By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
LIVERMORE, Calif. - While the De La Salle Spartans may not have been able to tame the Don Bosco Prep Ironmen of New Jersey last week, they showed they are still the kings of NorCal in a 56-10 win over Granada on Friday.
The Spartans turned a 21-10 halftime lead into a 46-point rout with five second-half touchdowns. Sloppy play in the first half prevented the Spartans from building a bigger early lead
“We had three fumbles in the first half and we gave them all up,” De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur said. “I felt we should have been farther ahead than we were.”
The Spartans raised their record to 3-1 on the season and continued a tremendous undefeated streak against Northern California schools that has been alive since 1991. De La Salle had fallen to 10th in the MaxPreps California state rankings following the loss to Don Bosco Prep.
The victory was the first blowout win of the season for the Spartans, who had narrow wins over Serra of San Mateo and Loyola of Los Angeles before falling to Don Bosco Prep last week.
The Matadors, who entered the game with a better record than the Spartans after winning their first three games of the season, were able to control the ball much of the first half. Granada also stopped several Spartan drives by recovering two fumbles by De La Salle quarterback Blake Wayne and one by Kylan Butler.
However there were early signs that the game had blowout potential. On their first series, the Spartans needed just four plays to score. After Wayne carried for 33 yards on third down, Butler raced 48 yards around right end for the score.
After a long Granada drive ended with a fumble at the 19, the Spartans needed just one play to get into the end zone. This time Wayne simply held onto the ball and went straight up the middle for an 81-yard touchdown run.
Granada was able to close the gap to 14-7 with a five-play, 80-yard drive capped by Daniel Van Galder’s 5-yard pass to Nico Victoria in the corner of the end zone.
A fumble ended De La Salle’s next series, but the Spartan defense held and forced a Granada punt from the 11. The low kick went to Sean McGary at the 22 and he returned it to the 15. From there, the Spartans scored in two plays with Theron Williams-Ward scoring from the 9.
Granada was able to add a 32-yard field goal by Victoria to make it 21-10 at the break.
From that point on, it was all De La Salle. The Spartans scored five touchdowns in the second half and needed just 16 plays to do it. Two drives were just one play long. Four of the touchdowns were 47 yards or longer.
All of the long runs allowed the Spartans to complete a rarity – four rushers over 100 yards. Wayne finished with 142 yards on just eight carries while Butler had 135 yards on 10 carries. Williams-Ward notched 119 yards on nine attempts. Tyler Anderson only played the second half and carried the ball just five times for 120 yards.
The Spartans had 539 yards rushing on 40 carries and had 583 yards of total offense. Granada finished with 174 yards rushing and 168 yards passing for 342 yards of offense. The two teams combined for 925 yards on the night.
Anderson got De La Salle’s touchdown spree started in the second half when he broke three tackles en route to a 47-yard touchdown.
Williams-Ward added a 68-yard scoring run with 8:34 left in the third period and Anderson added a 55-yard run with 5:49 to go. Both touchdown runs were the only plays in the drive.
Butler scored his second touchdown of the night with a 49-yard run late in the third period. Anderson pounded in from the 1 on the third play of the fourth quarter for the final score of the game.
The Spartans were able to shut down the Matadors for much of the second half, but Ladouceur said the Spartans weren’t doing anything fancy.
“We wanted to get back to basics this week so we ran the same defensive scheme the entire game to see how the guys would play off the blocks and get to the ball,” he said. “We didn’t change our scheme in the second half.”
The Spartans host Livermore next week in the East Bay Athletic League while Granada plays at Monte Vista of Danville.