RAMSEY, N.J. – Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) sent a very clear message Saturday night at Granatell Stadium and used De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) as the medium for that message.
The Ironmen, No. 16 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25, will surely move up in the rankings following their 30-6 dismantling of the 21st-ranked Spartans. The game was a lopsided affair from the outset as De La Salle fumbled on the first play from scrimmage and then watched as Don Bosco methodically went to work.
The host scored on its first four possessions, effectively ending any doubt as to the outcome midway through the second quarter. They now have a week off before heading to Alabama to play Prattville on Sept. 28 in a game that will have major national rankings implications.
Tony Jones, Don Bosco Prep
Photo by Daniel Coppola
“We’re going to look at that
Prattville game and see who wins,” said Don Bosco quarterback Gary Nova, who was making his first career start. “We’ll be coming in ready to play. They are the most athletic team in the country. This is the best feeling in the world, though. This is why I came to this school, to play big-time games.”
Prattville will certainly be tested by the Ironmen, who swamped the Spartans, limiting them to 52 total yards. Terron Ward fumbled the game’s first snap from scrimmage, Bosco recovered and kicked a field to take a 3-0 lead. It might as well have been a 30-0 lead because De La Salle was never able to climb out of the hole in which the miscue put them.
The Ironmen followed the field goal up with a trio of Tony Jones touchdowns, leaving the Spartans stunned on a drizzly, muggy evening in North Jersey.
“I think (De La Salle’s) morale was high when they came in here but when that fumble happens, it’s hard to recover,” Nova said. “That was exactly what we wanted to happen and exactly what they didn’t want to happen. It killed their morale.”
Well, that and the Bosco defense. The Ironmen harassed quarterback Scott Herting consistently, using their size and superior speed to keep the Spartan passing game in check. When De La Salle tried to run the ball, Bosco swarmed the line, preventing any big gainers. The whole experience seemed to leave De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur a bit shell shocked.
He is California’s all-time leader in wins and owns a career 345-23-3 record with six mythical national championships.
Saturday was the second worst loss of his 31-year career.
“They gave us a whole lot of problems,” Ladouceur said. “What can you say? They killed us. Our defense was okay. If our offense had anything, it would have been closer. Offensively, we were atrocious. It was the worst I’ve ever seen the offense at our school.
“I wish we had done better. We came all the way out here [to New Jersey]. I wish we could have done better.”
The loss was De La Salle’s worst since they dropped a 39-20 contest to Bellevue (Wash.) in the 2004 season-opener, a loss that ended its national 151-game winning streak. The only other loss worse in his career was 32-0 to Salesian (Richmond, Calif.) in his initial season of 1979.
The Spartans (1-1) managed only 21 first-half yards and failed to capitalize on a pair of 15-yard defensive penalties by the Ironmen before the break. Ward’s fumble was just the beginning. Senior linebacker Paul Sakowski intercepted a Herting pass on the Spartan’s second possession and that set up a six-play 31-yard drive that culminated with a two-yard scoring run by Jones.
“The (Ward fumble) took a bit of it out of them,” Jones said. “And we wanted to keep it going. Last year we were down against them and came back so we wanted to keep it going and not fall apart at the half.
“They are a very good team but I’m not surprised by the score. We practice hard and we’ve been in the weight room since January. We were ready. We wanted to come out and show the world that we are a good team. And we’re only going to get better.”
The Spartans did manage to cut the Bosco lead to nine on a 21-yard scoring pass from Herting to tight end Bo Walter – it was a nice dump off on which Herting picked up a blitz – but it proved to be the lone bright spot of the first half. A 41-yard field goal attempt in the second quarter was the only other time the Spartans came close to scoring in the half.
The Ironmen came out in the second half and, after getting stopped on their first possession, ended what little doubt was left with the first play of their second series. Nova, hit Jimmy Clark up the right sideline for a 54-yard scoring strike to make it a 29-6 game. The extra point simply punctuated the evening.
Don Bosco 30, De La Salle 6
De La Salle 6 0 0 0
Don Bosco 16 7 7 0
DB – Murray 23-yard field goal
DB – Jones 2 run [kick failed]
DB – Jones 5 run [Murray kick]
DLS – Walter 21 pass from Herting [run failed]
DB – Jones 1 run [Murray kick]
DB – Clark 54 pass from Nova [Murray kick]
STATISTICS
RUSHING: DB – Jones 20-98, Mike Yankovich 13-51, Burrell 1 [-5]. DLS – Ward 6-11, Anderson, 7-3; Houston, 2-4, Dunne 3-5, Hertig 13-[-10].
PASSING: DBP -- Nova 10-19-145, Yankovich 2-4-12; DLS – Herting 4-8-34.
RECEIVING: DBP -- Jones 3-30; Clark 5-80; Caroo 3-40; Cobb 1-7. DLS – Walter 1-21, Laird 1-11, Anderson 1-0, Ward 1-2
