By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
STOCKTON, Calif. - While Bellarmine coach Mike Janda hesitated to say it, his Bells established themselves as one of the teams to beat in the Central Coast Section this year with a 35-6 win over St. Mary’s on Thursday.
“This is just a nonleague game to help us prepare for our league,” said Janda, whose team is 2-0 on the season. “We got off to a good start and (St. Mary’s) didn’t. Sometimes that’s how games go. That’s a very good team, things just didn’t go their way tonight.”
Nearly everything went Bellarmine Prep’s way as the Bells used a grind-it-out offense and an opportunistic defense to dump St. Mary’s, which had opened its season last week with a 52-0 win over Jesuit.
The quickness of the Bellarmine defensive backfield, led by senior defensive back Usua Amanam, continually thwarted the potent Ram passing attack, led by quarterback Cody Vaz. Although Vaz was able to complete the shorter slant patterns and out routes to the sideline, deeper passes were cut off by Amanam, who had two interceptions on the night. Linebacker Willie Clay also had an interception of Vaz, who was 16 of 31 for 157 yards before leaving the game in the fourth quarter after a hard hit on his third interception.
The Bells’ surprisingly comfortable win came against a team that advanced to the Sac Joaquin Section Division 1 championship game last year. Bellarmine, which finished 10-2 last season with a West Catholic Athletic League championship, establishes itself as one of the top teams in the Central Coast Section along with Serra of San Mateo and Oak Grove.
“You have to give all the credit to the coaches for this win,” said Amanam, who rushed for 105 yards on 16 carries. “They really had us prepared this week. I’ve been on the varsity for three years and this week’s practices were the best we’ve had in those three years.”
Amanam and the Bells got into the end zone on their first drive after forcing a St. Mary’s punt. Pounding at the St. Mary’s defense with a double-wing rushing attack, Bellarmine drove 55 yards in 10 plays with Kyle Olugbode scoring from the 4-yard line. Ryan Parrette added the first of his five kicks on the night for a 7-0 lead.
St. Mary’s followed with its best offensive drive of the night as Vaz, who threw for 3,304 yards and 32 touchdowns last year, calmly and quickly moved the Rams down the field. Vaz hit Josh Harper for gains of 6, 14 and 6 yards and also connected with 6-3 sophomore Alex Michaels on passes of 20 and 12 yards.
However a penalty and three incomplete passes stalled the drive and Bellarmine took over. The two teams traded punts and the Bells were off on another long, time-consuming drive.
This time, starting from their own 17, the Bells erased much of the second quarter off of the clock with a 12-play march. Amanam sprinted over from 13 yards out for a 14-0 lead with 4:34 remaining in the half.
The Bells weren’t through, however. On the first play after the kickoff, Clay intercepted Vaz at the St. Mary’s 42 and returned the pick 17 yards to the 25. Six plays later, quarterback Austyn Carter-Samuels bulled into the end zone on a sneak from the 1 with 1:03 left in the half.
Trailing 21-0 at the break, St. Mary’s came out throwing in the second half, and Amanam and the Bells were ready. After the Rams moved to the Bellarmine 24, Amanam picked off a pass to end the threat.
Neither team was able to do much the rest of the quarter until Bellarmine gained control at its own 25. The Bells went on a 75-yard drive that included two of the more incredible plays of the game.
Amanam had the first eye-opener. Moving past the line of scrimmage to his left, Amanam ran into a wall of St. Mary’s defenders. In a flash, Amanam did a reverse pivot and sprinted into open territory to his right for a 30-yard gain.
Clay added the next impressive effort. In between receiving leg cramp treatments on the sideline, Clay carried straight up the middle from the 25 and broke three tackles on his way to the end zone.
Bellarmine added one more touchdown on a play that didn’t look like it would gain more than a few yards. With Olugbode in motion to the right, Samuels faked a handoff to Amanam and kept the ball for a bootleg to the right. The fake worked so well that Samuels had clear sailing down the sideline for a 76-yard touchdown run with 50.1 seconds left in the third quarter.
St. Mary’s scored its only touchdown late in the game when Ray Guyton scored on a 1-yard run. Marcus McDade, filling in for Vaz, set up the score with a 31-yard pass to Harper.
Bellarmine racked up 336 yards rushing including 84 yards on six carries by Samuels. Bellarmine had 372 yards of total offense. St. Mary’s had 243 yards of offense with 190 coming through the air. The Rams rushed 23 times for 53 yards, including 49 yards on 12 carries by Guyton.
St. Mary’s takes to the road against Los Banos next week while the Bells play at Piedmont Hills.
