MISSION VIEJO, Calif. — When star quarterback Maalik Murphy, the undisputed leader of the Serra Cavaliers, went down with an ankle injury, a freshman answered the call.
Tre’ Harrison recorded a playoff interception for the third game in a row, a pick six in the fourth quarter, to give Serra-Gardena the touchdown that proved to be the decisive score in a 21-16 win over Liberty-Bakersfield for the CIF Division 1-A championship.
“We had to win this thing for Maalik,” Harrison said. “Our linebackers did their job and got to the quarterback. I caught the ball, and all I said was, ‘okay, let’s not get tackled.’”
As he had hoped, Harrison did make it into the end zone, and though the Patriots did drive down for a touchdown with 1:31 left, Troy TW Crozier’s recovery of the ensuing onside kick sealed the game.
“It means everything to me,” said Murphy, who had endured a shoulder injury earlier in the season. “I never gave up and never wavered from the opportunity to do this. To get the job done with all my boys is huge for me.”
Unlike so many Southern California quarterbacks, Murphy never considered transferring from Serra, even when he sat behind Doug Brumfeld as a sophomore.
“So many guys are chasing this, chasing that, like a 5-star rating. He wanted to win a title for Serra,” Serra head coach Scott Altenberg said. “When all the people told him he could play anywhere as a sophomore, he didn’t blink.”
The strength of Murphy’s relationship with Altenberg was evident, especially considering the way Altenberg described the sequence in which Murphy suffered his injury.
“He’s a knucklehead,” Altenberg joked. “Get rid of the ball.”
Leading 14-9 early in the fourth, Murphy evaded a sack and led the Liberty defense on a wild goose chase but was sacked for a 12-yard loss. Following the injury delay, Kai Honda delivered a perfect punt that rolled along the goal line until going out of bounds inside the 1, and Harrison intercepted the second play of the drive.
“Their defense was really good, and we had some mistakes and miscues on our part,” Liberty head coach Bryan Nixon said.
Liberty (11-3) led 9-7 at half, scoring first on Dylan Lynch’s 28-yard field goal and going back in front with 1:56 left in the first half on quarterback Carson Woods’ 38-yard touchdown run, but Murphy led a 13-play, 79-yard drive to open the third quarter to put Serra (11-4) ahead for good. He ran for a 15-yard pickup on fourth-and-3, handed off to Cincere Rhaney for a 16-yard gain on third-and-4 from the 19 and threw a screen to Honda for the 1-yard score. Honda, a Swiss Army knife for the Cavaliers, also ran for 30 yards and had five of his six punts land inside the 20.
Serra took a 7-3 lead late in the first on Crozier’s 11-yard run, but went into the break trailing after committing an offsides penalty on fourth-and-1 that led to Woods’ first touchdown run. Woods also ran for a 13-yard score with 1:31 left, the culmination of a 9-play, 86-yard drive. In all, Woods completed 14 of 30 passes for 147 yards and ran 10 times for 60 yards. Jalen Hankins had 105 yards on 22 carries.
Before his injury, Murphy completed 15 of 29 passes for 174 yards, with five of those completions and 88 of those yards going to Coleman. Rhaney ran 14 times for 89 yards, while Melvin Bailey had a pair of tackles for a loss. Dakoda Fields followed Harrison’s interception with one of his own, but the Patriots forced a punt to set up a last-ditch effort.
