New De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh got tested early on in his debut, but his Spartans managed to pull away in the closing minutes for a 34-14 victory against Clayton Valley.
Clayton Valley put a scare into De La Salle after Miles Harrison scored on a 10-yard run to tie the game 7-7 with 2:04 left in the first quarter. Harrison’s touchdown came 7 minutes after De La Salle running back John Velasco ran down the right sideline from 56 yards out to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead on their second play from scrimmage.
Velasco led the Spartans' offense with 184 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 18 carries and showed why he is one of their two starters at running back in the veer offense.
The other running back, Das Tautalatasi, made his presence felt more on defense, finishing Week 1 with two interceptions.
The Spartans took a 14-7 lead on Jerek Rosales' 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Rosales lost track of the ball at first after it took a hop past him, but he was able to break multiple tackles with numerous shifty moves en route to the score.
Outside of that long kick return, De La Salle wasn’t flashy, it was just able to get the job done by wearing its opponent down down on the lines. Their offensive line averages a monstrous 272 pounds -- almost comparable to college lines. Most of the O-Line will likely be playing in college someday.
Eagles running back Miles Harrison picked apart the DLS defense with big run after big run. His 5-foot-10 frame oozes speed and strength, which gave him the ability to pile up the carries. However, he did sustain a hip injury in the first half, but was able to return after halftime. He finished with 175 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.
Harrison is flying under the radar as a junior. He is the heir to Joe Protheroe, now at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who rushed for more than 3,000 yards last season.
Quarterback Chris Williams connected with junior Adam Mayer for his only passing touchdown of the game. Williams completed the 28-yard touchdown to an open Mayer in the end zone and was able to give the Spartans a 34-14 lead and effectively put the game out of reach.
Williams didn’t need to throw much, completing 5-of-9 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown.
De La Salle held just a 21-14 lead at halftime and had the crowd buzzing, but they made adjustments and shut out the Clayton Valley offense in the second half.
“At halftime we made adjustments,” said Washington State-bound cornerback Kevin Griffin. “We focused on the play-action. They were passing on us in the first half, but we just got it together and stopped the passing. They could barely run on us. We were tackling good and free safety Das made some good plays and our offense was just driving down the field.”
Griffin thinks his team is still a work in progress.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Griffin said. “Tomorrow (Saturday) we are going to see it on film. We’ve got to get back to it. We’ve got Serra next week, so we’ve got to get it together.”
