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Crean Lutheran’s Robert Smith catches a pass and runs for a TD Friday night. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs: John Luciano, Ted Rigoni and Howard Lyon).
Crean Lutheran High School’s football team was in control from the start and finished with a dominating effort in the second half to defeat El Dorado 35-6 in an Epsilon League game before a big homecoming crowd Friday night.
The Saints (6-1, 2-0) led 14-0 at halftime before scoring four touchdowns in the second half.
Crean Lutheran was hurt by penalties in the first half and also had four turnovers in the game, including two interceptions. But the Saints responded when they needed to.
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“I’m excited about our physicality throughout the game, I thought we were very physical, this was the first time we turned the ball over, we turned the ball over a few times tonight which was something we haven’t done in the past, so it was good for us to respond to that and part of the adversity we faced,” said Coach Rick Curtis.
“We’ve been doing that kind of all year, we lost Caden (starting QB Jones) and the kids kind of responded to that adversity and that’s what we’ve kind of been preaching to them that the next man has got to be up and the next man has to be ready. We’re a full team, we’re excited about the team we have. I was pleased with the performance.”
Crean Lutheran running back Archer C’de Baca led the way with two touchdowns, a 5-yard TD run in the first quarter and a 12-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
“It was a great victory for us tonight,” C’de Baca said. “We got a little sloppy with our penalties but we came out and we dominated and did our thing, we have a lot of guys out suffering from injuries previous to the game and during the game, but we came out and did our thing, next man up mentality and we won. It was a great win, great turnout tonight.”
Freshman quarterback Dylan D’epifanio, who stepped in for the injured Jones, was also solid throwing for two touchdowns and passing for 249 yards. He connected with Robert Smith on a 58-yard TD pass in the second quarter to put the Saints ahead 14-0 at halftime.
D’epifanio also connected with Daylin Caamano on a 14-yard TD pass in the third quarter. Eli Bray had the Saints other score on a 4-yard run with 5:27 left in the game.
Caamano wound up with seven catches for 89 yards. Dillon Booth hauled in five catches for 66 yards.
El Dorado Coach Zack Lamonda, who led the Golden Hawks to the CIF Division 7 finals last year, lost many starters on offense and defense due to graduation. But he indicated his team (2-5, 0-2) has been battling all year.
“Crean Lutheran is a good football team and coaches very well; I tip my hat to those players and coaches,” he said. “We did some good things and some not good things; we need to watch the film, fix the things that we can and grind out another week together and prepare for Laguna Hills on Friday night.
“My team never gave up tonight and I am proud to be the head coach at El Dorado High School.”
Golden Hawks quarterback Luke Coulter threw a 20-yard TD pass to Grant Thomas in the fourth quarter to break the shutout. Thomas had five catches on the night and had one of the two interceptions for El Dorado.
Ben Byszewski, Ethan Haughsland and Smith had the interceptions for Crean Lutheran.
“El Dorado came to play,” said Curtis, the Saints coach. “Zack does a great job and their kids play tough, they’re a little young this year, but they’re going to be really good next year, they have a lot of young kids playing, my hats off to them, they came to play. It was a tough first half, but I thought our kids responded in the second half.”
Bray not only scored a TD but was named homecoming king at halftime.
“Eli has been working hard getting back in the lineup,” Curtis said. “He got in there tonight, took advantage of all his opportunities and on top of that he was the homecoming king. It doesn’t get any better than that does it?”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
