Powerful Salesian ends St. Vincent season

Defending North Coast Section champion Salesian ended St. Vincent High School’s football playoff run by scoring four times in the second quarter en route to a 48-6 win over the Mustangs at Martin Field in Richmond on Saturday afternoon.

The Pride unleashed too many weapons for the Mustangs, who stumbled for the first time after posting a seven-game win streak to capture the North Central League II title and a first-round win in Division V.

Salesian (9-2) advances to host Stellar Prep of Oakland in the semifinal round on Saturday while St. Bernard of Eureka hosts St. Helena.

It took the Pride almost a full quarter to shake off the rust from sitting out nearly three weeks of football as they led only 7-0 after the opening 12 minutes, but they combined a strong running game with some long range passes by sophomore Jalen Tragle to blow it open in the second quarter.

Senior running back Charles Hillary scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half for Salesian before it pumped the brakes down the stretch. A forfeit in the final scheduled game and playoff bye forced the long Salesian layoff.

Tragle was able to hook up with speedy Pride receivers on three long passes, including a touchdown of 22 yards behind the St. Vincent secondary before intermission. Tragle ended the game with six completions for 211 yards, mostly in the first half.

St. Vincent contributed to the avalanche of scores by fumbling into the end zone, with Salesian recovering late in the second quarter.

The visiting Mustangs were hampered by the first quarter absence of top running back George Sammon, who was nursing injuries to his back and ankle causing him to enter the game late.

St. Vincent quickly took advantage of the stunting Pride defenders by connecting on a well-designed screen pass from Dominic Pedersen to Sammon when he came into the contest in the second quarter. The play caught the Salesian defenders flat footed, resulted in a gain of 39 yards and marked the first time the Mustangs were able to move the chains.

Up until that play, the St. Vincent offensive game was handled by senior Jacob Farinha, who replaced Manny Reyes when the St. Vincent halfback was banged out of bounds on an earlier ground gainer. Reyes was shaken up on the hard hit, and never returned to the action.

Sammon opened many eyes in the East Bay when he broke away from a couple of Pride tacklers on the fourth Mustang series of the second quarter, and rambled 68 yards for the only score of the game for St. Vincent. The lightning-quick Pride secondary could not close any ground on the record-setting Mustang runner, who ran for his 26th touchdown of the season.

On the defensive side of the football, Sean Healy, Zack Sitchler and junior Will Tarrant had their moments. Healy was also able to keep the Mustangs out of difficult field positions with some low punts that bounced favorably on the artificial turf.

On one first half pass play by Tregle to a swing back in the flat, Scott Jepsen timed the toss perfectly and nearly had an open field ahead, but the ball bounced to the turf. Late in the second period, Kyle Danewitz jumped a short route to record an interception.

There was no sign of the early morning rain in the East Bay that ended almost two hours before game time, and sun-drenched conditions remained picture perfect for football throughout the entire game on the Salesian campus.

Both teams substituted liberally in the second half, with Salesian adding two more touchdowns to end the scoring. The Pride ran considerable time off the clock in the late going and took a couple of kneel-down plays to close the action.

St. Vincent moved the ball well behind the quarterbacking of Pedersen, who broke several gainers on draw plays up the middle to take advantage of the over pursuit of the Pride defense. Pedersen, under extreme pressure all afternoon, wound up completing 10 out of 18 pass attempts for 108 yards. Four completions were to active wide out Nick Vollert.

Senior running back Jas Murray made several strong runs for the Mustangs.

Healy led all St. Vincent defenders with nine tackles, followed by Sitchler with six. Defensive back George Morris turned in a solid outing in the second half with five solo tackles, including three in the open field.

The game marked the eighth appearance in the last nine seasons for the Mustangs under veteran head coach Gary Galloway. While many observers believe it was the strongest opponent ever faced by a Mustang football team, Galloway looked to the positive before the game by praising his club for its strong finish after early season losses at he hands of three playoff teams.

The Mustangs finished another winning season with an overall mark of 7-5.

It was the final game for the hard-working Sammon who finished with 81 yards on the ground and 1,315 for the season. Sammon, featured in the Cal-Hi Sports publication earlier in the week, was only one of three performers in the Bay Area to run for more than 1,000 yards and add more than 450 yards in pass receptions.