In the first quarter Bryson Benites kicked a 27-yard field goal giving the Bears the lead. In the second quarter Bryce Leveroos ran one in from 18 yards out, and at 10 to 0 things were looking good for Summerville. The Knights quickly came back with a TD on a beautiful diving catch in the front corner of the endzone and the Bears went into halftime with a slim 10-to-6 lead, having batted down the Knights’ extra point. Coming out of halftime, though, you could see the true spirit of the Bears in their warmups. They took the field running on all cylinders and scored three touchdowns in the third quarter and then coasted to a 38-to-12 victory, claiming the championship.
The offense was led by Leveroos who ended the night with four rushing touchdowns to his credit. Adding to the 18-yard first quarter score, he also scampered in from the 4, 5, and 27 in the third quarter. Colton Cash capped off the scoring with a beautiful 73-yard end run in the fourth quarter. Once again Benitas was perfect on extra points to go along with his early field goal.
The offense did its part gaining 301 yards rushing and 47 yards through the air, but I have to give credit where credit is due. I remember hearing a famous coach say that you win games with a good offense, but you win championships with a great defense. Well, this is just what the Bears did in the three playoff games. The offense did its job, but the defense allowed just 18 points total and made many outstanding plays to stop their opponents in their tracks and give the offense great field position on multiple occasions. One example of this in this championship game was when Bryce Rathmel blocked an attempted pass at the line of scrimmage and then dove and caught the ball for an interception on the Knights’ 5-yard line. Other outstanding defensive plays were made, including but not limited to those by Evan Roberson, Ritchie Hanley, Luke Larson and Jeven Rodgers.
The Hot Hit of the Game was made by Luke Larson on a tackle eight yards in the backfield to cause a 3 and out. The Player of the Game was Bryce Leveroos for passing for 47 yards on a 4-for-4 night, rushing for 101 yards on 16 carries, and scoring 4 TDs.
The Bears are now waiting to hear from the CIF about playing in games that can lead to a chance at being the State Champions.
