A playoff spot has been secured, and now comes the league title game for the Bishop Union High School football team.

The Broncos stayed undefeated in High Desert League play Friday, rolling to an early lead and holding off host Frazier Mountain 32-21 in Lebec.

Bishop led 25-0 early in the fourth quarter before Frazier Mountain scored two unanswered touchdowns to cut the lead to 25-14. The Broncos then got key runs from Chance Erwin and Dominic Quintana before Tim Berrey scored a touchdown to give the Broncos some breathing room.

The victory sets up a huge game for Bishop and the Desert Scorpions. Bishop (4-4 overall) improved to 3-0 in HDL action, while Desert, which had its bye from HDL play last week, sits at 2-1. The No. 6-ranked Scopions (7-2) will travel to Bishop on Thursday to wrap up the HDL season at John Schwab Field

A Bishop win would give the Broncos an outright league title.

A Desert win would give both teams 3-1 HDL records and a co-league title, but the Scorpions would be the HDL’s No. 1 seed and get the first-round home game in the CIF-Southern Section East Valley Division playoffs due to their win against Bishop.

Erwin had a huge game for Bishop, rushing for 216 yards on 14 carries and one TD and also throwing a touchdown.

Four different Broncos scored the touchdowns, including Drew Blumberg (39 yards rushing, TD, 76 yards passing), Tim Berrey (69 yards rushing and a TD), Chris Brown (2-yard TD pass from Erwin) and Erwin.

Christopher Santana had 62 yards receiving, a field goal and three extra points for Bishop.

Kiko Gonzales had 15 total tackles to lead the Broncos. Other defensive standouts included Zak Williams, Jacob Doonan, Aaron Puls, David Torres, Quintana, Blumberg, Berrey and Brown.

The East Valley Division has six leagues, and according to CIF-SS Bluebook rules, divisions with six leagues means that each league is guaranteed just two playoff berths, with four at-large berths available.

While Bishop has secured a spot in the playoffs, not so for Desert. The Scorpions get an automatic spot with a win against the Broncos, but another scenario has Desert losing to Bishop and Frazier Mountain beating Kern Valley this week.

That would give Frazier Mountain and Desert 2-2 HDL records, but the Falcons get the No. 2 seed by virtue of their head-to-head win against Desert. The Scorpions, however, would likely get an at-large spot.

If Bishop wins and Kern Valley beats Frazier Mountain, then KV and Desert would be 2-2 but Desert gets the playoff berth since it defeated KV. In that scenario, KV and Frazier Mountain would have to hope for at-large spots.

 

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