SAN MATEO, Calif. – They turned on the lights for the lone Friday night game under the lights at Serra this season, but by the end of the third quarter and holding a 21-0 lead the Padres had pretty much turned them out on visiting Mitty.
Serra (5-0, 2-0 West Catholic Athletic League) used a stifling defense and more than enough offense in a convincing 35-7 victory that celebrated its homecoming.
The performance by Serra was far from perfect. They led 14-0 at halftime but the lead could have been greater if not for mistakes and penalties. The Padres had a dropped touchdown pass on their first series, a lost fumble, junior quarterback Maealiuaki Smith had two passes intercepted and was sacked twice, and they had 65 yards in penalties while the defense only allowed 52 yards of total offense.
Even with that scenario and only holding a two-touchdown lead, Serra never seemed like they weren’t in control of the game.
“It was a sloppy first half but we expected Mitty to be tough,” said Serra head coach Patrick Walsh. “They were 4-0 and playing their tails off. It’s another WCAL night.”
Smith, who was making only his fifth varsity start, shook off the first-half interceptions to finish 15 of 23 for 231 yards and two TDs. To his credit, despite the two picks and two sacks, Smith was 10 of 15 for 156 yards and a touchdown in the first two quarters.
Still, as it’s been all season, the Serra defense has been the strength of the team. Last week on the road at rival St. Francis, the Padres only led 8-7 at halftime before the defense clamped down in a 29-7 victory. Serra silenced the powerful Folsom offense with a 17-12 victory on the road to open the season. They followed that up by holding De La Salle to three scores in a 24-20 road victory. They bent but didn’t break against a very good Central Catholic-Modesto team and the offense put up a season high for points in a 42-30 home win.
Against Mitty it was the defense that actually set up the first score.
After the dropped TD pass, the Padres got the ball right back when on the second Monarchs play from scrimmage De La Salle junior transfer Marley Alapati picked off Wills Towers for the first of two interceptions of Mitty’s senior quarterback.
The first Serra touchdown did not come easy. Following the Alapati interception, it took a leaping, backward 33-yard pass reception by senior Grant McGovern on fourth-and-six to keep the drive alive. Two plays later, junior running back Jabari Mann scored on a 7-yard run and the Padres had a lead they would never relinquish.
Mitty took the ensuing kickoff and looked like it might get something going. But after six plays Mann, who plays linebacker on defense, got in for the first of four sacks on Towers and the Monarchs had to punt. That pretty much closed out the first quarter with Serra holding a 7-0 lead.
The fumble by Smith in the early second didn’t hurt Serra as the defense forced another punt after a three-and-out by Mitty.
Serra got the ball on its own 32 and three plays later, all passes from Smith to Joey Villaroman, the Padres signal-caller found the senior wide receiver on a 39-yard TD pass with 7:02 left in the third quarter and the hosts had the two-touchdown halftime lead.
Mitty took the second-half kickoff after deferring to start the game, but went nowhere when the Serra defense forced another three-and-out.
That's when the junior running back duo of Jaden Green and Danny Niu took over and extinguished any real hopes of a Mitty comeback. Green broke loose for a 37-yard run followed by a 28-yard run by Niu on the next play. After a Mitty penalty moved the ball half the distance to the goal line, Green closed out the third-quarter scoring when he blasted in from 2 yards out to make it 21-0 with 9:54 left.
Serra extended the lead to 28-0 on the first play of the fourth quarter on a 20-yard TD pass from Smith to McGovern.
Mitty (4-1, 1-1 WCAL) finally got on the scoreboard on a 3-yard run by junior running back AJ Cenizal, but at that point it was academic.
The game’s final tally came on a 14-yard run by Padres senior Malachi Gastrock, but at that point it was with mostly subs in the game for both teams.
“I made some mistakes in the first half and the second half too, but got things back on board after my coaches made the right adjustments,” Smith said. “This is the kind of game where we have to learn from our mistakes and move on.”
Green finished with 88 yards rushing and the one score, Mann had 51 yards rushing and the one TD, and Nui rushed for 46 yards. Villaroman had 85 yards receiving to go with the TD reception, and McGovern finished with 81 yards receiving and a score.
Niu wanted to talk about the bright side.
“The positives in this game were defense and everybody knew what they needed to do,” Niu said. “We started a little slow but we got it together and got the ball moving.”
With it being homecoming and the one night game the Padres play on the own turf Walsh admitted the obvious.
“I thought in the first half we could have pulled away a little more but we had some mistakes and stupid penalties,” Walsh said. “Sometimes in these night games our brains aren’t exactly where they’re supposed to be and that’s my fault. I do my best to coach around it, but it’s a different environment for our kids.”
“There was some weird stuff and that’s stuff that’s disciplinary deal on my part.,” continued Walsh. "But at the end of the day the defense pitched a shutout in the first half and only gave up seven points.”
Cenizal was only able to muster 31 yards on 12 carries to go with the Mitty score, but he and the other Monarchs played hard all game, and that was something that was not lost on head coach Danny Sullivan. Since taking the helm in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, he’s starting to build something at Mitty after going 1-12 combined between the short and full season last year.
“We still have a lot of work left to do,” said Sullivan, a 2005 graduate of Los Gatos where he quarterbacked the Cats to an 11-2 season and a CCS Medium Schools championship before playing at Arizona State. “I probably won't sleep very well tonight trying to think of ways to make us better, but this was a great lesson for us to learn.”
“We’re an angry bunch of Monarchs and we’re going to continue to play hard,” Sullivan continued. “That’s the one thing I don’t have to worry about and that’s them playing hard, and that’s the key along with continuing to find ways to improve.”
Going forward, if Serra can beat Folsom and De La Salle, and not play its best game and still win easily against a more than decent Mitty, speaks loud and clear. It would seem to indicate head coach Patrick Walsh and his Padres might very well be headed for another state CIF Open Division showdown with a Southern California behemoth.
That’s a long way off, but always-tough Bellarmine in San Jose is up next Friday.
“This is hard league and we’re going to get everyone’s best,” Walsh said in conclusion.” It’s the game of the year for everyone that plays us after what we’ve done in these first five games, and we can’t give any of our opponents anything.”
So the Padres have given not anyone very much at all.
