For Santa Clarita Christian, Saturday night’s 30-27 loss to Bloomington Christian in the CIF-Southern Section Eight-Man Large Quarterfinals at Valencia High was a game for heroes…

The Cardinals, already underdogs against the No. 4-seeded Ravens, discovered Friday night that they were without the services of leading rusher, passer and scorer Stephen Mercier, who suffered second-degree burns on his foot in a camp-fire mishap.
    Starting center Ryan Labeaune was also lost and in need of surgery on a torn ligament in his knee.
    Defensive tackle John Grayem, the teams’ most ferocious defender, had so much tape wrapped around his injured ankle that he appeared to be dragging a ball on the end of his leg.
    On Saturday, there were plenty of heroes to be found. There was backup quarterback Jared Dennis, who rushed for 88 yards on 13 carries and a score and who also threw a touchdown pass.
    There was tailback Orlando Peña, who rushed for 125 yards on 23 carries, scored a trio of touchdowns and came back on the field for the final defensive stand in the fourth after suffering a neck stinger on the first play of the quarter.

For more information on this story please visit  www.the-signal.com