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De La Salle quarterback Bart Houston (13) just may be the key to success for the Spartans offense over the next five weeks as teams gear up to stop breakout running back Lucas Dunne. In De La Salle’s first two games, Houston threw for four touchdowns and rushed for two more.
braces for tough five-week stretch By Chace Bryson | Editor
The smile had started to crack on Michael Barton’s face before the question had even finished being asked. The question? What did the De La Salle football team talk about when it went into halftime of its Sept. 17 game against St. Mary’s-Stockton tied 14-14? “We just talked about how our season is on the line, once again,” the Spartans junior linebacker said after the game. “And if we don’t win this game, we’re not
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SportStars™
September 23, 2010
Butch Noble
going to state, basically. That’s how it is every time we’re tied up (or behind).” Barton would know. He was in the locker room at halftime as a sophomore a year ago when De La Salle trailed 7-0
in its season-opener against Serra-San Mateo, and again a few weeks later when Amador Valley held a 14-3 advantage at the break. The Spartan teams of the past few years have had their share of hiccups over the season’s first month or so. But after this year’s group opened up with a 45-7 trouncing of Serra on the road, many expected this team had already begun its march back to the California Interscholastic Federation state championship bowl games. Perhaps the players were thinking that, too. “We had a bad week of practice,” junior quarterback Bart Houston said. “I think our heads got a little hot.” It was Houston — with the help of the shifty, and very speedy, running back Lucas Dunne — that helped turn the St. Mary’s game into an afterthought. Houston threw for three touchdowns (two to Dunne) and rushed for another as De La Salle outscored the Rams 26-0 in the second half and went on to a convincing 40-14 win. Dunne, who had more than 250 total yards from scrimmage in the win, performed great in the Spartans first two victories. But it was clear in the St. Mary’s victory that Houston will hold the key to De La Salle’s offensive fate in 2010. And that’s OK with him. “A lot more is on my shoulders,” said Houston, who took over as the team’s
inside look: de la salle starting quarterback in the fifth game of the 2009 campaign and helped lead De La Salle to an 11-0 finish and a CIF Open Division bowl victory. “I don’t have (graduated running backs) Terron Ward and Tyler Anderson this year. I don’t have the same line from last year. I definitely have a lot more on my shoulders, and it’s up to me to help (defensive standouts) Dylan Wynn and Blake Renaud lead the team.” And the time for hiccups are over. On Sept. 25, De La Salle will play host to defending Nevada state champion Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas — a team coached by Tony Sanchez, who came one touchdown shy of knocking off De La Salle when he was the coach at California High in 2008. The game against Bishop Gorman begins a five-week stretch of football that will test every facet of the Spartans’ game. De La Salle’s first four East Bay Athletic League opponents will be Foothill (Oct. 1), Amador Valley (Oct. 8), Monte Vista (Oct. 15) and San Ramon Valley (Oct. 22). “Every day, the coaches remind us that every game is a test, and this was just test No. 2 for us,” Barton said. “This year we started on a good stride compared to last year, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
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