MaxPreps Student Section: Las Lomas sluggish in opener

Despite the loss of their two top pass-catchers from last season, confidence was running high for the Las Lomas Knights coming into this year.

That enthusiasm was severely dampened on Friday night.

In front of a large crowd at DeKlotz Stadium, the Knights were humbled by the visiting Archbishop Mitty Monarchs, losing 41-7 in the opener for both teams.

The Knights (0-1) started out sluggish and never recovered.  Monarch running back Rocky Meszaros scored on a 40 yard touchdown with 5:59 remaining in the first quarter to open the scoring.  By halftime, the Knights defense had been gashed for 199 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

“We weren’t getting off of the ball fast enough when they ran,” said junior defensive end Sam Lubman.  “We didn’t get any push up front.”

Archbishop Mitty junior quarterback Kyle Boehm performed well on Friday, throwing for 82 yards on 7-10 passing, including a 21 yard touchdown strike to senior tight end Sam Tomlitz on a fourth down early in the fourth quarter.  Boehm also led the Monarchs (1-0) in the running game, going for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Offensively, the Knights weren’t much better than the defense performed.  Senior quarterback Lucas Gorton was just 7-25 for 46 yards and an interception.  One bright spot was junior running back Marquis Waters, who was impressive running for 105 yards on 17 carries, including a two yard touchdown with just under six minutes remaining to prevent a shutout.

“People weren’t playing at full speed,” said Gorton.  “We had taken it easy in practice for two weeks and it showed.”

Although the season opener didn’t go as planned for Las Lomas, optimism is still up around the program for this season.

“It was a big wake-up call,” said Gorton.  “This is motivation for us.  It was humiliating.  We don’t want to be beat like that ever again.”

Next Saturday, the Knights will try to get on the right track when they travel to Marin to face Marin Catholic.