SGV/Whittier Prep Sports Zone: Escarcega on Preps - Rio Hondo Prep's final obstacle to history maybe it's most challenging.
Rio Hondo Prep takes on Vanden HS in a State Championship game on Saturday night
Noah Penunuri in action last week against Poway. (Photo: Tim Lunney, Rio Hondo Prep Football)
Game Details
CIF-State Division 3-A Final
Rio Hondo Prep vs. Vanden at Veterans Stadium, Long Beach City College
Saturday, Dec. 14th, Kickoff: 7:00 p.m., Streamed on NFHS Network
LONG BEACH – Saturday night is the night.
After all the games, all the sweat, all the Friday nights in the fall, all the Saturday morning film sessions, two teams in the area—Rio Hondo Prep and Pioneer—have a chance to play for a state championship.
Both teams represent what hard work looks like.
They both took the long road to this championship. They were told they could not win a sectional or a state championship.
But here they are – with the stage to themselves.
For Rio Hondo Prep, they come to this historic city playing with house money. They were the 12th seed in the CIF Southern Section football playoffs in Division 7. There were in a field that included a school with a state-winning coach as their leader (Citrus Valley) and a top seed (West Torrance) that many felt would be playing on Saturday night.
However, Rio Hondo Prep didn’t listen to the noise.
They didn’t complain about being in a single-digit division for the third consecutive year.
They went to work and confounded the experts.
The same experts said Ramona would run over them in the first round. They didn’t care about their chances against Warren, who had a student population of over 3,000 compared to RHP’s 120.
The seeds of this remarkable run can be traced back to 2021 when the Kares shocked the San Gabriel Valley with their first-round Div. 7 win over Charter Oak (37-30) on the road.
This was the big bad Charter Oak.
This was not how it was supposed to work. Charter Oak was supposed to show RHP what football was all about. The win sent reverberations all over the San Gabriel Valley.
But fans didn’t give Mark Carson and his staff the credit they deserved. They said it was a fluke—a flash in the pan. Many felt that if Charter Oak and RHP played 10 times, CO would win 9 times. It was on this night that the Kares won that one time.
When Rio Hondo Prep made the playoffs in Division 10 in 2022, they lost to Norwalk in a crushing 28-27 loss in the first round. Maybe the experts were right; the 2021 win over Charter Oak was a fluke.
As ESPN’s Lee Corso is fond of saying, “Not so fast, my friend.”
Along came 2023 and a season that felt like no other in the area. It’s one thing to win a sectional title; it’s another when you confound the experts. That’s precisely what the Kares did in winning a Division 9 title on the road at Santa Monica.
To this day, it is one of the greatest high school football games I’ve ever attended.
The story would have been a perfect cap to a remarkable story about a program that started as an 8-man football program and methodically became one of the greatest stories that the San Gabriel Valley has ever seen.
Rio Hondo Prep is validating the popular quote from the late Vince Lombardi: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing.”
They have won 26 out of the last 29 games during the past two seasons.
And it’s not like they’ve been running the same offensive system. Last year, they threw the ball all over the place. This year, they have run the ball repeatedly, putting teams into submission.
It’s called the audacity of execution.
You can call the perfect defense, but if your players are not willing to play Rio Hondo Prep’s game from a physicality perspective, by the end of the night, you will be making plans for your postseason banquet.
Just ask Warren.
Rio Hondo Prep didn’t just beat them – they pummeled them to the ground. It was evident on the game video that they wanted no part of the Kares in the fourth quarter. That’s what happens when you give up 400+ rushing yards.
At the center of this attack is a junior running back named Noah Penunuri. He’s not your ordinary running back. He has repeatedly shown no problem carrying the ball 40 times a game.
He is also an accomplished boxer and mixed martial arts fighter. If Rio Hondo Prep offered a wrestling program, you can be sure this kid would be wrestling at the state championships in Bakersfield. He is just built differently.
This is perfect for a program that is also built differently. As mentioned previously, Rio Hondo Prep takes a holistic approach to building its program. It believes in developing its student-athletes to become winners on and off the field. Spend a day watching them practice, and you don’t hear the word “win” used by any coach.
It is a family feeling at Rio Hondo Prep, unlike any other program in the area. Whether you can trace it to their popular Kare Youth Program is a discussion for another day. The one thing that can’t be disputed is that Rio Hondo Prep does it the old-fashioned way. They don’t get transfers or play in 7 on 7 football tournaments.
They do their work quietly and without much fanfare.
This week has been anything but quiet for anyone involved in the program. From press conferences to daily newspaper articles, the story of Rio Hondo Prep is out there for anyone to enjoy. They’ve been featured on CBS2 Los Angeles.
Now comes what is arguably their biggest challenge of the season. Rio Hondo Prep’s opponent, Vanden High School, is used to the big stage. The school opened in 1965 in Fairfield and is considered a powerhouse program in the CIF San-Joaquin Section.
They won a state championship in 2021, defeating San Bernardino Aquinas 14-13 in the Div. 3-AA title game. One of the main reasons they are successful is that they are in a strong military community. It is a short distance away from Travis Air Force Base, which is why many military families call Fairfield home.
The program has produced collegiate-caliber offensive and defensive linemen in previous years. This year, it has a quarterback who can flat-out sling it. His name is Kalani McLeod.
According to Kares coach Mark Carson, McLeod is the best quarterback his team has seen in years. His numbers are off the charts. He has completed 250 of 349 passes for 4,090 yards and 36 touchdowns. He currently has eight collegiate offers.
“We ask a lot of the quarterback in our program,” Vanden coach Mike Clark said. “He has the right temperament to be a great quarterback; he has taken to the coaching, and his body has transformed tremendously.”
When you consider that the Vikings have rushed for only 1,306 yards (93.3 yards per game), you know that they are a pass–first, run–second team, which presents Rio Hondo Prep with its greatest challenge.
None of the teams the Kares have played in the playoffs has a passing game as prolific as Vanden's. This means that for Rio Hondo Prep to be successful on Saturday night, they must produce stops and force the Vikings to punt.
This is easier said than done when you consider Vanden's athletes on the field. As for Vanden, they must find a way to neutralize Rio Hondo Prep’s run game and force them to pass.
Again, that’s easier said than done.
It’s a fabulous way to end state championship weekend in Southern California. No matter the result, Rio Hondo Prep has defied the odds. They have played the role of Rocky Balboa to the state final.
Can they summon the courage one final time and win a state title?
The time has arrived.
It’s time for kickoff.