Prep football: San Marin unable to keep pace with De La Salle
The San Marin High football team had a handful of moments in the first half — getting back-to-back defensive stops and executing a long scoring drive — but it wasn’t nearly enough against perennial juggernaut De La Salle in the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs on Friday night.
The top-seeded Spartans (11-0) scored the first 28 points of the game and never looked back in a 42-10 victory against No. 8 San Marin (7-4). De La Salle has not lost to an NCS team since falling to Pittsburg in the 1991 championship game.
“I’ve been at San Marin for a long time and I’ve been a head coach for 17 years,” San Marin coach Dom DiMare said. “(Facing De La Salle) was actually an experience for me, to look around and say ‘Hey, look, we’re the eighth best team in NCS.’ That says something about the program and says something about the student athletes.”
DiMare was aggressive from the outset, going for an onside kick to start the game. De La Salle recovered and was celebrating in the end zone three plays later on a short run by Emery Speight.
San Marin went three and out on its first drive and the Spartans took advantage of a short field, getting a 26-yard touchdown run by Duece Jones-Drew on the next play for a 14-0 lead. Jones-Drew is the son of former De La Salle and Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew.
San Marin had the ball around midfield on its second drive but was turned away by De La Salle on fourth down. The Mustangs defense delayed the inevitable blowout by forcing the Spartans into a three-and-out for just for eighth time all season. De La Salle then punted for just the sixth time all season.
De La Salle had a long touchdown called back due to a penalty on that drive and dropped a sure touchdown on third down on its next drive. Ryan Houlahan tackled running back Derrick Blanche for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-8 to turn De La Salle over on downs.
The Spartans pushed their lead to 28-0 on their fourth rushing score of the game then San Marin’s offense — which had been limited to two first downs to that point — put together its first strong drive of the night. Quarterback Daniel Rolovich found Grant Means for a short gain and a first down to start the drive.
San Marin converted a pair of fourth downs later on the drive with Rolovich finding Means for 6 yards on a fourth-and-4 then finding Wesley Timmel for 19 yards on a fourth-and-9. The catch and run put the Mustangs into the red zone where they eventually settled for a 37-yard field goal by Nate Mandelbrot to get on the board 28-3 with 46 seconds left in the first half.
That proved to be plenty of time for De La Salle to score again as Landon Cook took the next play 60 yards on a long catch and run for a 35-3 halftime lead.
San Marin came out throwing to start the second half with Rolovich hitting Joey Cipollina for 42 yards on 3rd-and-10 then finding Cipollina again for a 38-yard touchdown on fourth-and-9 to pull within 35-10. Cipollina had four catches for 103 yards, all in the third quarter.
The speed and strength of De La Salle’s running backs once again proved to be too much as Dominic Kelley ripped off a long run following by a 40-yard touchdown run by Blanche to push the lead right back to 42-10.
San Marin continued to fight off the running clock — which activates when a team takes lead of 35 points or more when Nick Rosiak came up with an interception late in the third quarter to give the ball back to the offense. The Mustangs came up with a fumble recovery by Liam McMann on De La Salle’s next drive to keep the margin at 42-10 in the fourth quarter.
“The kids went in with a real positive attitude,” DiMare said. “The biggest thing for me is the kids never quit.”
The Spartans never were able to get the 35-point lead they were looking for, driving inside the 10-yard line on their final drive before taking a knee to close out the win.