Garfield High School's Steven De La Torre is stopped by a Bishop Amat defensive player during Friday's game at East L.A. College. Bishop Amat won, 23-0. (Photo by Gary McCarthy)
Story Created:
Sep 5, 2010 at 11:59 AM PST
Story Updated:
Sep 8, 2010 at 1:42 PM PST
As learning tools go, two things could be taken from Garfield High School’s season football opener.
One, the Bulldogs showed they can compete with an elite program such as Bishop Amat. Two, they discovered to actually beat one of those powerhouses, they’ll need to be solid in every phase of the game.
As Friday’s loss at East L.A. College by the misleading score of 23-0 showed, the Bulldogs can’t be deficient in any area and still survive.
“We forgot to bring one-third of our game and that was special teams,” Garfield coach Lorenzo Hernandez said. “We can play with anyone, but if we make mistakes, it’s going to hurt us.”
There was virtually nothing special about that part of the game for the Bulldogs.
They had a punt blocked four plays in and Amat recovered for a touchdown.
Zachary Shay’s 55-yard punt return in the third quarter set up Andrew Carillo’s 23-yard field goal.
The Lancers, coming off a 10-2 season, were unable to move the ball consistently, but compensated with big plays. A few snaps into the third period, Shay took a screen pass, shook off a couple of tackles and sprinted 68 yards for a score.
Then in the closing moments when Garfield was driving for a possible touchdown, Leonardo Vaal threw an ill-advised pass into coverage that was intercepted and returned 92 yards to the eight, setting up a final Amat TD.
Hernandez, though, had no complaints about a defense led by All-City linebacker Hector Cazales, All-City end Moses Saucedo and linebacker Jonathan Valles. Cazales sacked Rio Ruiz once and had another tackle for loss. Between them, they were responsible for Amat collecting only six first downs and 193 yards total.
Vaal was 14-for-28 for 133 yards, and save for the interception, showed promise.
“Leonardo can run and throw,” Hernandez said. “I thought our defense was stellar. I wish we could have helped them out better. Our offense struggled. We had some key drops and I thought our special teams would have been better.”
It doesn’t get any easier for Garfield, which has games with Orange Lutheran, Colony and St. Paul in the coming weeks.
“Orange Lutheran is a big, strong, well-disciplined team,” Hernandez said. “If nothing else, we will build on this and use it as a stepping stone.”
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