CARSON, CA - The scene was starkly different Saturday night following De La Salle's victory in the state Open Division playoff bowl game than a year ago.
In 2013 DLS fell to St. John Bosco in the finals and Spartan players were strewn about the StubHub Center turf, covering their faces and weeping at the disappointing loss. But following Saturday night's 63-42 victory against Centennial-Corona, the Spartans celebrated in almost un-DLS fashion, giddily racing to the end zone and doing head-first slides after completing their 16-0 season.
"I'm on top of the world -- it's just awesome," DLS junior quarterback Chris Vanderklugt said. "It's the complete opposite (of last season). I don't even know what to do right now, I'm so much in shock. It's just unbelievable."
In the highest-scoring game in CIF-State bowl history, it was left for DLS's defense to slow the high-powered Huskies and help tip momentum the Spartans' way.
Linebacker Cameron Lissarrague had interceptions for DLS on successive third-quarter Centennial possessions and Jonathan Lopez recovered a fourth-quarter fumble to finally subdue the Huskies' mercurial offense.
"It was back and forth the whole time," DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said. "I knew we'd need to get a stop or two. I'm happy we didn't fumble the ball and had no turnovers."
Junior running back Antoine Custer, who missed most of last season's title-game loss with an ankle injury, led the Spartans by rushing for 273 yards and four touchdowns. In all, DLS ran for a gaudy state-bowl game record of 559 yards on 69 carries with junior Andrew Hernandez chipping in with 175 yards and three scores on 26 totes. The Spartans had 595 yards of offense overall, also a state bowl game record.
Centennial led 28-21 after Javon McKinley's 29-yard touchdown catch midway through the second quarter. But DLS answered with TD runs of 3 and 5 yards by Custer to take a 35-28 halftime lead.
Centennial never stopped battling, though, and tied the game 42-42 in the third quarter on McKinley's 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. But there was no stopping DLS, as it seized the lead for good on Custer's 68-yard TD run down the left side with 3:58 left in the third.
The victory was DLS's sixth in a state playoff bowl game, the first for second-year coach Alumbaugh and the third for DLS against Centennial in four tries.
Asked if winning it all was akin to former 49ers' quarterback Steve Young winning his first Super Bowl, Alumbaugh said "I'm just really, really proud of our guys. I'm happy for our school, happy for our kids -- they worked really hard. I'm happy we came out with a win, that's for sure. But in the grander scheme of things, I teach English and coach football and I'm not worried about that other stuff."
Centennial lived up to the hype early with its prolific spread offense producing touchdowns on its first four possessions. The Huskies led 21-14 after one quarter. But eventually the DLS defense gained traction and made some stops and forced the turnovers it needed.
"We knew they had a good offense, but we really picked it up," DLS center Matt Medeiros said. "I'm proud of our defense. I'm proud of the way our (offensive) line played. We were expecting a tough game -- these guys weren't going to lay down."
Said Alumbaugh of a Centennial offense that managed 534 yards of offense: "That offense gets on you pretty quick and can kind of get your head spinning. We just had to get our guys calmed down a little bit. We slowed our offense down a little bit to keep our defense off the field for awhile. We just got guys in the position that we were supposed to have them in. We didn't make any grand adjustments, to be honest."
It was still an impressive effort for Centennial which became the first team to score more than 40 points against DLS in more than 35 years.
"I was proud of how hard our guys fought," Alumbaugh said. "We were going after them and hitting them and they kept on coming right back at us. Those guys were really good."
Still, the effort wasn't quite good enough for Centennial (12-3), which has become a state power and has two state bowl titles to its credit under veteran coach Matt Logan.
The Huskies had two rushers top 100 yards in J.J. Taylor (133 yards on 14 carries) and quarterback Anthony Catalano (102 yards on 12 carries, one TD). Catalano also threw for 178 yards and one TD.
Afterward, the oozing-with-talent McKinley (six catches, 153 yards, two TDs) graciously shook hands and hugged DLS players and then pondered what might have been.
"I think they just came out in the second half and wanted it more than us," he said. "They stopped us and put it in the (end) zone. But it doesn't take away from what we've accomplished."
Before falling to DLS, Centennial won the Big VIII title and defeated such powers as Mater Dei twice, Orange Lutheran, Long Beach Poly, Serra-Gardena, Bishop Amat and St. John Bosco.
