By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
SAN JOSE - It had been a long time since Bellarmine's football team had captured even a share of the West Catholic Athletic League championship.
But the Bells' long wait finally came to an end Friday with a 24-19 victory over St. Ignatius that gave Bellarmine the title for the first time since 1997 when it shared the crown with St. Francis.
Bellarmine last won the title outright in 1995 and has now either won outright or shared the title 15 times in the league's 41-season history.
Usua Amanam led the Bells (9-0 overall, 5-0 WCAL) with 193 yards and a pair of touchdowns, runs of 42 and 28 yards in the third quarter, to break open a close game. Amanam's runs would help the Bells build up a big lead that they would need to hold on for the win as St. Ignatius (4-5-1, 0-5-1) rallied late.
Andy Dill's 65-yard return of a fumble recovery for a touchdown in the fourth quarter trimmed the Bells' lead to 24-19 with fiveminutes left, but that was as close as St. Ignatius would get as the Bells were able to run out the clock.
Gilroy Stakes its Claim
Coming off last week's huge win over Palma, Gilroy High was looking to avoid a letdown against North Salinas and clinch no worse than a share of the Tri-County Athletic League.
After falling behind 14-0 in the first half, it looked like an entire season's worth of work was going to go down the drain for Gilroy.
But a late touchdown to cut the lead in half before halftime set the stage for a 35-point scoring run that propelled Gilroy to a 35-14 victory, no worse than a co-championship in the TCAL and a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
North Salinas kept Gilroy's high-octane offense in check formost of the opening half. Gilroy had come into the game with over 2,000 passing yards and a 33-point per game scoring average.
But Gilroy's offense managed only three interceptions and three failed fourth down attempts in its opening six possessions against theVikings.
Gilroy's Jaime Jensen connected with Sean Hale for a 20-yard score just before the half and the floodgates seemed to open after that play.
On its first play of the second half, Jensen found DannyContreras for a 44-yard scoring pass to tie the game and all five of Gilroy'stouchdowns came beyond 20 yards out.
Menlo-Atherton Clinches Share
Menlo-Atherton clinched no worse than a share of the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division crown with a 37-10 victory over South San Francisco, giving the Bears (8-1, 6-0) a chance to claim their first PAL Bay title since 1992.
Jamal Wilkins led the way with 56 yards on 10 carries and two scores while Will Latu rushed for another touchdown, as did fullback Bobby Bustos. Troy McCabe was 8-of-15 passing for 203 yards and one long touchdown pass to Sam Knapp.
Menlo-Atherton can win the title outright with a victory over Woodside while a loss to the Wildcats would end the season with the Bears tied for first place with Aragon (7-2, 6-1).
