De La Salle Steadies Ship, Beats St. Francis

The Spartans avoided a rare 0-3 start.

For a program of De La Salle’s caliber, an 0-2 start is equivalent to the sky falling.

If those early losses created any sort of desperation, the Spartans didn’t let it show on Friday night.

The Spartans simply returned to their roots with a fierce ground attack and pulled away in the final minutes for a 35-17 road win over the St. Francis Lancers.

“Our offensive line looked like a De La Salle offensive line and our runners looked like De La Salle runners,” head coach Justin Alumbaugh said.

Dominic Kelley ran 25 times for 122 yards to pace De La Salle (1-2), and though quarterback Toa Faavae was limited by an ankle injury, he ran for three touchdowns, including a 12-yard bootleg with 4:19 left to give the visitors an 11-point lead.

“He made a great play fake. It fooled (assistant) coach (Terry) Eidson,” Alumbaugh said of the bootleg. “He was on the headset and was cursing because he didn’t know the play. He thought we had fumbled the ball or something.”

The brilliantly-sold fake all but put the game out of reach, but minutes earlier, St. Francis (1-2) was threatening to tie it up. Trailing by seven, the Lancers had fourth-and-goal at the 4 with 8:54 left, but chose to bring out the field goal unit instead of go for a game-tying touchdown. Christopher Han made the kick with ease, but Johnathan Guerrero returned the ensuing kickoff to the 50 and the Spartans took a two-score lead nine plays later.

“We converted a fourth-and-1 earlier, but fourth-and-4 is a little different with not a lot on the back part that they have to cover,” St. Francis head coach Greg Calcagno said before noting that his offense was limited at the goal line with wide receiver Perrion Williams banged up on the sideline.

Williams was the target on an end zone fade on the prior set of downs when the Lancers faced fourth-and-1 at the 13, which drew a pass interference flag. After choosing not to go for the fourth-and-goal at the 4, they had no choice but to go for fourth-and-10 at their own 20 with 4:02 left, and after that failed, Kelley found the end zone to put the game out of reach.

Kelley was the bell cow for a Spartan attack that threw just four times and ran 43. Faavae carried six times for 28 yards, including three touchdowns, while Derrick Blanche, who delivered De La Salle’s opening score on a 13-yard run, ran six times for 55. Sophomore Jaden Jefferson ran five times for 52 yards on a series of tosses and sweeps.

“We knew we weren’t gonna be able to fling the ball all over the place and we wanted to get the ball into his hands,” Alumbaugh said of Jefferson. “They shut down one of the sweeps and he still outran them for a first down.”

The Lancers countered with their own solid ground attack, though Aaron Knapp did complete 10 of 17 passes for 101 yards. The junior, who defeated cancer in the offseason, completed his first nine attempts.

Kingston Keanaaina ran 18 times for 94 yards for the hosts while Andrew Scharrenberg, the nephew of defensive coordinator Matt Scharrenberg, ran for both St. Francis touchdowns, picking up 67 yards on 10 carries. His 54-yard score tied the game at 7 early in the second quarter, and he brought the Lancers even at 14 with 47 seconds left in the first half after bouncing off the pile and cutting to the outside when he was initially stopped on a fourth-and-1 at the 4.

“Those guys are both rugby players and they’re good in space,” Calcagno said. “(Andrew) played pretty well against Helix, and then we screwed up by not giving him the ball enough last week. We need a second guy (in addition to Keanaaina) the way we play.”

Scharrenberg’s father, Mark, had a prosperous rugby career after being named WCAL Football Player of the Year in 1986.

As strong as Scharrenberg was, the Spartans held St. Francis to just three points in the second half. Chris Biller finished the night with 3.5 tackles for loss, including a sack, and Kai Moananu-Apela had 2.5 tackles for loss. De La Salle recorded the only two takeaways of the game, with Drew Cunningham recovering a fumble in the first quarter and Dom Gallwitz recovering one in the final minutes after Kelley’s touchdown.

St. Francis (1-2) hosts Mitty (3-0) on Sept. 22 to open WCAL play. De La Salle returns to action next Friday at home against St. Mary’s-Stockton (3-0). The Rams handed the Spartans a 45-35 defeat last year.