The Mater Dei Catholic Crusaders, coming off a state bowl championship, are rated to possess one of the San Diego Section’s best offenses this year. The Crusaders defense doesn’t appear half bad, either.
Mater Dei Catholic rolled up an early 14-0 lead and tacked on 21 points in the final two quarters to post a 35-0 non-league victory against the visiting Valley Center Jaguars in last Friday’s season opener for both teams.
C.J. Verdell rushed 16 times for 276 yards and scored five touchdowns to carry the load for the MDCHS offense while Eli Shelton caught five passes for 101 yards, including a 55-yarder from Jovan Bayless to wow the home fans. Crusaders quarterback Chris Jones completed seven of 10 passing attempts for 70 yards with one interception.
Verdell’s longest carry from scrimmage measured 84 yards. As a team, Mater Dei Catholic racked up 432 total offensive yards — 307 on the ground.
Bayless led the Crusader defense with 21 tackles while Andre Kell contributed 15 stops. The MDCHS defense recorded four sacks, made one interception and recovered three fumbles to register the shutout win. Kyle Caldwell II was credited with 1.5 sacks while also scooping up a fumble. Alan Garner III and Bayless also recovered fumbles while Quentin Frazier picked off VCHS quarterback Rikki Mazzetti.
“It is always great to start the year with a win,” Crusader head coach John Joyner explained. “The defense was outstanding getting a shutout and really setting the tone for the season. Hopefully, we can continue to improve this week for our game against El Capitan.”
PREP FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Friday, Sept. 2
All games 7 p.m. unless noted
Sweetwater at Olympian
El Toro (Lake Forest) at Eastlake
Grossmont at Otay Ranch
Hoover at Chula Vista
Castle Park at Mar Vista
Serra at San Ysidro
Xolchicalco (Tijuana, Mex.) at Southwest
Montgomery at El Cajon Valley
Mater Dei Catholic at El Capitan
Bonita Vista at San Marcos
Lutheran vs. Temecula Prep at Rancho Christian
Chula Vista Calvary Christian Academy at Ocean View Christian Academy, 3:30 p.m.
Hilltop at La Jolla, 6:30 p.m.
Eagles score big 20-17 come-from-behind road victory at SFC
The Olympian High School football team proved that it always isn’t how one starts but how one finishes that matters most.
The Eagles trailed host Santa Fe Christian three times during last Friday’s non-league season opener but came through in the clutch by scoring a touchdown in the final two minutes to pull out an exciting 20-17 victory.
Junior quarterback Nico Mendoza had a big second half by throwing for a pair of scores — an 80-yard bomb to Rashaun Brown and a game-winning 15-yard TD pass to Isaiah Williams. Mendoza competed 12 of 15 passes for 203 yards (178 yards in the second half).
Olympian head coach Paul Van Nostrand called last Friday’s gridiron encounter a “tough, physical game.”
“Santa Fe is a well coached, disciplined team,” Van Nostrand explained. “I’m very proud of how our players responded.”
Brent Hewitt kicked a 24-yard field goal in the second quarter to put SFC up 3-0 at halftime. Ralphie Gomez countered for Olympian with a 35-yard boot through the uprights to open the third quarter and tie the game 3-3.
The host Eagles took a 10-3 lead when quarterback Conner Whiten connected with receiver Matthew McRoskey on a nine-yard scoring pass in the final minute of the quarter.
But it only took two plays for the visiting Eagles to match that as Mendoza scrambled to his right to evade a pass rush and heaved the ball down field to Brown, who had evaded secondary defenders. Brown did not drop the ball and sped into the end zone to help tie the game 10-10.
SFC took a 17-10 lead with 4:19 to play in the game as McRoskey hit Caleb Phillips for a 39-yard gain. But Mendoza, betraying more confidence in his debut with his new team, promptly marched Olympian 75 yards for the winning touchdown.
Mar Vista, Hilltop pick up wins to jump-start season
It was a good night for the realigned Metro-South Bay League with three of its four teams picking up season opening victories last Friday. Mar Vista shut out visiting San Diego and Hilltop routed visiting Castle Park, 38-6, to add to host Chula Vista’s 35-30 non-league win over visiting Mt. Miguel.
Sweetwater also showed it can score points in a 43-27 non-league loss to visiting University City.
“Overall, it was a solid win for us, but we have a lot to improve on,” Mar Vista head coach Tyler Arciaga explained. “I know Castle Park will bounce back and be ready to play. We have a couple more kids getting healthy, so hopefully that should help us out as well.”
The Mariners scored three rushing touchdowns — one each by quarterback Mike Wilson (three carries, 76 yards) and running backs Kyle Denney (13 carries, 67 yards) and Noah Berry (seven carries, 49 yards). Berry also added an 85-yard kick-off return and caught four passes for 42 yards to finish the night with 186 all-purpose yards.
Wilson also completed seven of 10 passes for 72 yards to tally 148 total yards in the game.
Middle linebacker Jacob Hinojosa led the Mariner defense with 10 tackles and also had one sack. Jake Borst had one sack on defense while accumulating six kicking points — three PAT conversions and a 17-yard field goal.
“The defense played well,” Arciaga noted. “Special teams did a nice job for the most part with a kick-off return for a touchdown, though we botched a field goal snap. The offense needs to capitalize on great field position more often.
Michael Wilson, our quarterback, did a nice job managing the offense.”
Hilltop’s offense struck often in the win over west side rival Castle Park. Alex Tejeda threw three touchdown passes — two to David Corona and one to Gus Ferreira. Domonic Esparza scored one rushing touchdown as did reserve signal-caller Joey Castillo.
Max Ugarte rounded out the Lancers’ offense with a 32-yard field goal.
“It was a great start to the season,” Hilltop head coach Drew Westling said. “Glad we were able to play everyone who was eligible!”
Marty Sesma rushed 20 times for 134 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead Sweetwater while Manny Salazar was 3-of-4 for 118 yards with two touchdowns passing the ball. Sesma added 134 yards on kick-returns to finish the game with 268 all-purpose yards.
“We did not play well but still had numerous opportunities to win the game,” SuHi head coach Wesley Charles said. “We did not make the plays when needed. We won the special teams phase by recovering two onside kicks, forcing a missed field goal and had three big kick-off returns. The offense sputtered — looking good one drive and then bad the next.”
Francisco Velazquez had 14 carries for 84 yards while Alfredo Ulloa had two catches for 98 yards and one TD and Adrian Kercher caught one scoring pass for 20 yards.
Alejandro Jenkins and Pablo Castaneda led the Red Devils on defense with 10 tackles each.
“The defense had a slow start but played better in the second half and controlled the run game for the great majority of the night,” Charles added. “If we make the needed corrections this week and perform at our best this week we will again have a great opportunity to win our contest this week.”
Best of the rest
Bonita Vista, last year’s state runner-up, kicked off its season in disappointing fashion with a 33-14 non-league loss at Poway. The Barons trailed by scores of 12-0 and 26-14 during the game.
“We did not show up to coach or play a football game like I expected,” BVHS head coach Chris Thompson explained. “I give credit to the Poway offensive line and their physical play all night. The 2016 Barons need to understand that we have a bullseye on our backs and people are gunning for us. We will get what we earn.”
Anthony Posada passed for 202 yards with a touchdown pass to Keenan Ellis (three catches, 84 yards). Ellis also scored on an 85-yard kick-off return that tied the score early on 7-7.
Slow start
Eastlake drew defending state bowl champion Rancho Bernardo in its opener and showed its youth in a 38-0 non-league setback to mark the debut of new Titan head coach Dean Tropp.
Eastlake had only two completions in the game and did not penetrate inside the RB 20-yard line. The Broncos took command of the contest by scoring 21 points in the second quarter, including touchdowns just 14 seconds apart.
“We needed to play flawlessly to beat them,” Tropp said. “We just made too many mistakes.”
Otay Ranch quarterback Cris Zamudio completed 10 of 21 passes for 126 yards in a 34-0 non-league loss at Mt. Carmel. Mustang turnovers led to two Sundevil touchdowns in the first half.
