No. 2 De La Salle wins coach Justin Alumbaugh's opener

CONCORD, Calif. — The Justin Alumbaugh era at De La Salle (Concord) started successfully with a convincing 34-14 home victory over Clayton Valley Charter (Concord) on Friday night.

And like many of the 399 won by Alumbaugh's predecessor Bob Ladouceur, the Spartans used a short, stout running back to lead the charge.

In this case, it was little-known John Velasco who emerged, by rushing 15 times for 187 yards and three touchdowns as De La Salle, No. 2 in the Xcellent 25 national rankings, won its 27th consecutive game.

The 5-foot-7, 197-pound senior scored on the team's second play with a 44-yard run and followed it up with TD jaunts of 26 and 17 yards in a battle of defending North Coast Section champions from Concord.

De La Salle also got a nifty 98-yard kickoff return for touchdown by Jerek Rosales and a 28-yard scoring toss from Chris Williams to Adam Mayer, but it was Velasco, who was supposed to be an afterthought to Arizona State-bound tailback Dasmond Tautalatasi, who did most of his damage.

Tautalatasi did most of his work on defense with two interceptions. He carried just eight times for 18 yards.

Velasco followed in the short but strong footsteps of former De La Salle standouts like Maurice Jones-Drew, Patrick Walsh and Terron Ward, to name a few.

Clayton Valley, the defending Division II NCS champions, hung tough all night but eventually wore down against the enormous lines of De La Salle.

The Eagles got 160 yards rushing on 25 carries and a 10-yard touchdown from impressive junior tailback Miles Harrison.

This looked like a romp early when Velasco broke off a 44-yard touchdown run on De La Salle's second play to go up 7-0. Clayton Valley coach Tim Murphy came in to win and went for it on fourth down from its own 25.

When the Eagles didn't make it, the rout looked on. But Clayton Valley held and then the 5-10, 205-pound Harrison responded with a 37-yard scamper, setting up his own 10-yard touchdown run to tie it at 7.

Rosales seemed to mishandle the ensuing kickoff, but fought through a scrum, broke several tackles and went 98 yards for a touchdown, giving De La Salle the lead.

The Spartans needed just one play after recovering a fumble and Velasco broke off a 26-yard touchdown run to go up 21-7. Again, even with Harrison sidelined with a thigh injury, Clayton Valley responded and traveled 80 yards, capped by a 14-yard touchdown pass from Gabe Taylor to Kristian Mamea to close to 21-14 with 42.7 seconds left in the half.

De La Salle looked like it had the game broken wide open when Tautalatasi intercepted a pass and romped close to 90 yards for an easy touchdown. But while running free in the open field in the final 20 yards, a De La Salle player laid out a player with a hard block and was whistled for a penalty.

Angry, Murphy came three-quarters of the way across field to jaw with the Spartans' coaching staff, who had already reprimanded the player in question.

De La Sale finished with 375 total yards to 286 for Clayton Valley, which controlled the ball most of the way.