CONCORD, Calif. — Friday night in Concord proved once again why drawing the No. 4 seed in the North Coast Section Open Division is considered to be a death sentence.
Pittsburg had the common task of taking on De La Salle, like other previous four seeds in the Open Division. But just like in recent memory, DLS proved to be too much for the Pirates in the 38-0 shutout victory.
De La Salle’s season continues, as they will face the winner of Monday night’s version for the first round between No. 2 Liberty and No. 3 Clayton Valley. And while the Pirates season ended, they showed a lot of life against the NorCal powerhouse.
De La Salle did what De La Salle does best, find the end zone. And in its first two drives they did so on third down. After two impressive stops from Pittsburg’s defensive linemen, it was Pittsburg native and son of Pittsburg football legend Lu Hearns, Lu-Magia Hearns Jr. doing damage against his father’s alma mater with an 86-yard catch and run touchdown to begin the game.
Dorian Hale followed it up with a 24-yard keeper, again on third down. Christopher Abbes extended the lead to 17-0 with a 33-yard field goal, which ended up being the score at halftime.
Pittsburg needed to answer back as they were still within firing distance. They came back at halftime and worked their way down the field with runs from Jack Lacy III and big plays from Jerry Johnson, who was filling in at quarterback for an injured Trey Turner.
A drive took up a chunk of the third quarter, but resulted in a missed field goal by Lorenzo Anaya.
“Really it could have a been a game there,” Pittsburg head coach Vic Galli said. “Our kids did good, they played tough.”
And the magic number of three came into play again, as this time De La Salle took just three plays to score and answer the Pirates' long drive. The Spartans' short drive ended in a Shamar Garrett 32-yard touchdown. Garrett also had a passing touchdown, his second throw of the year. The first one resulted in a touchdown as well.
“I saw whoever was guarding the slot and I knew the target was going to be wide open,” said Garrett. “I messed up a little bit on the throw but I didn’t mean to lob it down.”
De La Salle kept on tallying, and the game ended with a final score of 38-0.
This game was one of the few NCS playoff games still played, with increasing Air Quality Index readings surrounding the Bay Area due to the Camp Fire in Paradise.