Twelve Bridges tops Placer in a track meet of a high school football game. ‘We’re the real deal’

Big stakes were up in the air at LeFebvre Stadium at Placer High School in Auburn on a chilly Friday night of football between the host Hillmen and the Raging Rhinos of Twelve Bridges in Lincoln.

The driver’s seat for both the Foothill Valley League and potentially the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Division IV Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs underscored the pregame hype.

“We definitely wanted to hang a banner,” said Twelve Bridges running back Braeden Ward. “So we had to come out, and we knew we had to execute against these guys.”

Ward scored three first-half touchdowns and rushed for 241 yards to help set the pace for the Raging Rhinos in a track meet of a game. Isaiah Rodriguez and quarterback Connor Flaherty each scored twice to lead Twelve Bridges to a 51-34 win, remaining unbeaten at 8-0.

“I definitely feel like we made a big statement,” Ward said. “We’re just not someone that can be played with, not someone that’s just going to be tossed to the side. We’re the real deal.”

Although this is the first year Twelve Bridges is in the FVL, the two head coaches, Joey Montoya of Placer and Chris Bean of Twelve Bridges, are veterans of these league battles, as Bean was the head coach at Lincoln High School before.

“Our coaches have obviously been playing Placer for a long time, so our coaches had a little bit of a want-to-win, too,” Ward said.

Rack up the points

Twelve Bridges struck first on a 55-yard run from Rodriguez on the Rhinos’ opening drive. Rodriguez then picked off a Placer pass on the ensuing Hillman drive and returned it just outside the end zone. That set up the first of three first-half TDs for Ward, a 1-yard score to make it 14-0 Rhinos with just over two minutes gone by.

Placer responded a minute later when Baylor Kelley took a 50-yard run to the end zone to make it 14-7.

Twelve Bridges answered on fourth-and-one from the 26-yard line with another Ward TD. Placer’s Shaun Jones had a big run to set up his own short score to bring the Hillmen back within a score, 21-14.

Ward scored on a 28-yard run, extending the Rhinos’ lead to 27-14 by the end of the first quarter.

Jones punched in another short score for a 27-21 game at the 8:17 mark of the second. Connor Frontiera drilled a 22-yard field goal for a 30-21 halftime lead for Twelve Bridges.

After forcing a turnover on downs, Flaherty connected with Rodriguez on a flea flicker for a 41-yard score on Twelve Bridges’ first drive of the second half.

Jones added another short score for Placer to make it 37-27 at the end of three, but Flaherty snuck in two QB keepers in the fourth to give Twelve Bridges a 51-34 victory.

‘We are our own team’

Placer, one of the oldest high schools in California (it opened pre-1900s), had laid claim to 10 of the last 11 league championships. Twelve Bridges, one of the section’s newest schools opening in 2021, quickly rose to prominence in the prep football scene.

Under Bean, the Raging Rhinos went 12-1 with a Pioneer Valley League championship and narrowly missed a section crown with their first senior class a year ago.

“There’s definitely been a big chip on our shoulder,” Ward said. “We don’t want to be in the shadow of last year. We are our own team, and we’re here to prove that.”

Twelve Bridges finishes its regular season slate at Roseville next week and at home against Del Campo on Nov. 1. Placer stays home against Yuba City next week and heads to River Valley for the Nov. 1 finale.

This story was originally published October 18, 2024 at 11:34 PM.