CIF Division II Bowl: Chaminade blasts Enterprise

CARSON, Calif. -- The postseason path to the CIF State Championship Bowl Game was a chance for Chaminade (West Hills, Calif.) to show how good of a football team it really was.

Saturday's 41-9 win over Enterprise (Redding, Calif.) was the Eagles' chance to show off.

Chaminade (14-2) displayed its dreamy arsenal of top-notch skill players all day long, and with the help of some Enterprise turnovers, secured the state title at the StubHub Center in a game that featured a running clock in the fourth quarter. Yes, the offense was prolific in the victory, but it all started with Donovan Lee at cornerback.

Lee, a senior committed to Colorado, intercepted three passes and took one of them back for an easy 19-yard touchdown to set a Bowl Games record. He said after the game that film study early in the week gave him some tips on what the Hornets might do, and that allowed him to be in the right spots when wayward passes were flung.

"It's about knowing formations, knowing what happened on film," said Lee, who also scored a rushing touchdown from 9 yards out in the second quarter. "We knew if we played our game we would come out on top."

Chaminade's game is taking advantage of its skill players' advantage in speed, and just as important, avoiding playing Enterprise's game of physical, run-based football that suited its size advantage. The Hornets (13-1), the Northern Section Division I champions, exhibited early that they could do that. They held Chaminade to a 27-yard Ben Kreitenberg field goal on the opening drive and then marched 63 yards on 12 plays to score on a Sheldon Highfill 37-yard field goal.

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Brayden Lenius answered on the ensuing drive with a 9-yard pass from Brad Kaaya to make it 10-3 Chaminade, and the Eagles ended the next three Enterprise possessions with interceptions, building an insurmountable lead.

Joel Loth stayed home on a misdirection screen play and intercepted a Bobby Luken pass at the line of scrimmage, then Lee capped off the drive with his rushing score. Three offensive plays later, Lee jumped a route and took the interception back for the 19-yard score to make it 24-3.

The Hornets managed to drive 51 yards on 10 plays next, but Luken's desperation fourth-down pass found its way into Lee's hands as he dove and it stayed 24-3 at the half. Once Chaminade added a 20-yarder from Kreitenberg, a 3-yard scoring run from Yancy Kieren and a 30-yard scoring reception from Brandyn Lee in the second half, it was a foregone conclusion that Chaminade was the better team.

The Eagles had to battle a lot harder in their Southern Section Western Division title rematch with Serra (a 38-35 win) and their 28-10 Regional Bowl win over Hart, the other team they lost to in the regular season.

"Emotionally, the win over Serra was a monkey off our backs. Getting the chance for a state title was even better," Donovan Lee said.

Eagles coach Ed Croson agreed, adding that his team's goal was to make Enterprise tired by chasing the skill players and negating their power in the trenches.

"We think the state championship the last two years was played at Serra High," Croson said, referring to the section title game location the past two seasons. "They were better than we thought they would be. Their offensive line was as good and well-coached as we have seen all year. We felt physically there were places they didn't match up. We wanted to make them run. Those big guys got tired. We ran them out of gas and we didn't get tired."

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Chaminade's defense may not have been tired, but it definitely burned calories trying to stop junior running back Isaiah Matthews, who ran for 182 yards on 29 carries. Those yards didn't come in garbage time, and they were of the tough variety, as Matthews consistenly hit the line hard and earned moderate chunks of yardage most every time. Enterprise's vaunted offensive line showed its power, but the four interceptions killed the team's groove.

They scored the game's final touchdown with 10 seconds left when backup quarterback Chase Turner hit Justin Abney for a 7-yard score.

"We had a few too many mistakes in the first half. We can't turn it over like that, they're too good. We tried to run the ball but when you're chasing 27 points it's hard to stay with that," Hornets coach Darren Trueblood said. "They made us pay every time we made a mistake. We think we play good football up north. They were the better team, though."

The better team owned a 276-to-84 advantage in passing yards, led by Kaaya. The Miami commit was on point all night long, converting on 17 of his 23 throws.

"They didn't play many offenses like ours. We knew coming in we wanted to throw the ball. We knew they were bigger than us," Kaaya said. "I think that second offensive score, after that I knew we had the momentum. When you give us momentum, we feed off each other."

They may have fed off each other, but Donovan Lee also fed off Luken. Croson said his senior, who wears No. 21, gets overshadowed in Southern California by Serra's Adoree Jackson. For his money, he likes Donovan Lee because of his ability to always be in position to make plays.

"Great players do that. Everyone talks about Adoree Jackson, I think they should also talk about our No. 21."