San Ramon Valley quarterback Luke Baker told the Bay Area News Group early Saturday morning that a trip to an emergency room revealed that he suffered a broken fibula in his team’s championship game loss on Friday night to Pittsburg.
Baker, last season’s Bay Area News Group player of the year, said the injury happened on a play at the start of the fourth quarter.
The senior continued to play until the outcome was decided in the final two minutes. He then hobbled through a postgame award ceremony, a team picture and a media interview before going to the hospital.
A class act throughout high school, Baker did not break from character in a direct message to the Bay Area Area News Group a couple of hours after his team’s season-ending 37-21 loss in the North Coast Section Division I championship game at Dublin High.
He thanked the news organization for its coverage over the past two years before saying that he broke his fibula during the game and was in the ER.
Baker had a spectacular run under center for the Danville school, leading SRV to the NCS Division II championship as a junior, followed by a regional victory over Marin Catholic before a heartbreaking overtime loss to Granite Hills-El Cajon in a state championship game in Mission Viejo.
Bumped up to Division I in the NCS this season, SRV had a dominating 6-0 start that nearly became 7-0 when Baker guided the Wolves to a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback against De La Salle that ultimately sent the game to overtime.
De La Salle won 33-27.
But given that the Concord school hasn’t lost to an NCS opponent in 32 years and SRV won its nine other regular-season games, the Wolves were seeded second in the NCS Open/Division I bracket.
In the rematch against De La Salle for the Open title last week, SRV led 7-3 in the fourth quarter before the Spartans scored two touchdowns to win 17-7.
The outcome slid SRV into the Division I final on Friday against third-seeded Pittsburg, which improved to 13-0 and captured its third consecutive D-I title by beating the Wolves.
In a postgame interview with the Bay Area News Group, Baker said, “I am just so proud of everyone, the growth everyone has made throughout the year. Some guys who maybe didn’t play at the beginning of the year turned into some of our best players at the end.”
The Wolves lost star running back John Pau Mendoza to an anterior cruciate ligament injury on Sept. 22. Matthew Garibaldi became the team’s featured back in the second half of the season and had a strong start against Pittsburg on Friday. But he was injured before halftime and didn’t play in the second half.
In his final game for SRV, Baker threw for 245 yards and two first-half touchdowns.
“He is going to be a hard one to replace,” SRV coach Aaron Becker said.