It was split results last holiday weekend for a pair of local scholastic football teams.
The Bishop’s School rolled to a 61-0 win over Mt. Empire last Friday evening in La Jolla.
The Knights’ defense held the Redhawks to less than 120 yards on the night. Bishop’s scored on its first four possessions to take a 27-0 lead in the first quarter. Eight different Knights scored on offense.
“This was a total team effort,” Bishop’s Head Coach Mike David noted. “Our defense really played well. They put us in great field position all night. We look forward to building on this game and getting ready for a strong Villanova team.”
Bishop’s (1-0) next game is Saturday, Sept. 16 versus Villanova Prep at 7 p.m. at La Jolla High School. Villanova won its opener over Western Christian, 39-7.
La Jolla High ventured to Santa Fe Christian (SFC) last Saturday afternoon, where it dropped a 34-14 decision.
“After losing to Santa Fe Christian, we will need to work very hard to improve all areas of our game,” La Jolla High Head Coach Dave Ponsford said afterward.
The Eagles controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. SFC halfback Corbin Cutshaw scored on three long runs of 53 yards, 77 yards and 87 yards, as well as on a 99-yard kickoff return, to open the second half.
Trailing early in the contest, the Vikings responded with a long drive that consumed almost nine minutes of the first quarter to pull even on Jerrel Agnew’s 1-yard run (Andres Liera got the extra point).
La Jolla (0-1) was able to produce a nice fourth quarter drive on the arm of senior quarterback Casey Richmond that resulted in a 3-yard run by senior running back Yien Gatkouth (Lee Abelkop XPT). Richmond finished the day 10-of-16 for 136 yards passing.
“I was really happy the way Casey handled himself in his first varsity start,” Ponsford said. “He was our player of the game. We also had some nice catches by our receivers.”
Senior Blake Shelburne had two catches for 30 yards and fellow senior Igor Serbia had two catches for 21 yards. Junior John Jackson also pitched in with two catches for 50 yards.
“We really need to work on some basics over the next few weeks, blocking and tackling,” Ponsford added. “We need to be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We did not do that against Santa Fe Christian, and the result showed.”
This Friday evening, Sept. 8, at 7:30 p.m., La Jolla travels to Valley Center, the defending CIF Division IV champion.