Bay Area Weekend Blitz: De La Salle beats Servite; Serra tops Bellarmine

There's something about a bus trip to Southern California that gets the De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) football team off on the right foot.

John Velasco took a handoff on the first play of the game for 66 yards and the nation's No. 16 team were on their way to a 35-10 victory over Servite-Anaheim, the state's No. 14 team, according to MaxPreps.com, at the Santa Ana Bowl on Saturday night.

Velasco scored a couple plays later on a 4-yard run, and after Servite fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, added a 2-yard run two minutes later. By the end of the first half the Spartans (6-0) had a quite familiar 28-0 lead and en route to another easy Southern California victory, their 32nd straight overall.

The 5-foot-7, 195-pound Velasco finished with 145 yards rushing and he punctuated the win with his third TD, a 12-yard run with 5:54 remaining.

The Spartans have won four straight State Bowl Open games in Carson (Los Angeles County), the last three by lopsided margins after fast starts.

Servite (3-2), a fast and athletic squad, had its chances and moved the ball effectively between the 20s, but got just no points out of its first four red zone chances, including reaching the De La Salle 3 and 7 on two first-half possessions.

A fourth-down sack from Larry Ross and Sumner Houston thwarted one drive, two penalties and a missed field goal stopped another and an interception by Dasmond Tautalatasi ended the third.

De La Salle finished off all five of its red-zone chances with rushing touchdowns. .

The wasted chances probably didn't matter, because De La Salle's rushing attack, which piled up 933 yards the previous two weeks, was unstoppable again in the first half.

Quarterback Chris Williams capped off a 12-play, 89-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run, making it 21-0 with 8:07 left in the half. Williams set up the TD with a 46-yard run.

Washington State-bound Kevin Griffin blocked Servite's ensuing punt, setting up a 25-yard touchdown drive that was capped with an 8-yard touchdown by Antoine Custer, making it 28-0 with 6:12 left in the third.

Servite (3-2) scored its only touchdown in the final three minutes on a 29-yard pass from Travis Waller to Tony Brown.

#4 Serra (San Mateo) 17, #3 Bellarmine (San Jose) 7

Kava Cassidy rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown, Anthony Smock passed for 170 more and a score and Serra's defense did the rest in a 17-7 West Catholic Athletic League opening night victory over two-time defending champion Bellarmine on Friday at San Jose City College.

The Padres (3-1) gave up just 197 yards, sacked Vanderbilt-bound quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels five times and intercepted his passes twice, both by sophomore Kelepi Lataimua, to break a seven-game losing streak to the Bells while ending Bellarmine's 14-game WCAL win streak.

Lataimua made both interceptions in the final six minutes, including the final play of the game, punctuating a convincing but frustrating night for Serra, which scored just three points on three red-zone possessions in the second half.

Indeed, this one should have been a more lopsided score, but Serra will take it after losing to Bellarmine twice last year on the final plays of the game.

The Padres, who piled up 346 yards, also got a big game from talented 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior Hamilton Anoa'i, who rushed for 80 second-half yards on eight carries out of the wildcat formation and hauled in a 25-yard touchdown pass from Smock in the first half.

A 59-yard bomb from Smock to Lataimua set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Cassidy with 2:14 left in the first to give Serra a 7-0 lead.

Bellarmine (3-1) began to utilize its power offense in the second quarter before Carta-Samuels (10 of 24, 98 yards) completed a 25-yard pass to tight end Jacob Bergstrom, setting up a 1-yard TD sneak from Carta-Samuels to tie the game at 7 with 6:07 left in the half.

Serra came right back and once again Smock delivered, this time a 25-yard touchdown pass to Anoa'i down the left sideline to put the Padres up 14-7 with 4:24 to go in the half.

The Padres had a chance to open a three-score lead in the third, but an interception and penalty thwarted two red-zone possessions. Serra had to settle for a Steven Bodley 25-yard field goal to go up 17-7 heading into the fourth quarter.

#5 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 51, Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) 7

Dakari Monroe caught a 79-yard touchdown pass from Trent Scharrenberg to start the game and added a 45-yard TD run as Mitty (4-0) won easily at Foothill College. ... Scharrenberg added TD passes of 22, 31 and 25 yards to Tommy Hudson, Daniel Rice and Erik Sargis, respectively. ... Zack Masoli connected on a fourth-quarter, 29-yard touchdown pass to Robert Valencia for Riordan (2-2).

#10 St. Francis (Mountain View) 14, St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 6

Two big second-half plays - a 54-yard pass from Ryan Johnson to Alex Andrighetto and a 59-yard touchdown run by Landon Baty - were all St. Francis (4-0) needed in a WCAL opener. ... After a 27-yard field goal by Andrew Ferrero gave St. Ignatius a 3-0 lead, Johnson and Andrighetto hooked up in the third quarter to give St. Francis the lead for good. St. Francis outgained St. Ignatius 253-199.

#14 Valley Christian (San Jose) 21, SH Cathedral (San Francisco) 0

Mark Quinby rushed for two touchdowns and Kirk Johnson opened the scoring with a 28-yard touchdown run as the host Warriors (3-1) won the West Catholic Athletic League opener. ... Quinby scored on a short run just before halftime to go up 14-0. He put the game away with a 10-yard TD run with 4:56 left in the game.

Other games: Keller Chryst (10 of 11, 274 yards) threw for four first-half touchdown passes - three to Keesean Johnson - as No. 24 Palo Alto (2-2) defeated host Fremont-Sunnyvale 41-14. Connor Scheel added a 47-yard interception return for a TD. Fremont fell to 0-4. ... Logan Francavillad scored on a 5-yard run in overtime to give visiting Montgomery (Santa Rosa) (4-1) a 31-25 overtime win over No. 20 Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (3-2). ... Nick Fadelli scored on a 70-yard run to finish off No. 12 and host Campolindo's 38-10 win over Miramonte-Orinda (4-2). Campolindo improved to 6-0. ... In East Bay Athletic League play, visiting No. 9 California (San Ramon) (5-1) defeated No. 19 Amador Valley-Pleasanton 29-7. ... Sixth-ranked Foothill (Pleasanton) (6-0) defeated Monte Vista-Danville 38-3 capped by a 60-yard TD run by Jamirr Holland. ... Nsimba Webster threw for 250 yards and one score and ran for two more, and Malik Hutchings, the younger brother of USC linebacker Michael Hutchings, had 17 tackles and two fumble recoveries as No. 7 Deer Valley (Antioch) (5-0) never trailed in a 45-34 victory over host Vacaville. ... Dilon Easterling scored on TD runs of 62, 46, 61 and 9 yards, leading Lowell (San Francisco) (2-2) to a 47-6 win over Washington (1-4) in both teams' AAA opener at Kezar Stadium. … Oregon-bound Morgan Mahalak completed 11 of 17 passes for 196 yards and three scores, leading No. 2 Marin Catholic (Kentfield) (6-0, 2-0 MCAL) to a 53-0 win over host Redwood-Larkspur (2-4, 1-2). ... Kyle Nelson threw for four touchdowns and ran for another and Ronzel Fox ran for two scores as Galileo (San Francisco) (5-1) rolled to a 55-8 AAA win over Mission at Lowell.