FOLSOM, Calif. – Over the past week the chatter on social media, mostly from the Sacramento area, but also from some Bay Area locals always quick to predict the demise of De La Salle, were busy inventing reasons why the Spartans would lose to Folsom.
Their long unbeaten streak was broken by St. Francis-Mountain View, they were coming off a loss to nationally ranked St. Frances Academy of Baltimore, Maryland, the defense was suspect with the retirement of their longtime defensive coordinator, and their quarterback was getting the attention of the naysayers.
None of that seemed to matter on Friday night in Folsom as De La Salle (4-2) came out firing on all cylinders and went home to Concord with a decisive 31-10 victory over the host Bulldogs.
In the pregame Folsom came roaring and screaming out of the mouth of a smoking inflated Bulldog while De La Salle walked to its sidelines with no pomp and circumstance, but once the game started it was the Spartans that did the all the roaring.
There were so many heroes for De La Salle and we’ll try to get to all of them.
When the opening kickoff was short and coming right at the Spartans' best player, Arizona-committed Zeke Berry, it almost felt like something big was going to happen, and it did. Berry took the ball at the 12 on a full run, blew past several would be tacklers and exploded 88 yards for a touchdown that gave De La Salle a 7-0 lead it would never relinquish.
“I got my blocks, I saw the opening and I took it to the house,” Berry said.
“If the ball gets into Zeke’s hands there’s a good chance of something good happening,” De La Salle head coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “The blocks were there and we executed it like we worked on all week.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Spartans kicker Jordan Kennedy had the first of four straight touchbacks. But even backed up to its 20, Folsom mounted a 13-play drive. However, it stalled at the De La Salle 19 and the visitors got the ball on downs.
That’s when quarterback Luke Dermon made his mark. After five running plays and a 5-yard penalty that chewed up 25 yards, Alumbaugh unleashed Dermon, and the senior signal-caller, who came into the game with a 2.4 yards per carry average, caught Folsom by surprise and bolted 56 yards up the middle to extend the lead to 14-0.
That’s the way the first quarter ended as De La Salle held a Folsom team averaging over 14 points in the first quarter of its first six games, scoreless. In the end, the aggressive and physical De La Salle defense would hold the explosive Bulldogs offense to less than two touchdowns for the game.
“I was really happy with our defensive effort. We were physical which made me very, very happy,” Alumbaugh said. “Coach (Nathan) Kenion did a great job. You know, that guy has been wearing bullets since Coach (Terry) Eidson retired.”
Eidson, the architect of the De La Salle defense was the right-hand man to legendary Spartans coach Bob Ladouceur.
After De La Salle punted on the second play of the second quarter, Folsom was backed up deep in its own territory and had to punt after going three and out. That’s when one of those defensive stars, junior Chase Tofaeono came through on special teams by blasting through and blocking the punt.
Tofaeono tried to scoop and score but the ball went out of bounds at the 11 yard line. Two plays later, junior running back Charles Greer scored on a 6-yard run and De La Salle had a 21-0 lead. Greer finished with a game-high 79 yards rushing on 16 carries with the one score.
De La Salle rarely kicks field goals, but after Kennedy had boomed three straight touchbacks, and after a drive stalled just outside the Folsom red zone, Alumbaugh let him try one after his senior kicker assured him he could make it. However the coach didn’t realize it was a 43-yarder. No problem. Kennedy split the uprights and it was 24-0 Spartans.
“I don’t really like kicking field goals but he’s like ‘Coach I’ll make it,” Alumbaugh said with a chuckle. “I said how far is it and he says ‘it doesn’t matter.’ I thought it was 5 yards closer, but it was too late to call a timeout and he nailed it.”
Folsom (6-1) got its lone touchdown after a 5-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a 15-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Tyler Tremaine to junior Demetrius Brown to make it 24-7 with 2:36 left in the half.
The Bulldogs got the ball back one more time before halftime, but a sack by Chase Tofaeono and a desperation pass fell incomplete to end the second quarter.
Folsom got the ball to start the third quarter but the De La Salle defense took charge. A sack by senior Amarion Houston and a batted pass by Berry ended that first drive. On the Bulldogs' second drive, the Spartans got a sack from junior Cooper Flanagan, and senior JJ Tofaeono, the brother of Chase, snuffed that drive with an interception.
“Losing two games is not De La Salle tradition,” JJ Tofaeono said. “We knew we had to get after it on defense and pressure their quarterback and we focused on that all week.”
Tremaine finished with 280 yards passing and the one touchdown, but he was only 24 for 49 and was sacked five times with the one interception.
After a 32-yard field goal by Tyler’s brother, junior Jake Tremaine, cut it to 24-10 with 9:50 left to play and gave the gave the raucous Folsom fans a glimmer of hope, De La Salle slammed the door with one final big play.
On the first play after ensuing Folsom kickoff, the Spartans caught the Bulldogs totally unprepared when Kerman found Flanagan all alone and he beat all the pursuing defenders for a 75-yard touchdown reception that closed out the scoring.
“People say Luke can’t throw the ball but he can,” Alumbaugh said. ”He does what we ask him to do.”
The De La Salle offense did just enough and the defense never allowed Folsom to get any real rhythm.
“Our offense was like watching paint dry but that’s what we want,” Alumbaugh said. "What we wanted to do was grind those guys down, be physical, control the clock, don’t let the game get away from us and that’s exactly what we did.”
Prior to the game, Folsom head coach Paul Doherty wasn’t buying into the hype. After the game he stated the obvious.
“Offensively we just couldn’t get it going,” Doherty said. “The bottom line is we just couldn’t get it done.”
The Folsom faithful now have some concerns going into a Sierra Foothill League opener next week at Rocklin. With 8:40 left in the game and on his final pass attempt, the Spartans defense crushed Tremaine and forced him out of the game with an apparent left shoulder injury. Junior backup Carter Martinelli finished the game.
“This game was an offshoot of all the tough teams we’ve played so far,” Alumbaugh said. “We held Folsom to one score and 10 points and when you hold Folsom to 10 points, you did something right.”
No. 1 ranked De La Salle will now be driving toward a 30th consecutive NCS championship. The Spartans open East Bay Athletic League-Mountain Division play at home against No. 5 California. The Grizzlies will be moving up in this coming week’s rankings after a 19-18 victory over No. 3 Clayton Valley in their EBAL opener.
