SANTA CLARITA — Caysen Badawi fielded the opening kickoff and looked for a way to make his mark.

He started on the left side of the field, found a hole, and cut further to his left before racing 96 yards for Valencia football’s first score of the game.

That was the first of nine total touchdowns for Valencia (5-2, 3-0 Foothill League) on the night, and Badawi helped to set the tone in the Vikings’ 62-28 victory over Saugus (4-3, 1-2) on Friday.

The senior San Diego State commit showed his versatility as he scored three total touchdowns – one on the kickoff return, one as a receiver, and another when he lined up as a running back and scored from three yards out to extend Valencia’s lead to 48-14 midway through the second quarter.

“I have to call myself a Swiss Army knife. I can do everything, you know?” Badawi said.

“Put me in at running back, I’m gonna hit that gap. Put me at receiver, I’m gonna go blur somebody. Put me at anything, put me at kick return, I’m gonna go return it,” he added.

Badawi made his presence felt against a strong Saugus team that came into the game sitting at 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Foothill League.

The Centurions boast a strong defense that has helped them to that solid start, but Valencia turned a game that was projected to be close into a rout and they led 20-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Junior defensive lineman recovered his first of two fumbles on the night on Saugus’ first possession, and that led to a 33-yard touchdown by running back Nico Funez to extend the lead to 13-0. Sophomore quarterback Evan McCalister followed that up with a 58-yard strike to Anthony Vernon for another score, and the trio of touchdowns by the seven-minute mark in the first quarter put the game out of reach early.

Valencia has been a talented team all season and should be one of the contenders for the Foothill League title, but they have started games slow at times this season before Friday.

“The way we come out is definitely the way we set the tone,” said Badawi.

“And I feel like the first play when I returned the kick I had to set my tone, set the tone for all my boys, set the tone for them (Saugus), let ‘em know that they’re not gonna beat us, nothing, none of that,” he said.

Valencia coach Larry Muir praised Badawi after the win.

“Well, he’s a special athlete. That’s the thing,” Muir said.

“He can do so many things on offense, he can do so many things on defense and special teams, so a guy like that, man, you can do… it’s almost limitless the things you can do with him, the things you can put him in,” he continued before mentioning that they had even more plans with him.

“We were gonna do some other things with him too and we never got to it but he’s a weapon in so many different areas and he can come up with a big play at any point and so you have to be cognizant of that and obviously that’s a great thing to have, and there’s some other guys on offense that kind of fit that bill as well.”

Valencia now heads into their bye week, but they will have a game with another league contender in Hart to end their season, and Badawi said that their big win was a statement to the rest of the teams in the Foothill League.

“Yeah, I would say so,” he said. “They like to push Valencia to the side a lot. They like to keep it between Saugus and Hart and they don’t like to mention us, so I would say watch out for Valencia, you know, like we’re there.”