Strathmore status: Best in Valley

By the end of Friday night’s melee between No. 2 Strathmore and No. 5 Orange Cove, Jesse Soria seared his name into the halls of legendary Orange Belt running backs and the Spartans sealed their own place in history with a 37-26 victory and a Division VI Valley championship — just the third in the school’s roughly 90 years of football existence.

Welcome to Sparta, Titans.

Just like the shorthanded band of 300 Spartans in ancient Greece held off seemingly insurmountable odds, the little school of some 400 students produced a caliber of a squad that rivaled — and defeated — schools two or three times its size.

“How do you explain it?” Strathmore quarterback Geostan Duffin rhetorically asked. “It’s amazing.”

Strathmore coach Jeromy Blackwell said beforehand he would go to his big guns almost exclusively and he backed it up by allowing Soria to rack up 349 yards on 41 carries — both career highs.

Soria’s first act was actually on the giving end as he lined up in Wildcat formation — part of a package Strathmore calls “Spartacus” — and threw a short pass to Duffin that developed into a 66-yard score — the first of the game and the first as a receiver for Duffin.

“That’s never happened before,” said Duffin, who played eight games last season before breaking his finger. “I honestly didn’t wanna do it because I didn’t wanna get laid out. I’ve always been nervous about getting hurt again this year. But it’s the Valley championship and it worked, obviously.”

Blackwell wasn’t sure it would, however.

“(The play) hadn’t looked good in practice,” he said. “I was so afraid because Jesse can’t see the free safety, but he just threw it up... and there was nobody else there.

“He came through for us,” Blackwell said of Soria. “When you’re in the finals, you go to your hogs. We ran a lot to the left side behind our biggest offensive linemen.”

It was around the left side that Soria scored all three of his touchdowns, beginning with a 53-yard blast after Duffin quickly called for the snap while it appeared the Titans’ defense was in disarray.

As the Spartans celebrated their 21-7 advantage on the sidelines, running back Michael Lemus told them to stay focused and to remember the similar 21-9 lead they held over the Titans on Oct. 2. Strathmore blew that lead and fell, 28-24.

So what prompted them to hang on this time?

“Revenge,” Duffin said. “We knew we were the better team.”

As an added boost before the break, kicker Hernan Orozco nailed a 42-yard field goal that sailed just past the uprights on fourth down within the final seconds of the half to make it 24-7.

The Titans didn’t seem to get rolling until midway through the third quarter when quarterback Tyler Murdoch hit Elmer Carillo for a 15-yard pass up the middle to make it 30-14. That was the second of his three touchdown passes and one of 10 completions (out of 36) for 190 yards.

But on the first play of Strathmore’s next series, Soria rushed about seven yards into the fray and disappeared. A second later, he burst through the gaps and covered the remaining 59 yards to the end zone for a commanding 37-14 lead.

Soria said the career night was akin to being in the twilight zone.

“I just connected with everybody; just ran everybody’s assignments and saw daylight,” Soria said. “I just cleared my head, took it easy and let everything flow.”

The offense jammed up late in the third when Soria was stopped three straight times behind the line of scrimmage deep in Strathmore’s territory. But Blackwell said that was more of an issue of complacency, not fatigue.

“You have to stop our run and we probably got a little bit conservative,” he said. “I’ve never seen him tired to tell you the truth.”

Soria went on to rush eight more times for 37 yards to finish the game, shattering the 2,000-yard mark and finishing with 2,337 yards on the season. He had the holes in his jersey to prove the wear and tear.

Blackwell was quick to point out it wasn’t all a one-man show, however.

“You don’t hear their names, but I’ll tell you what, we played good special teams,” he said. “And Ray Almanza’s just a sophomore and for a sophomore starting linebacker to win a Valley championship, it's really remarkable.”

Lemus also got on the board with a 44-yard touchdown reception from a short lob by Duffin on third-and-13 late in the first quarter.

It will likely not be until this morning when the victory hits Blackwell.

“I’m sure I’ll wake up with a grin tomorrow,” he said. “Right now, I’m exhausted.”