Football: After overnight bus ride, Gardena Serra players are home and trying to learn lessons

It was early Saturday morning, after a 6 1/2-hour overnight bus ride home from Scottsdale, Ariz., and Gardena Serra Coach Scott Altenberg was asked to comment about his team’s 35-20 loss to Saguero on Friday night.

A groggy Altenberg said, “We played well in the first half. We’re a really young group and kind of wore down and made a lot of mistakes in the second half. I think we’re going to be a good team but we’ll have growing pains.”

Among the standouts for Serra was senior defensive end Tamrick Ross. He was a backup last season to Oluwole Betiku, now at USC. Ross had four sacks on Friday night.

Quarterback Jalani Eason had touchdown passes to John Jackson and Bryan Addison.

“In the first half, you could see what we could be,” Altenberg said. “We were controlling the game and stuffing them on defense. Guys wore down because of lack of maturity.”

Now it will be back to work preparing for the battle of the South Bay _ a game against Narbonne on Friday night at El Camino College. And perhaps taking a nap, too.

Correction: An earlier version of this blog had Kordell Ross making four sacks. It was Tamrick Ross.

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