St. Bonaventure proves mettle by snapping Oak Hills' 20-game regular-season winning streak
The nonleague gauntlet has been run. The green-and-gold mettle has been proven.
The St. Bonaventure High football team looks ready to defend its Marmonte League title.
Sophomore Kaden Glover showed signs of developing into a starting quarterback, DJ Doss made a difference on both sides of the ball and both lines held up against its biggest test yet as the Seraphs held off visiting Hesperia-Oak Hills for a resume-building 23-21 win Friday night at Ventura College.
St. Bonaventure (3-2) used an early 23-0 lead to snap Oak Hills’ 20-game regular-season winning streak in a rematch of teams ranked No. 41 and No. 28, respectively, in the state by Cal Hi Sports,
The Seraphs gain a measure of revenge against the opponent which beat them twice last year, including in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs.
“It’s huge,” St. Bonaventure head coach Joey Goyeneche said. “We feel like we got a monkey off our back.
“We love playing those guys because I feel like it’s a mirror-image game. We take pride in our offensive line and defensive line play, and so do they. They’re nasty. We take pride in our nastiness.”
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Kaden Glover completed 8 of 15 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown and also ran for a score. Koen Glover rushed for 91 yards on 16 carries.
Doss ran for a score as a Wildcat quarterback, reeled in a TD pass and made the game-ending interception.
“DJ Doss arrived tonight,” Goyeneche said of the Washington State commit who transferred in this season from Antelope Valley. “He had done some really good things, but every time he touched the ball, you saw the special things he can do.”
Oak Hills (4-1) leaned on powerful running back Karson Cox and its mammoth offensive line to score the final 21 points of the game. Cox had 148 yards and three TDs on 26 carries as the defending Mojave River League champion piled up 230 yards rushing.
“I told the kids I wanted to see how we responded as a program,” Oak Hills coach Robert Metzger said. “I wanted to see just how much grit they were going to grind out. It was ‘Let’s see what we’re made off.’ I’m proud of these guys. They did everything I asked them to do and they fought.”
St. Bonaventure needed two plays to take a 7-0 lead on Doss’ 38-yard run out of the Wildcat formation.
The Seraphs used relentless pressure on quarterback Diego Lopez to short-circuit the first four Oak Hills possessions. Intentional grounding penalties backed it up twice, leading to a safety, when a punt snap went awry into its end zone.
That’s when Kaden Glover completed six straight passes to launch the Seraphs into a 23-point advantage.
His 32-yard strike to Doss on a crossing pattern set up his 8-yard TD run, putting St. Bonaventure ahead 16-0 with 4:17 left in the first quarter.
On the next possession, he eluded two Oak Hills rushers and to find Doss on the sidelines for a 36-yard catch and run, putting St. Bonaventure up 23-0 with 11:04 left in the half..
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“I stepped up in the pocket,” Glover said. “I was like, ‘Oh man, they’re all coming through the A gap,’ so I just pushed outside and I look over and DJ’s open. I just let it loose. Backyard football.”
It was a glittering glimpse of what the 6-foot-7 sophomore is capable of as he develops.
“On that third scoring drive he had some phenomenal plays,” Goyeneche said. “You saw his athleticism. You saw what he can do.”
A month after shifting from tight end after starting quarterback Anthony Wolter broke a collarbone in the season opener against Alemany, Glover has adapted.
“Oh my gosh, it’s night and day," Kaden Glover said. "I came out and learned from those mistakes I made. It’s made me a much better player.”
Oak Hills responded with an 11-play scoring drive, getting on the board on Cox 2-yard TD run with 5:41 left in the half.
Oak Hills got back into the game by scoring two touchdowns during a four-minute stretch that bridged the end of the third quarter.
It used a seven-play, 72-yard drive to pull within 23-14 on Cox’s 2-yard TD run with 11 seconds left third quarter.
After a St. Bonaventure three-and-out, Oak Hills needed just six plays to capitalize on a short field. Cox’s 6-yard TD trimmed the Seraphs lead to 23-21 with 8:18 to play.
But a short kickoff and third-down conversions by Koen Glover and Doss allowed St. Bonaventure to run the clock under three minutes.
But when Kaden Glover was caught on a naked bootleg on fourth-and-1 in plus territory, Oak Hills had 2:24 to put together a game-winning drive.
Jeremiah Barrios and Doss both had interceptions in the final 82 seconds, allowing St. Bonaventure to run out the clock.
“It got a little chippy in the second half, but we finished it,” Doss said. “We came through with the win.”
A fortnight ago, St. Bonaventure was 1-2, coming off a 49-12 loss to a defending state champion in Lincoln-San Diego. It responded by beating budding power Archbishop Riordan on the road in San Francisco and coming home for this win.
“So proud of our guys,” Goyeneche said. “These last two weeks they have just busted their butt. The energy in practice has been great. They didn’t fold. Getting beaten by Lincoln pretty good, we’ve responded and had our best two weeks of practice.”
And a win that, considering the sheer size and quality of the opponent — as well as recently history — St. Bonaventure will savor through its bye week before opening Marmonte League play at Bishop Diego on Sept. 29.
“We know we’re going to be playing bigger teams,” Goyeneche said. “We said last year that we have to figure out a way to compete and beat the teams in Division 2, and we figured it out tonight.”
Joe Curley covers high school, collegiate and professional football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: St. Bonaventure earns measure of revenge with tough win over Oak Hills
