‘A very surreal moment’: Overtime pick-six gives Johansen SJS bowl game victory
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Johansen senior Chauncy Conley returned a 90-yard overtime pick-six to win 27-21.
- Johansen defense forced three interceptions and set up short-field scoring drives.
- Expanded 2025 Sac-Joaquin Section bowl format matched teams across divisions.
Chauncy Conley could not help but feel emotional as he sprinted down the visitors sideline at Johansen High’s Dan Gonsalves Stadium. This was the last time he would touch the ball as a high school football player, and there the senior was, making the game-winning play.
A 90-yard pick-six won Johansen the 2025 Sac-Joaquin Section bowl game Friday night against Gregori, and it was Conley making the play most kids dream of.
It was a textbook defensive stop in overtime of a postseason contest tied at 21 .
Johansen’s defensive line forced Gregori quarterback JJ Brawley to scramble backward, then forward. Brawley stepped up toward the line of scrimmage, but linebacker Ben Udoffia was there to meet him. As Udoffia dragged the Jaguars quarterback to the ground, Brawley threw the ball to a receiver he thought would be breaking out toward the boundary. Only the receiver did not break and the only person there to catch the ball was in Johansen’s black home jersey: Conley.
The senior caught the ball at the 10-yard line and tiptoed the sideline before picking up speed. Before he knew it, there was nothing but green turf in front of him, opponents behind him and a host of home fans screaming in anticipation hoping Conley was fast enough to make it to the opposite end zone.
He felt like he was running for his life. He didn’t believe it. “I’m just trying not to get caught,” he said, thinking back on the moment. “I didn’t think I was that fast. I was trying not to get caught, ran my hardest and made it there.”
The Johansen coaches and players on the other side of the field did all they could to see if he stayed in bounds.
“It was so tight, we couldn’t see it over there,” Vikings coach Rod Smith Sr. said. “But then he started running and I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ We were running down the field like, ‘He’s going all the way.’ It was a very surreal moment watching the kids run down to the end zone knowing they had won the game. It was big for a school like Johansen.”
Not long after, Conley was at the bottom of a dogpile. Johansen, a Division III school out of the Western Athletic Conference, beat Gregori, a D-I school from the Central California Athletic League, 27-21.
Conley’s game-winning play was one of three interceptions the opportunistic Johansen defense forced. Jeydan Saing came away with one in the end zone, and Gabriel Ibanez intercepted a pass and returned it 50 yards to set up a short-field scoring drive.
The win was Johansen’s eighth this season, the most of any Vikings team since 2008.
“We’re going to hang this in the gym,” Smith said as he held up the tan and blue banner given to bowl game winners in his left hand and the game ball under his right arm.
The Vikings pulled out another close game
The game went back and forth all night.
It was 0-0 after the first quarter and Johansen took a 14-6 lead into the half. Gregori scored in the third to tie the game at 14, and each team added a fourth-quarter touchdown to go into the extra period tied at 21.
Johansen is used to playing in games like this, though. The Vikings’ season opener was a two-point game at halftime before Modesto High pulled away to claim the win. Their second league game against Ceres was a five-point victory, their game against eventual league champion Lathrop came down to one last possession but ended in a seven-point loss, and the regular season finale against Davis was just a one-score game until Johansen pulled away in the second half.
“We came out with a rough start … but we wanted to build on it,” said quarterback Anthony Torres, who completed 10 of 18 passes for 94 yards and had two interceptions. “So as games went by, we learned to thrive. Like my coach says, play one possession at a time. With Lathrop, it made us want to be great, and that’s what put us in this position to go out here and win today.”
Ezekiel Rodriguez rushed for 79 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Inbanez scored twice, rushed for 52 yards on six carries and caught four passes for 35 yards. Saing caught six passes for 60 yards.
After a first quarter that included a turnover on downs and three straight punts by both teams, Gregori found the end zone first when quarterback JJ Brawley completed a pass to Noah Wegner for a 23-yard touchdown to take a 6-0 lead. Johansen responded with 14 straight points on touchdowns by Ibanez (two yards) and Rodriguez (five yards) to take the halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Gregori came away with its second interception of the game and, one play later, converted it into points on a 17-yard Brawley-Wegner connection. A successful two-point conversion tied it at 14 with one minute, 40 seconds left in the frame.
Brawley’s third touchdown pass of the game was to Francisco Huerta near the back of the end zone for 25 yards to take a 21-14 lead. The senior went 18-for-34 for 339 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Johansen’s final two touchdowns sealed the comeback victory. An Ibanez five-yard run tied the game with 1:47 left, and Conley’s interception ended it.
“It’s thrilling, it’s fun. It’s like something you dream of,” Torres said. “Especially (when it is) down to the wire. There’s nothing that can prepare you for that. … It’s a great feeling, man. Win or lose.”
Both schools made history
Win or lose, both teams made history Friday night.
The Sac-Joaquin Section introduced bowl games this year along with a completely new high school football playoff format. The section moved to eight-team postseason brackets in which the best in each division play for the chance to advance in the playoffs, win a blue banner and qualify for CIF Northern California regional play and state championship contention. The best of the rest included an expanded playoff pool, going from 12 to 16 teams. Teams in each division ranked ninth to 16th were put in a pool and awarded bowl games, an opportunity for more teams to end their season with a win.
Bowl games were not necessarily determined by division. The section’s seeding committee matched teams based on team skill level and location. That is how Johansen, No. 12 in Division III, ended up hosting the Jaguars, the No. 15 team in Division I.
Friday night was the first time the two sides met since 2017. “In-town rivalries are good for the city,” Gregori coach Lamar Wallace noted. Smith agreed.
Johansen was a bubble team in The Bee’s rankings for more than half of the 2025 campaign, and Gregori continued to improve throughout the season. Both teams entered the bowl game riding three-game win streaks.
Smith said at the Monday afternoon Modesto Quarterback Club meeting that when the seedings were announced Nov. 2, there were mixed feelings in the Johansen locker room. Under the old format, the Vikings would have been a playoff team chasing a blue banner.
But they also knew the statistics: Historically, lower-seed teams have struggled to get out of the first round. In 2023, the nine through 12 seeds went 5-20 in the first round and 0-5 in the quarterfinals. In 2024, they went 3-25 in the first round and 0-3 in the quarterfinals.
But when Friday came, all extra stats went out the window and for one last time this season, they each had Friday night lights.
“I’m a senior so it’s my last game ever, so it’s really emotional,” Conley said. “I’m just glad I got the touchdown.”
