with it is not one normally seen from a team squaring off against the Spartans. The Gaels are coached by Tony Sanchez, a standout wide receiver at Granada in the 90’s, and former head coach at Cal High. “It’s exciting to come home,” Sanchez said prior to the game. “The East Bay will always be my home.” Sanchez was taking his third shot at coaching against De La Salle. Twice at Cal he came up short, including a 21-14 defeat in 2008 — his final year with the Grizzlies. With that history built into the game, the winning traditions of both teams, the national rankings, the high-profile recruits, the perfect weather, a packed house and TV cameras broadcasting live on the CBS College Sports Network – one may have been hard-pressed to find a better high school football atmosphere anywhere on that particular night. So, naturally, the game would begin by instantly living up to the hype. De La Salle’s Antoine Pickett took the game opening kickoff, and following a ferocious block by Oregon Statebound Dylan Wynn, raced down the left sidelines for an 89-yard touchdown. However, that would be the Spartans’ lone highlight of the first half as Shaquille Powell, an exciting sophomore running back for Bishop Gorman, stole the show. His efforts included a 17-yard scoring run in which he broke free from a pack of Spartan tacklers which provided the Gaels with a 14-7 halftime lead. The second half, though, was classic De La Salle football, as their famous power running game took over behind senior running back Lucas Dunne. Clinging to a seven-point lead late in the fourth quar-
ter, quarterback Bart Houston stared down the talented Bishop Gorman defense, and rose to the occasion. Facing a 3rd-and-7 from the 22-yard line, the even-keeled signal caller sprinted around the right end on a naked bootleg, past the imposing USC-commit Jalen Grimble, picking up 17 yards and a first down. Two plays later, Houston found the end-zone, sealing a 28-14 victory. “I’m not going to lie,” Houston said, “in the first half, I was kind of in awe (by Gorman’s size), but my coaches told me not to (think) that. I knew this was a big game, and we just needed to play our ball.” But here’s what makes the De La Salle players a different breed of high school football players. Rather than basking in the glow of a nationally-televised victory, the Spartans’ Boise State-bound linebacker Blake
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Renaud was already focused on the season ahead. “I know we played some pretty tough teams last year. We started off slow, but this year we’re still messing up in the beginning of the game,” Renaud said. “That needs to stop because we’re not going to win a state championship like that.”
Looking back After the teams shook hands, and De La Salle fans celebrated on the field, I stumbled off the campus, and drove down Treat Boulevard in a haze. The car clock read 11:30 p.m. as I pulled into home, after covering four games in 33 hours, witnessing last-minute drives, defensive stands, cross-town rivalries, and nationally-recruited players going toe-to-toe. Flipping through my notes and thoughts well into the
October 14, 2010
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