CONCORD -- As they stood and watched the De La Salle High School football team parade up and down the field during the first half Saturday night, the coaching staff of Loyola-Los Angeles screamed, yelled and pointed in exasperation.

They could tell the Cubs defensive players where to be, only they couldn't make them faster. And that was a problem.

The Spartans were one step ahead of Loyola on seemingly every play as they scored on their first six possessions and rolled to a 55-14 nonleague victory at Owen Owens Field.

"We seemed to hit on everything just right," De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur said.

That might even have been a bit of an understatement.

De La Salle (2-0) needed just four plays to score on its first possession as quarterback Mike MacGillivray threw the first of his four touchdown passes by connecting with Mike Czyz for a 21-yard touchdown. On the Spartans' ensuing possession, MacGillivray hit Czyz for a 66-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage.

"It was early in the game and we wanted to get some momentum and that was a good play to do it on," MacGillivray said of the long scoring pass. "They really had a hard time coming back after that."

The Spartans led 21-0 after the first quarter and tacked on three more scores in the second quarter for a 41-0 lead at the break.

"We just didn't step up and meet the challenges that they presented," Loyola coach Jeff Kearin said. "This may sound a bit naive, but I think

we're a better football team than we showed tonight. But De La Salle played perfect football."

The Spartans opened the second half by scoring on the first play from scrimmage, this time a MacGillivray screen pass to running back Kylan Butler.

Butler caught the ball five yards down field and then broke into the secondary and took it 75 more yards for an 80-yard touchdown. It was the last pass that MacGillivray threw on the night, leaving him 5-for-5 for 208 yards. He has yet to throw an incompletion over the team's first two games.

"So far I've been a little lucky," MacGillivray said. "Czyz has been making plays and the line has been giving me some really good blocking up front. Hopefully, it's something we can keep going."

MacGillivray once again shared time behind center with Blake Wayne. Wayne finished 3-for-4 for 39 yards with one touchdown pass. He also rushed 14 times for 81 yards and two scores.

The Cubs (1-1) picked up a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter on scoring runs by Anthony Barr.

De La Salle entered the game ranked No. 6 in the state, and could be poised to move up at least one more spot after No. 25 Edison-Fresno played No. 5 Clovis West to a 27-27 tie on Friday.

 

 

 

The De La Salle High School football team's defense has a ritual this season.

Every point the Spartans allow each game equals the number of push-ups the entire unit does at the start of practice on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Before Saturday's game against Palma-Salinas, De La Salle had done 36.

Monday the Spartans (3-0) won't be adding to that total.

De La Salle's defense posted its first shutout in nine games and held Palma (2-1) to a season-low 141 yards in a 55-0 win at Owen Owens Field.

"This is what we wanted, coming out against better teams and doing the same thing to them," said De La Salle linebacker Brady Amack, whose first-team unit has yet to allow any points in over 48 minutes of play. "Then the second-team (defense) came in and a did a whole lot better job."

A year after surrendering 289 yards of total offense, including 227 yards through the air, to the Chieftains in a 28-3 De La Salle win, the Spartans defense rebounded and held Palma to 74 yards on 7 of 16 passing and one interception.

The victory also improved De La Salle to 4-0-1 against Palma in the last five seasons.

The Spartans shut down a Palma offense that had been averaging 43.5 points and 373 total yards per game. It was also one of the Chieftains' worst losses since the team began playing football in the late 1950s.

"If there was any weakness (in the De La Salle defense), I couldn't see it," said Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo. "They have the whole package, and we could

not get our run game going."

De La Salle had no problem running the ball against Palma.

Running back Tito Pica scored three touchdowns, including two in the first half, and finished with 97 yards on 10 carries to lead De La Salle's rushing attack. The Spartans' running game finished the night with 384 yards and seven touchdowns.

In all, nine different Spartans carried the ball and four had at least one carry of 30 yards or more.

Quarterback Blake Wayne put the Spartans on the board six play into the game on a 42-yard keeper with 9:35 left in the first quarter. De La Salle would then score on five of its next six first-half possessions, capped with an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mike MacGillavray to Noah Perio.

MacGillavray entered the game 12-for-12 passing for 323 yards and six touchdowns in two games. The third-year starter had his completion streak snapped on his second attempt of the game. He did finish the game 6 of 8 for 124 yards and a score.

Wayne was 4 of 7 for 76 yards.

Contact Robert Jordan at rjordan@bayareanewsgroup.com.

MISSON VIEJO -- Speaking two days before his high school football team was to take on the No. 3 team in the state, Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson said the biggest key to staying with De La Salle would be keeping the Spartans from long punishing drives.

 

Perhaps the game plan should have simply been to stop Michael Czyz.

The De La Salle wide receiver torched the Mission Viejo secondary for 178 yards and three touchdown catches as De La Salle dazzled an Orange County audience of more than 5,000 as it rolled to a 35-7 victory.

"Michael Czyz is awesome," said De La Salle quarterback Mike MacGillivray, who connected with the receiver on two of the touchdown passes. "He runs the best routes, he's always open. He's just a great receiver."

The three scores gave Czyz nine in just four games for De La Salle (4-0) which beat the Diablos for the second straight year.

The game was the fourth meeting in as many years between the two schools. The Diablos won the first two meetings before the Spartans pulled out a 35-28 victory in Concord last season.

Easily the most potent offense in the East Bay, De La Salle entered Saturday's game averaging over 530 yards per game. The success of the offense has come in a very balanced attack, as well.

Over their first three games, the Spartans rushed for 899 yards and passed for 701.

Oh, De La Salle plays a little defense, too.

Prior to Saturday, the Spartans first-string defense had yet to give up a single point. De La Salle had outscored opponents 141-0 in the first half and hadn't allowed a point over the past five quarters of play.

Mission Viejo (3-2) ended that streak on its first possession of the game. The Diablos promptly went 80 yards on six plays and scored on a 35-yard pass from quarterback Allan Bridgeford to tight end Corbin Davis. The play came on a fourth-and-one and with the Spartans stacked at the line, Davis slipped through and didn't have a defender within 10 yards of him when he caught the ball.

The Spartans immediately answered with a six-play, 80-yard drive of their own, highlighted by a 71 yard run by Tito Pica on an option pitch from Blake Wayne. Pica was brought down at the Diablos 5-yard line and De La Salle punched in the equalizer on four plays later on a 1-yard dive by Kylan Butler.

The rest of the first half was all Czyz and the Spartans defense.

De La Salle took the lead when Czyz beat cornerback Alex Mascarenas on a post route and hauled in a perfectly thrown pass from MacGillivray for a 54-yard score with 2:37 to go in the first quarter.

The speedy wideout then beat Mascarenas again -- this time on 5-yard slant and a snap throw by Wayne -- before outrunning the entire Mission Viejo secondary for an 84-yard touchdown. De La Salle took a 21-7 lead into halftime.

Mission Viejo certainly offered up a different style offense than the Spartans defense had seen this season. With two former NFL quarterbacks on their coaching staff (Bret Johnson and Rob Johnson), the Diablos employ a passing attack that had cleared nearly 1,000 yards in the air through the team's first four games.

After their first scoring drive, the Diablos struggled to find any consistent rhythm on offense. The De La Salle defense finished with four sacks and three interceptions.

"We really wanted to put pressure on the quarterback and force him into some bad throws," Spartans cornerback Travis Carrie said. "The cornerbacks, safeties and linebackers all had really good coverage schemes. The defense just played really well tonight."

Contact Chace Bryson at cbryson@bayareanewsgroup.com.

BRENTWOOD -- The De La Salle High School football team is familiar with the word letdown. Year after year, the Spartans play a big game, and the following week everyone asks the inevitable question: Will they be able to duplicate that effort yet again? Friday night's game against Heritage turned out to be no different than any other "letdown" game the Spartans have played in recent years.

Tito Pica rushed for 210 yards and the Spartans weathered some early jitters to roll to a 56-14 win over the host Patriots.

De La Salle (5-0) entered the game on an emotional high after heading to Southern California and knocking off Mission Viejo 35-7 last week.

In that game, the Spartans had little trouble moving the ball through the air as quarterbacks Blake Wayne and Mike MacGillivray combined to complete 5 of 7 passes for 199 yards and four touchdowns.

An aerial assault probably wasn't the best strategy against the Patriots, (4-2) as rain throughout the day and into the evening made for a slick ball and waterlogged turf.

So the Spartans turned to Pica as a means of moving the ball, and the senior responded. It was Pica's 78-yard run that set up De La Salle's first score, a 2-yard plunge by Kylan Butler. Pica found the end zone three times on his own, scoring on runs of 5, 6 and 25 yards.

While the Spartans tended to their business, the Patriots used the game to take a break from what has become a grueling Bay Valley Athletic League campaign.

It wasn't much of a break.

The Patriots did all they could to keep up with the Spartans, but in the end it wasn't enough. An 11-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Walters to Sam Ryner near the end of the first half and a 1-yard touchdown run by Matt Puppo with 1:40 left in the game provided the scoring for Heritage. Mike Czyz continued his impressive year for De La Salle, catching three passes for 67 yards and two touchdowns.

Contact Ben Enos at benos@bayareanewsgroup.com

 

 

 

CONCORD -- Kylan Butler described the De La Salle High School football team's first-half offense as being "good, but just one block, one inch away from putting all together."

The Spartans fixed things in the second half. And Butler put on a show.

Butler scored two of De La Salle's four third-quarter touchdowns as the host Spartans steamrolled to a 49-14 defeat of Pittsburg on Friday.

"We just wanted to get our spark back (on offense)," Butler said. "We've kind of been playing down to our competition the last few weeks, and we just wanted to get a spark and a rhythm back."

The No. 2 ranked team in the state took awhile to find that spark as the Pirates defense held De La Salle to just 28 total yards on its first two possessions.

The Spartans (7-0) led just 14-0 at the half but wasted little time in getting going after a 20-plus-minute Homecoming halftime.

On just the third play from scrimmage, Butler scored on a 62-yard pass from quarterback Blake Wayne. Butler would score the last touchdown of the quarter on a 64-yard run, and Tito Pica added two runs in between as the Spartans led 42-7 heading into the fourth. Butler finished with 183 total yards.

The Pirates (4-4) opened the game fired up and actually looked poised to score the first points of the game but were denied when Noah Perio blocked a 39-yard field goal attempt by Pat Crosby.

De La Salle made some key defensive adjustments at halftime that slowed the Pirates down, but Pittsburg finally found

its way into the end zone late in the third quarter on 9-yard run by quarterback Mario Hill.

"We tightened up our blitzes a bit and came out with a lot of energy," Spartans defensive coordinator Terry Eidson said.

A much-anticipated annual matchup since the Pirates famously upset De La Salle in the 1991 North Coast Section 3A championship, this was actually the first meeting between the two schools since 2005. De La Salle is a combined 21-0 in regular season and playoff games against Pittsburg since the 1991 loss.

"They just made too many big plays (in the second half)," Pittsburg coach Victor Galli said. "I thought we played very hard, and I was happy the kids didn't give up."

Contact Chace Bryson at cbryson@bayareanewsgroup.com.

De La Salle 45, Freedom 14

By Chace Bryson

STAFF WRITER

One week after going scoreless in the first quarter for the first time all season, the De La Salle High School football team's offense made sure things went a little different Friday.

The Spartans took the opening kickoff and needed just 89 seconds before quarterback Blake Wayne rushed 33 yards for a score and paved the way for a 45-14 nonleague win over host Freedom.

"I thought we did some good things tonight," De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur said. "I thought we ran the ball real well."

De La Salle (8-0) dominated the line of scrimmage as it racked up 361 yards rushing, averaging 11.2 yards per carry. The Spartans scored on their first four possessions and held a 31-0 halftime lead.

"The speed and tempo got to us a little early on," Freedom coach Kevin Hartwig said. "We adjusted in the second half and got a little better, but when you can't stop the dive, it's hard to stop them."

For the second straight week the running tandem of Tito Pica and Kylan Butler provided much of the De La Salle firepower.

Pica's 86-yard touchdown run with 5:51 left in the third quarter gave the Spartans a 38-0 lead and signaled the end of the night for most of the first team. It was the third touchdown of the night for Pica, who was the game's leading rusher with 168 yards on 10 carries. He also

scored on runs of 9 and 30 yards in the first half. Butler finished the night with 10 carries for 84 yards and also caught one pass for 20 yards.

It was another long night for Freedom (3-6), which has now lost six straight after a promising 3-0 start that included wins over both Pittsburg and Heritage. The Falcons did manage to get into the scoring act in the second half due in large part to a strong game from quarterback Ryan Rodriguez.

Rodriguez scored on a 30-yard run on the final play of the third quarter, and also threw a 7-yard scoring pass to Lex Reyes late in the fourth. Freedom wide receiver Roman Runner didn't get in the end zone but had a big night with 11 catches for 135 yards.

"We did some things late that we hope will help build confidence and get our rhythm back," Hartwig said.

De La Salle will host Ygnacio Valley for its final game of the regular season next week. The Spartans will be looking to cap off an unbeaten regular season and put themselves in position for the top seed in the North Coast Section 4A playoffs. As the No. 2 ranked team in the state, De La Salle is considered the front-runner to represent Northern California in the California Interscholastic Federation Division I bowl game in Carson on Dec. 15.

"We're getting down to that part of the season where we're going to have be playing our best football to win," Ladouceur said.

CONCORD -- After nine games of showcasing a staunch defense and an offense rich with playmakers, the De La Salle High School football team unveiled the third item of their perennial championship puzzle Friday night.

And just in time for the postseason.

The Spartans' special teams unit logged its first touchdown of the year, a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown. It was the second of three first-quarter trips to the end zone as No. 1-seeded De La Salle breezed to a 59-0 first-round win over No. 8 Berkeley in the North Coast Section 4A playoffs.

Trailing 6-0 midway through the first quarter, Berkeley was punting from its 17-yard line when the Spartans' Travis Carrie came unblocked and got both hands on Nikolas Breland's punt attempt. The ball ricocheted into the end zone, where Xavier Vigney recovered it for the score.

"We were working on our punt blocks all week," Carrie said. "I came off the end and saw nothing but the punter and I took it. The coaches have been riding us all week about making plays on special teams, so it felt good that we did that tonight."

De La Salle (10-0) was never challenged as it built a 38-0 halftime lead and pulled its first-team offense just a few minutes into the second half. The Spartans have won 42 consecutive NCS playoff games.

"I thought we were capable of doing what we did tonight," De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur said. "I thought their defense would give us a few problems, but our own defense gave us such a short field to work with it didn't matter."

Berkeley (6-4-1) struggled to move the ball throughout the game, finishing with 61 yards of total offense. The Yellow Jackets mustered just five first downs and only got inside the De La Salle 20-yard line once. An 80-yard kick return by Jamar Smith eventually set up a first-and-goal from the 2-yard line, but Berkeley turned the ball over on a fumble.

"It was tough," said Berkeley running back Eyonte Teague, who finished with a team-high 40 yards rushing on 11 carries. "(That defense) was hitting, but I kept trying to bring it. We came out to play, but it just didn't come out the way we wanted it to."

The Yellow Jackets were making their first NCS appearance since 2004, and doing so without first-year coach Alonzo Carter, who was serving a suspension for an NCS rule infraction involving a player transfer into Berkeley.

"He was our emotional leader all year," Teague said. "And not having him there kind of threw us off."

De La Salle quarterbacks Blake Wayne, Mike MacGillivray and Nate Montana combined to go 5-for-5 with three touchdowns, two of which went to receiver Michael Czyz for his 16th and 17th touchdowns of the season.

Contact Chace Bryson at cbryson@bayareanewsgroup.com.