California Shootout: Mater Dei 51, Centennial 37

By Mitch Stephens

MaxPreps.com

SANTA ANA, Calif. - It took 3 hours and 15 minutes to fit 48 minutes of dizzying end zone to end zone offensive fireworks on Thursday night.

There were 88 points scored, a state-record 1,298 yards piled up and a remarkable 58 first downs recorded.

The gray beard chain crew cramped up, busy stat keepers sought backup pens, and the frenzied 10,000 fans who jammed into the Santa Ana Bowl needed extra fluids.

Every resource was exhausted and that's not even considering the participants.

When it was finally over, everyone still clamored for more.

Mater Dei's 51-37 victory Centennial-Corona was a football fan's dream and remarkably surpassed the hype pitting national powers and the state's top two teams.

"The fans definitely got their money's worth," Mater Dei-Santa Ana coach Bruce Rollinson said. "That was some show."

Matt Barkley solidified his standing as the nation's top junior quarterback by completing 21 of 31 for 364 yards and two scores and unheralded running backs  Robert Mojica and Jaron Hytche combined for 258 yards rushing and five touchdowns to lead the Monarchs (4-0), ranked fifth nationally by MaxPreps.

It helped offset a remarkable two-man effort by Robo-running back Ryan Bass (44 rushes, 329 yards, four tochdowns) and Arizona-bound quarterback Matt Scott (176 yards rushing, 170 passing) for the second-ranked Huskies (4-1).

Asked if the longtime coach, who has won 160 games in 18 seasons including a pair of mythical national titles, had ever seen a team pile up 675 yards and lose, Rollinson said:

"I've been in some big old shootouts before. I didn't know they had 600 yards. If that's what they had, that's what they had. But I think there's 51 (points) up for us and we must have had a heck of a lot (of yards) also."

The Monarchs had 623 to be exact as the Barkley, a strong-armed 6-foot-4, 225-pound specimen, carved up the Centennial secondary with long, short and intermediate completions.

Nine of them for 185 yards went to Robbie Boyer including a 16-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

The passing contributed to the record-setting offensive display, which according to the Cal-Hi Sports Record book, broke the previous state mark of 1,281 yards set in 1999 when Manteca defeated Los Banos, 63-41 in a Sac-Joaquin Section shootout..

More remarkable numbers and facts from Thursday's game that wasn't even delayed by TV timeouts. 

• There were just three punts, one after the first quarter.  
• Each team had 29 first downs.  
• For a game with so much yardage, only three plays were longer than 60 yards. Most gains were intermediate: 22 between 10 and 19 yards, 11 between 20 and 29 yards and six between 30 and 39.
• With only three turnovers, most scoring drives were massive, 11 of 65 yards or longer. Mater Dei's were 67, 47, 79, 65, 59, 80, 29 and 80. Centennial's were even more remarkable: 88, 97, 83, 71, 97 and 80.

 "Nobody could stop anyone," Barkley said. "I finally got to play the entire game. That was a whole lot of fun."

Said Centennial coach Matt Logan: "It was an amazing game, but we just didn't play well enough to win. The ran the ball better than we expected and we didn't pressure the quarterback like we wanted."

And with time, Barkley was lethal. His receivers made all the catches - there wasn't a drop all night - one of the biggest was a 37-yard bomb down the right sideline to Boyer that set up the game-clinching TD, a 6-yard pass over the middle to tight end Chais Pinesett with 5:07 remaining.

Under perfect one-on-one coverage, Boyer was able to tip the ball up in the air and catch it while falling on his backside.

"As good as Barkley was, our receivers made all the catches," Rollinson said.

Said Barkley: "I've never been in a shootout like that. That was an amazing game and an amazing team we just beat."

Scott, a fleet 6-2, 205-pound dual threat, was awfully impressed with his counterpart. He'd seen Barkley in person at a quarterback's camp in the summer, but never in a game.

"He's the real deal," Scott said. "He's the next Payton Manning."

It helped to have backs like Mojica, a tenacious 5-10, 170-pound senior, who weaved his way to 134 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns, and Hytche, a 5-11, 200-pound junior and star on the rise, who added 124 yards and three scores in 20 carries.

"Our running game was on fire tonight," Barkley said. "With both things clicking there was no way they could stop us."

The Monarchs, who finished with 259 yards rushing on 37 carries, came in with only 424 yards on 71 carries in the first three games. Most thought that Rollinson would scrap the running game against the physical and fast Centennial defense and let Barkley air it out.

Turns out, he did both.

"I'm always fascinated with people who say we better run the ball more," Rollinson said. "Well we ran the football tonight. We're still going to ride the right arm of Matt Barkley. . We just figured we'd do whatever it took to win."

There was one controversial sequence that helped.

After a Bass 1-yard TD run gave Centennial its second and last lead, 30-29 with 3:51 left in the third quarter, Mater Dei fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Huskies recovered.

Flags then littered the field and it was ruled both teams had grabbed facemasks. The game was delayed five minutes as officials discussed if the penalties occurred before or after the fumble recovery.

Eventually, it was ruled before the recovery, Centennial had to re-kick and Mater Dei promptly traveled 80 yards in nine plays capped by a 1-yard TD run from Hytche to take a 37-30 lead it would never relinquish.

"That broke all our momentum," Scott said. "We thought we were going in for another score but instead they got it and drove it home."

When asked if it was the right call, Rollinson said: "How do you think going to answer that? That was the right call. Bottom line that's how the official saw it. If you say enough rosaries sometimes, you get one. Listen, (the way they called it) is the way I saw it. We were screaming that from the get go that it should be kicked over."

All parties agreed despite the call and all the attention paid to the skill players, the true stars were on the offense line.

For the fourth straight game, Barkley wasn't sacked, though for the first time this season he was hit hard and had to hurry a few throws. Mater Dei senior tackle Khaled Holmes (6-5, 305) led a very talented group.

"That's a heck of an offensive line that you got out front there," Rollinson said. "They pass blocked and then had us on the run. We were slamming it down their throats."

Oh, but the Huskies, ranked second in the country by MaxPreps (Mater Dei came in No. 5), did more than their share of slamming, with 505 rushing yards on 62 carries.

Most of those was done by the indomitable Bass, who once rushed 52 times in a game. At 5-10, 205, he's not the biggest back in the state but he might be the most durable.

He scored on runs of 2, 1, 12 and 65 yards, the latter three coming in the second half, which backed up Rollinson's pregame comment that "he gets stronger as the game goes on."

Said Barkley: "Man that guy (Bass) is really good. He's tough and he's a playmaker."

Said Bass: "We played well and we showed what we could do and it was a great game. But we still lost and that hurts."

Bass' only miscue, a fumble after a 10-yard run that was recovered by Mater Dei's Nick O'Neil late in the third quarter, led to the game's shortest scoring drive, a 29-yarder.

That was capped on Hytche's second 1-yard TD run on the second play of the fourth quarter, giving Mater Dei a 44-30 lead. A 15-yard run by Mojica set up the TD with gave Mater Dei its first two-touchdown cushion.

"I can't stop thinking about that (fumble)," Bass said.

It didn't take long for him to make amends as he scored on a 65-yard sprint around the right end, cutting the lead to 44-37 with 9:38 left.

Like both teams did all night, the Monarchs responded with an 80-yard TD drive, capped by Pinesett's only reception of the night that came on third down and after a nice play fake inside by Barkley. Besides the 37-yard pass to Boyer, Mojica had a big 23-yard run to key the drive.

"We (the running backs) got the call tonight and just let our offensive line carry us," Mojica said. "Those guys (Centennial) challenged us but we banded together like brothers and got the job done."

After Mater Dei held on downs, then punted, Centennial had one last chance, driving from its own 20 to the Monarchs 22 keyed by a 30-yard shovel pass to Bass.

But on first down a high spiral from Scott to the right corner of the end zone was intercepted by senior cornerback Andrew Abbott to finally seal it.

At last, a defensive gem proved pivotal.

"We had to finally make a play," Abbott said. "The ball went up and I just said to myself `that's my ball,' and I came down with it."

Rollinson was giddy afterward and even did a little dance. When he finally got his team to the locker room he drew a giant roar from his players with this succinct statement:

"Men, there's nothing like fighting your (tails) off and coming out on top."

All agreed, it was one heck of a fight.

E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com