With adversity comes victory for the Union High School football team.
Darien Chase’s 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the final minute lifted Union to a 34-29 come-from-behind victory over El Cerrito, Calif., on Friday night in the Bay Area.
The third-ranked TItans improve to 2-0, taking the nonleague victory in a game that saw four lead changes in the final 12 minutes before Chase’s go-ahead score inside 30 seconds to play.
The Titans walked away with a win, but not without an eventful 24 hours.
First, wildfires in Northern California shut down sections of Interstate 5, meaning the Titans spent 17 hours on a bus after leaving Vancouver on Thursday morning. They arrived in the Bay Area around midnight Friday, coach Rory Rosenbach said.
Then, the game didn’t have a full officiating crew at the start, meaning kickoff got delayed by nearly two hours.
But once started, the sparks flew.
The Gauchos of El Cerrito struck first, but Union’s largest lead was 20-7 with 8 minutes, 13 seconds to go in the second quarter on Jojo Siofele’s rushing touchdown.
El Cerrito pulled within 20-14 at halftime followed by a third-quarter touchdown to take a 23-20 lead.
“We didn’t put them away,” Rosenbach said. “We let them get back into it.”
By the time the fourth quarter started, so did both offenses.
The teams traded leads four times. El Cerrito grabbed a 27-23 advantage inside a minute to go in the fourth quarter and the ensuing kickoff went to Chase, whose receiving touchdown earlier in the game gave Union a 14-7 lead.
Rosenbach not only praised his team for how it played Friday, but also the trip in general.
“That’s what road trips are about,” Rosenbach said, “they’re about how you grown and learn to overcome that stuff.
“You schedule this game to prepare you for November. You can draw on those experiences when you get to November.”
