De La Salle rolls to third straight California Bowl Open Division crown

CARSON, Calif. - It didn't rain nearly as bad as last year's California Bowl Championship Open Division game.

But it sure did pour.

De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) won its third consecutive Open Division title at the Home Depot Center Saturday night, which wasn't a huge surprise.

The fact they all-but repeated last year's dominating performance was, as the Spartans throttled the nation's No. 6 team Westlake (Westlake Village, Calif.) 35-0 in front of 9,645 fans.

Once again, they were all put to sleep by midway in the third quarter. By that time the Spartans (13-1) were leading 35-0 and the fourth quarter started with a running clock. This in a supposed national showdown game.

Television sponsors must deplore that De La Salle gets picked for these games. It was the sixth-straight year the Spartans have made the Bowl Championships - no other school has played more than twice

This was their fourth victory and some didn't think it was possible following a 30-6 loss at St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in the third week of September.

But behind one of the program's best defenses and the reemergence of Wisconsin-bound quarterback Bart Houston, the Spartans rallied to win 11 straight by a combined score of 493-57. Houston was superb in his high school finale, rushing for two touchdowns and passing for 180 yards and another. He led the Spartans, ranked 19th nationally by MaxPreps, to all three Open division titles and finished 39-1 as a starter.

"To steamroll a nationally ranked team 35-0 in your final high school game - after we lost 30-6 earlier in the season (to St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) - we've come a long, long way," Houston said. "I'm so proud of our guys."

De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur said he wasn't particularly stressed when Houston struggled earlier in the season.

"He's a grinder and he didn't get down on himself," Ladouceur said. "He worked himself through it. He's a great quarterback and he showed it again tonight. He had a great career. I'm proud of him."

Joseph Te'O rushed for 98 yards and Tiapepe Vitale added 89 yards and two scores as De La Salle piled up 449 yards total to 243 for Westlake.

The De La Salle defense, led by Cal-bound linebacker Michael Barton, shut down an explosive offense that averaged 47.6 points per game. Barton led the Spartans with nine tackles, Chris Olinger had two sacks, and Anthony Williams and David Moffitt added interceptions.

De La Salle recorded its fifth shutout of a season in which it gave up just 110 points, fewer than eight per game.

"Our goal was to give up zero tonight, and we got it," Barton said. "We know how explosive they are, but we're pretty relentless. What a great way to end a high school career."

Asked if this was the best defense in De La Salle history, Ladouceur said: "This is as good a defense and the top ones we've had - and we've had some good ones. It ranks right with the great ones. They've just shut down people the second half. They've been great."

A week ago, Westlake had never even practiced against the veer. Never even watched much film on it.

It showed right away.

De La Salle marched right downfield on its first two possession to score with absolute ease and the murmur around the Home Depot Center was: "Uh-oh, here we go again."

This very much looked like a repeat of last year's 48-8 demolition of another Top-10 Southern California power, Servite, in the Open Division game.

The Spartans took just four plays to go 58 yards, capped by a 36-yard run up the middle by Vitale, who broke right up the middle and wasn't touched. After a Westlake 3-and-out, they went 75 yards in just six plays, finished off with a 2-yard TD sneak by Houston, who set up the touchdown with a 58-yard completion to Joshua Jenkins.

The two drives took 3 minutes, 15 seconds and Westlake already looked befuddled, bewildered and beaten, down 14-0.

Westlake coach Jim Benkert said it was the first time in his 23-year coaching career he's faced the veer. And of course, this is no run-of-the-mill veer.

"They just get off the ball so well," Benkert said. "It's a combination of their personnel, coaching and scheme. It led to a very good victory for them."

Westlake moved the ball effectively the rest of the half, rattling off 14 first downs and 211 yards. But Westlake's impressive 6-foot, 175-pound junior quarterback Justin Moore fired a pair of interceptions at the goal line, one on a spectacular diving grab by Anthony Williams.

"That was an unbelievable interception, beautiful," Ladouceur. "I told our guys before the game we'd have to make plays like that to win a game like this. And we made a lot of them."

The other interception was a pass right before the end of the half right into the hands of junior linebacker David Moffitt.

"We moved the ball early, but just didn't do the job in the red zone," Benkert said. "The kids tried their best, but we made too many mistakes. The turnovers in the red zone were critical. We shot ourselves in the foot."

By that time, De La Salle had taken a 21-0 lead on a beautiful 27-yard cross-pattern from Houston to junior tight end-linebacker Michael Hutchings.

That touchdown came on 4th-and-12 and Houston waited for Hutchings' sprint across the field. He caught the ball at the 20 and sprinted untouched until tackled low, flipping into the end zone.

Hutchings, one of the top linebacker prospects in the country from the Class of 2013, said his number was called only after a procedure penalty moved the ball five yards back.

"We had another play called (on 4th-and-7)," Hutchings said. "It was really a great play-call from coach. When I got the ball and didn't see anyone in front of me I had a big smile on my face."

When De La Salle scored on its first possession of the second half on a 2-yard run by Vitale, this one was cemented. It capped a 47-yard drive and it looked as easy as the opening two drives to start the game.

Ladouceur, the state's career leader in victories whose career mark is 383-25-3, said he's not planning on retiring in the near future. He started at De La Salle in 1979 and is 57-years-old. Asked if he's planning to coach another 10 to 15 years.

"No," he said. "But I got a good thing going at the school. I have great coaches, a system that works. It's tough to disrupt that or back out of it. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. But I don't plan to step out yet."

De La Salle 35, Westlake 0

De La Salle 14  7  14  0  -  35
Westlake       0  0   0   0  -   0

First quarter
DLS - Vitale 36 run (Kuzbari kick), 10:43
DLS - Houston 2 run (Kuzbari kick), 6:42

Second quarter
DLS - Hutchings 27 pass from Houston (Kuzari kick), 7:08

Third quarter
DLS - Vitale 2 run (Kuzbari kick), 9:02
DLS - Houston 1 run (Kuzbari kick), 3:40 PASSING - DLS: Houston 7-12-0-180. W: Moore 15-31-2-153.
RUSHING - DLS: Ta'o 16-98, Vitale 17-88, Houston 7-47, Santelises 5-25, Riopelle 3-10, Hutchings 1-3, team 2-(-3). Total 51-269. W: Moore 14-47, Hunt 12-43, Mumford 1-5, Wilson 1-0. Totals 28-95.
RECEIVING - DLS: Williams 4-63, Jenkins 1-58, Hooper 1-32, Hutchings 1-27. W: Tuttle 9-89, Wellman 3-46, Cook 1-9, Rothschiller 1-8, Hurd 1-3.
TACKLES - DLS: Barton 9, Hutchings 6, Moffitt 5, Sison 5, Jenkins 5, Hooper 5. W: Solis 13, Hunt 8, Ahching.

FIRST DOWNS: De La Salle 22, Westlake 15
TOTAL YARDS: De La Salle 449, Westlake 248
FUMBLES/LOST: De La Salle 1/1, Westlake 1/1
PENALTIES: De La Salle 5-36, Westlake 2-10
TIME OF POSSESSION: De La Salle 27:47, Westlake 20:13
SACKS: De La Salle 2/20, Westlake 0/0