LOS ANGELES — There was a point in Bishop Diego’s season-opening football loss at Salesian when the Cardinals had everything going right.
Junior quarterback Kyle Holland completed some clutch passes, the running backs churned out tough yards and the team drove 87 yards to score its first touchdown.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the joy was short lived as Salesian picked up its ensuing onsides kick and returned it for the game’s final touchdown in a 49-6 rout over Bishop at Keegan Stadium.
With seven minutes left in the game, Holland hit running back Brandon Gonzalez on a screen pass and the sophomore ran through tacklers up the left sideline for a 35-yard touchdown play.
“What was nice about that was the length of the drive and we converted a couple of third-down plays,” said Bishop coach Tom Crawford.
What was also nice for the Cardinals was it came with several first-string Salesian defenders still on the field.
“They really didn’t make an effort to get their second string group of kids out there,” said Crawford. “That should be a confidence booster for our kids, knowing they can put together something like that.”
The Cardinals needed that confidence boost after a disastrous first quarter. They gave up three touchdowns in a less-than-two minute span. An interception and 37-yard return by Tyquion Ballard set up Salesian’s first touchdown. Quarterback Matthew Fernandez hit tight end Michael Mora from 8 yards out for the score and Miguel Rodriguez kicked the first of his seven PATs for a 7-0 lead at 7:45.
On Bishop’s next possession, Holland threw a screen pass but his receiver fell down and the Mustangs’ Gilbert Dominguez picked it off and ran 18 yards untouched for their second touchdown 36 seconds later.
The Cardinals turned it over again when a pitch back to Gonzalez was fumbled. Linebacker Christian Vega picked up the ball at the 20-yard line and ran it in for a 21-0 lead at the 6:24 mark.
“We didn’t get a lot of breaks early on and we made a lot of mistakes,” said Crawford.
As Bishop’s offense struggled, Salesian kept getting good field position with the help of returner and running back Evan Bracken. The fleet-footed runner had the Cardinals chasing him all over the field on punts.
His 20-yard punt return and 12-yard against-the-grain run set up the Mustangs’ fourth touchdown, a 6-yard pass from Fernandez to running back Gilbert Dominguez at 11:21 of the second quarter.
Salesian put together its longest drive of the night — 72 yards — to go ahead 35-0 with 34 seconds left in the first half. Backup quarterback Frank Beltran lofted a 17-yard pass to Rodriguez in the corner of the end zone for the score.
Crawford said he didn’t know what to expect from Salesian because the school had a new coaching staff.
“We had absolutely no idea on either side of the ball what they would do, so it was really a completely blind game.”
That made it especially difficult for a team comprised primarily of players with little varsity experience.
“We played like it was a first game, like we were an inexperienced group of players,” he said. “There’s a disappointment we didn’t play better, but there’s also an understanding that we have a lot of improvement to do. The last 15 minutes of the game I thought we started to play better and started to play the way we can play. But we have a long play to go.”
Bishop Diego…0 0 0 6 — 6
Salesian…21 14 7 7 — 49
First quarter
S — Mora 8 pass from Fernandez (Rodriguez kick), 7:45
S — Dominguez 18 interception return (Rodriguez kick), 7:09
S — Vega 25 fumble return (Rodriguez kick), 6:24
Second quarter
S — Dominguez 5 pass from Fernandez (Rodriguez kick), 11:21
S — Rodriguez 17 pass from Beltran (Rodriguez kick), 34.9
Third quarter
S — Bracken 20 pass from Fernandez (Rodriguez kick), 7:44
Fourth quarter
BD — B. Gonzalez 35 pass from Holland (kick failed), 7:03
S — Dominguez 62 kickoff return (Rodriguez kick), 6:53.
BD, S
First Downs…10, 16
Rushes-yards…29-37, 25-117
Passing yards…113, 151
Total yards…150, 268
Passes (Comp-Att-Int) …10-19-3, 11-18-0
Punts-Avg…5-35.0, 3-38.2
Fumbles-lost…4-1, 1-0
Penalties…7-75, 13-120
Individual Statistics
Rushing—BD: B. Gonzalez 11-25, P. Garcia 3-22, B. Garcia 2-1, Figueroa 1-5, Valle 2-16, Holland 10 (minus 32). S: Bracken 10-64, Beltran 4-13, Romero 3-5, Dominguez 3-4, Fernandez 2-13, Vega 2-3, Ballard 1-15, J. Ramierz 1-0.
Passing—BD: Holland 10-19-3, 113 yards. S: Fernandez 8-14-0, 113 yards. Beltran 3-4-0, 38.
Receiving—BD: P. Garcia 4-48, B. Gonzalez 3-47, Figueroa 1-3, G. Garcia 1-10, B. Garcia 1-5, S — Ramirez 2-42, Dominguez 3-33, Bracken 2-24, Vega 2-17, Rodriguez 1-17, Mora 1-20.
