THOUSAND OAKS — In only their third year back in 11-man football, Grace School routed Santa Paula 48-16 in the CIF-SS Division 12 Championship. Landon Cooper had four touchdowns and an interception on defense to help lead the Lancers to the blowout victory Friday night and their fifth section title in school history.
“We come from such a small school, we’re underdogs, and we’ve come into every game and performed,” Cooper said. “We’ve had so much adversity this year and so much loss and we’ve still been able to push through it.”
Grace running back Jake Williams ran the ball 33 times for 159 yards and had two touchdowns, to give him 142 carries for 800 yards and eight touchdowns in Grace’s four playoff games this season. His brother and Grace quarterback Riley Williams was 14 of 18 for 208 yards with four total touchdowns and an interception.
“I did it for my brothers and my family. I’m just happy that it turned out this way.” Jake Williams said. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get that ring. If it weren’t for my line and my coaches, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Cooper finished the game with eight catches for 144 yards to go with the four scores. Jaadin Weyandt finished the game with four catches for 54 yards and had a strong effort on defense for Grace.
On the opening kickoff, Imari Carveth returned it 80 yards to give Santa Paula the ball at the Grace 11 for its opening drive. But in what felt like a sign of things to come, the Cardinals were not able to move the ball and were forced into a field goal, which they missed.
The Grace defense was stout throughout the game, only allowing 20 total rushing yards. Santa Paula quarterback Rene Vega had a tough time getting going in the foggy weather, as he completed just 9 of his first 25 passes.
“We played on their side of the field most of the night because of our defense.” Grace coach Tom Coate said. “Our boys were just fired up and executed on defense.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and Coate’s hiring, Grace had reached three straight section finals in 2017-2019 and won two of them, along with a state championship under former coach Josh Henderson. After a change in school leadership, the football program was canceled in the spring of 2021 and Henderson resigned. School leadership had felt the program needed to be “scaled down.”
In Coate’s first practice after getting hired in May of 2021, only six kids showed up and Coate was left to pick up the pieces of a once proud program. Coate has done just that, as he has compiled a 40-18 record since being hired and has now led the Lancers to a championship.
“It’s all credit to God. We wouldn’t be able to do it without him.” Coate said. “And credit goes to these boys. They believed and went to work every day and they kept building this program from when I got here in 2021 and it’s all credit to them.”
Grace improved to 11-3 with the win and will now advance to the State Regional Championship next week. Santa Paula (6-8) was making its first championship appearance since 1963.
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