It was possibly one of the most improbable finishes to a season in CIF-Southern Section history.

A team that won only one regular season game can now say they are the CIF Division 8 Champions, which is the first for the school.

St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to win going away over visiting Serrano, 38-19, Friday November 29.

In addition, the season continues as the Warriors (5-9) will now advance to the CIF State Southern California Regional Finals and will host St. Augustine (4-10) Saturday night (Dec. 7) at PMA.

What’s more amazing about this matchup, St. Augustine was winless during the regular season at 0-10 and also ran the table and won the San Diego Section DIII Championship. The winner will play for the State Championship on Saturday December 14 at Long Beach City College.

“This is very overwhelming and is a blessing,” said PMA fourth-year head coach Devah Thomas of the championship. “This is a dream come true for my family and for my grandmother (Rosie Bell), may she rest in peace. She always knew I wanted to be a coach.

“We are not the Buffalo Bills of high school football (4 Super Bowl losses). The Third time is a charm.

“The kids have overcome adversity and wanted it. You could see the way they practiced all week and the way they responded. I could tell on gameday these dudes were hungry, and they executed the game plan, and we were successful.”

Thomas is in his fourth year as head coach and has been in the program since its inception in 2017. He finally won as a head coach after losing twice in the CIF Finals in 2019 and 2021.

In 2019 the Warriors lost to South Torrance in a division 14 game and lost in 2021 to Aquinas in D7.

Thomas actually was part of a CIF champion as an assistant coach with Salesian in 2013.

CIF’s “competitive equity” is actually how the Warriors got into the playoffs for their entire schedule. St. Augustine had a tough nonleague schedule.

“Competitive equity got us prepared for these kinds of moments playing those bigger teams and bigger schools,” Thomas added.

“I couldn’t have done this without my two lead assistants, Shay Fields, Sr. and Russell Shaw,” Thomas said. “They are both my two lead assistant coaches and have the same power I have. I got both of them off of the couch. They were done coaching and just wanted to be fathers.”

PMA athletic director James Covell also knew of CIF’s “competitive equity” clause and realized how tough their schedule was going to be before the season.

“The schedule the boys played was very tough. I believe it was rated as one of the hardest in SoCal outside of the Trinity League. Our record isn’t a fair reflection of the makeup of the team. Could we have scheduled easier? Absolutely, but that isn’t what CIFs formula was telling us to do. They want to see teams play the best and compete. That is the exact same formula that St. Augustine (0-10 prior to the playoffs) used and we’re playing each other in the regional bowl game for a right to play for a State Championship.”

In the championship game against Serrano, PMA quarterback Jassi Williams threw for 444 yards (27 for 35) and four touchdowns.

During the season, the junior had 2,688 passing yards, 19 TDs and 14 interceptions. He also ran for 754 yards (109 carries) and eight touchdowns.

“I just feel like (championship) was big for everybody, even though we are a small program, we still have the opportunity to win a championship,” Williams said. “I knew that we had a big chance of going to the playoffs with the schedule that we had.

“I just feel like that going into the playoffs, we became more of a team when we had a second chance to be able to do something great for our program and get better each week and win a championship.”

Williams knew how big the 21-14 semifinal win over coach Thomas’ former school (Salesian) was for the program.

“That was a pretty big game for all of us,” explained Williams. “The lights weren’t too big for none of us. We all came out together and just felt like we had to win this game for coach “D”. A lot of these moments you have to cherish for life, and this is another moment we get to do as brothers for the rest of our lives.”

Junior wide receiver Kenny Peevy led the receivers and had two touchdown receptions for 70 and 39 yards.

“Williams has a lot of targets,” said Thomas of Williams’ wide receiver weapons. “He had Peevy of course, Jaylen Stokes, Demari Nunley, Trayce Mallard, Andre Melgar, Gregory Taylor. He’s got guys.”

All six of Williams’ wide receivers are juniors and Taylor led with seven receptions.

“Jassi has weapons and also his feet are a blessing, and he can run.”

The Warriors took an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter after a turnover on downs by Serrano with a 70-yard TD pass from Williams to Peevy.

“Coach “D” told me that I owed him because I had slipped up and I came out there and capitalized on it because it was a big game,” said Peevy, who transferred in from Inglewood. “My mindset was to just score.”

The second quarter had plenty of action with 29 points total combined for both teams.

After a 35-yard field goal by PMA senior kicker Luis Cano that put the Warriors up, 10-0, Serrano came back after its second play on the ensuing possession with a 70-yard TD pass of its own, to trail, 10-6.

Junior kicker Eduardo Cendejas got the Diamondbacks to within a point, 10-9, on a 35-yard field goal, but the Warriors answered with Williams’ second TD pass of the game.

Mallard caught a 25-yard fade pass to the corner of the endzone to lead, 17-9.

With just under a minute to play, Serrano answered with a second field goal to trial, 17-12.

However, the Warriors answered again and after three crucial catches by Melgar, with the third reception putting the ball on the 2-yard line, Williams easily scored on the TD run to extend the lead, 24-12, with no time left on the clock at the half.

“That (touchdown) was a back breaker,” said Thomaas of the late score to double up on the Diamondbacks.

The only score of the third quarter came from Serrano, which closed the gap to only five points, 24-19.

The Diamondbacks received good field position midway through the third quarter to set up the TD when they recovered a fumble on the PMA 37-yard line. The touchdown run came from junior quarterback Issah Romo.

Romo ran the ball in from one yard out.

The PMA defense stepped up when it was needed in the fourth quarter.

“Our defensive line as a whole has been a great unit,” said Thomas, of his defense. “(Malik Brooks) is an “it” factor, but the unsung heroes are (junior) Desmond Tillmon, (senior) Lorenzo Munoz and also (junior) Marcus Ball.

“Even our leading tackler is a sophomore. Geremya Hood has over 100 tackles.”

Led by Brooks, who stands 6-4, 305 Lbs., the defense took over when it mattered and shut out Serrano.

“Shutting them out was the game plan and there was always mental errors, but we had to do what we had to do,” Brooks said. “We had to put pressure on the quarterback, and we had to step up.

“We had eight sacks that game.”

Brooks had two of those sacks, followed by Tillman, Munoz and Bell combined for the remaining six.

Two PMA touchdowns in the final quarter put the icing on the proverbial cake for the Warriors in the quarter.

The first score by Peevy was a 39-yard pass from Williams to put the Warriors up by 12 points, 31-19.

After a Serrano punt gave the Warriors field position at midfield, Stokes caught Williams fourth TD pass (21 yards) with 3:33 left to lead, 38-19.

The defense finished the job as sophomore linebacker Elijah Hamilton intercepted a Serrano pass at the 34-yard line with a couple of minutes remaining to seal the victory.