2 weeks Ago By Eric Sondheimer
Quarterback Brady Smigiel, usually the calm, cool, helpful teenager, was conniving to do something sinister. He emptied two water bottles into the Gatorade chest. He carried it onto the field during the trophy presentation.
He yelled out to his twin brother, Beau. They took a knee and waited for the right moment. Together they dumped it on their father, Joe, the head coach.
Joe gave them a look straight out of “You’re grounded!” while pushing it away. Then came smiles and pure joy. Newbury Park High had beaten Murrieta Valley 31-28 to win the Southern Section Division 2 football championship on Saturday night, moving to 14-0 on a season that few saw coming.
“Unbelievable,” said Joe Smigel, who took over the program in 2022 and built it into a championship team with the help of his 6-foot-5 son, Brady, who completed 14 of 21 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 60 yards and one touchdown on Saturday night. “Team, team, team. That’s what we say,” Joe Smigiel said.
It was a team effort to come back from an early 14-0 deficit. Drew Cofield caught touchdown passes of 27 and 66 yards and came through with the game’s biggest play, stripping the ball from Murrieta Valley running back Dorian Hoze just before he reached the end zone on a 55-yard run early in the fourth quarter, resulting in a Newbury Park touchback instead of a Murrieta Valley touchdown. “I was hoping to punch the ball out,” Cofield said.
It led to a Shane Rosenthal 27-yard touchdown run on a lateral from Brady Smigiel for a 31-21 lead with 9:44 left. It was a frustrating moment for Hoze, who rushed for 254 yards in 29 carries and scored four touchdowns. Murrieta Valley quarterback Bear Bachmeier never got going through the air.
He finished with 92 yards passing and 66 yards rushing. The first half pretty much went as expected with two evenly matched teams settling for a 14-14 deadlock. Murrieta Valley was effective on its first two series, with Hoze scoring on touchdown runs of two and 69 yards.
Down 14-0, the Panthers hardly panicked, not with the poise and leadership of Smigiel at quarterback. He ran six yards for a touchdown and fired a 27-yard touchdown pass to Cofield on a trick play that featured a handoff to Rosenthal, a handoff to Kayin Booker, then a lateral to Smigiel before he passed to a wide-open Cofield. The Newbury Park defense began to shut down Hoze after the first quarter.
Smigiel was smartly examining the field looking for running opportunities to keep drives alive. His grasp of the offense and reading of the defense was exceptional. He was 10-of-16 passing for 130 yards in the first half and also rushed for 42 yards in nine carries.
For Newbury Park to match Murrieta Valley’s intensity in the trenches and pull away in the end is testament to coach Joe Smigiel’s plan to build step by step. There were many who didn’t think this team could win a Division 2 championship. “What are they going to say now,” linebacker Balen Betancourt boasted to his teammates while taking one final championship photo.
They’re going to say, “Division 2 champions.” Except the Smigiel twins might also be hearing, “Go to your room,” from their dad and coach..
