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George Toia sparks Summit football past Huntington Beach, into CIF semifinals

November 16, 2024

FONTANA — George Toia will probably be a defensive lineman at the next level like two of his brothers, who are college seniors.

On Friday night, the 6-foot-2, 305-pound sophomore turned to the offensive side of the ball and ran for four touchdowns to lead Summit to a 45-14 victory over Huntington Beach in a CIF-Southern Section Division 5 quarterfinal.

Summit (11-1), which has a nine-game winning streak, will face La Serna in a semifinal next week.

“We decided to have George run the ball more because we thought we needed to control the ball,” Summit coach Nicholas Matheny said. “Every week it’s been a different guy for us. Last week, Daniel Bonilla scored three touchdowns for us.”

Mark Mitchell III, who gained 170 yards on 20 carries, joined the party with a 3-yard touchdown on the opening drive of the second half. Mitchell’s score gave the Skyhawks a 28-14 lead with 8:53 to play in the third quarter.

“Mark gave me some pointers on running the ball,” Toia said. “He and Daniel are special to me.”

Toia carried only six times for 53 yards, but all of his attempts were crucial to Summit’s victory. In addition to the four touchdowns, he kept drives alive with two fourth-down runs.

Pinned at their own 15-yard line with a fourth-and-1, Summit set up for a punt before calling a timeout with 3:53 left in the third quarter. After the timeout, the Skyhawks lined up in a regular formation and Toia burst out for a 33-yard gain. Toia also had a 4-yard run on fourth down to keep a third-quarter drive going.

Jay Toia is a defensive lineman at UCLA, while his other brother, Spine, is a senior at San Jose State. George Toia envisions himself as a defensive lineman in college.

“I’ll do whatever the team needs,” Toia said.

Huntington Beach (7-5) had no answers to bring down Toia.

“We knew they (Summit) were a big, physical team,” Huntington Beach coach Brett Brown said. “Our kids played hard all game and they didn’t give up. We answered them in the first half, but we made too many mistakes in the second half.”

The highlight for the Oilers came in the second quarter. Quarterback Brady Edmunds completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Steel Kurtz with 4:07 remaining in the first half.

Kicker Mattheo Zavala attempted an onside kick and made the recovery himself. Two plays later, Edmunds completed a 51-yard touchdown pass to Troy Foster to tie the score at 14.

“We practiced receiving onside kicks all week,” Matheny said.

The Summit coach wasn’t unhappy for long, as quarterback Francisco Hernandez completed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Nickolas Miramontes with 1:24 remaining. Summit did not relinquish the lead after that.

“We had a good season and we have a lot of young players,” Brown said. “We got an automatic (playoff berth) and that was an accomplishment.”

Orange County Register

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George Toia sparks Summit football past Huntington Beach, into CIF semifinals

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