Rio Hondo Prep wins again, will play for state title

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Rio Hondo Prep scores against Poway during the CIF Division 3-A Southern California Regional final Saturday. Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune

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By Fred Robledo

frobledo@scng.com

Rio Hondo Prep’s run-heavy offense and Noah Penunuri delivered another dominant playoff performance, and the Kares also got a clutch performance from quarterback Yanick Diaz to keep their dream season going.

Rio Hondo Prep overcame an early deficit, then held off San Diego Section’s Poway 28-14 in Saturday’s CIF State Division 3-A Southern California Regional title game.

The Kares, who won their 16th CIF-SS division title last week over Warren for the Division 7 title, add to their storied history with their first regional championship ever after coming up short in their two previous tries to the state playoffs.

The victory sends the Kares (13-1) to next Saturday’s Division 3-A state championship game at Long Beach City College at 7 p.m., where it will take on Fairfield Vanden (12-2).

Penunuri carried the ball 27 times for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Caeden Holcomb and Nate Curtis added the other scores, and the trio helped the Kares offense rush 45 times for 247 yards.

“I knew what their gameplan would be,” Poway coach Brandon Harris told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Their gameplan was going to be to bleed the clock, eliminate our offense from the field. We had only six possessions. We couldn’t get them off the field consistently enough.”

After trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, the Kares went to work.

Diaz, who only attempted one pass for the Kares in last week’s divisional title game, connected on a fourth and goal from the 17, hitting Curtis for a 17-yard touchdown to tie the score, 7-7 with 5:01 until half.

Diaz completed four passes for 74 yards.

The Kares took over in the third quarter.

After a few big passes from Diaz, Penunuri finished their long drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to push their lead to 14-7 with 7:59 left in the third.

Penunuri added another score with 1:08 left in the quarter, scoring on a 3-yard touchdown to extend the Kares’ lead to 21-7.

Rio Hondo Prep’s Calogero Chico forced a fumble to get the ball back for the Kares. And they took advantage with Holcomb scoring on a 4-yard TD run to extend their lead to 21 points with 8:35 left.