Football: De La Salle is ready for its annual road trip to Carson

There’s one thing that has been certain for the last nine years in California prep football: Concord De La Salle making its annual December road trip to Carson to play in a CIF state championship bowl game.

This season, the Spartans are 13-0 and set to play Corona Centennial (12-2) on Saturday at 8 o’clock at StubHub Center for the Open Division championship.

Second-year Coach Justin Alumbaugh is well acquainted with Centennial’s no-huddle offense. The coaching staff has faced the Huskies three times in bowl games, winning, 37-31, in 2007, losing, 21-16, in 2008 and winning, 48-28, in 2012.

“They have a lot of playmakers,” Alumbaugh said of this year’s Pac-5 Division champions.

It will be a sharp contrast in styles. De La Salle relies on the triple option as part of its veer attack. Centennial has the spread offense with its no-huddle attack. Both teams’ defenses have been playing well lately, but there could be lots of scoring.

De La Salle has two junior running backs with more than 1,600 yards rushing, Antoine Custer and Andrew Hernandez.

The Spartans were part of last year’s memorable final won by St. John Bosco, 20-14. They can’t wait for another road trip.

“We definitely look forward to it,” Alumbaugh said.

And, if you don’t know much about De La Salle, the movie about former Coach Bob Ladouceur, “When the Game Stands Tall,” just became available on Blu Ray.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer