Final thoughts from the Home Depot Center ...
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Concord De La Salle’s 37-31 victory over Corona Centennial Saturday was the first victory by the North in the two seasons that California has played its state bowl championship series.
For DLS (13-0), it avenged last year’s 27-13 defeat to Canyon Country Canyon.
‘I’m real glad the guys finished the season the way that they did,’ Coach Bob Ladouceur said. ‘I knew this game could’ve flopped either way. But I thought (we) deserved to win. Great teams pull it out at the end.
‘Centennial is a great football team. We knew they were going to get points and get yards. In the first half our defense put us in good spots.
‘We didn’t stop them much in the second half, but when we needed to, we did.’
The 31 points that Centennial (13-2) scored matched its season low, a 31-24 victory over Clovis West. It was the most points allowed by De La Salle, which had given up a previous high of 22 in its season opener, a 40-22 victory over San Mateo Serra. Centennial scored 24 points in the second half.
It was also the offensive show that some predicted. Centennial gained 404 yards, and De La Salle 357. Both teams averaged 5.5 yards per play.
It was a good show, too. The CIF state office has been fortunate thus far. After six games, all but Orange Lutheran’s victory over Palo Alto last season was decided in the fourth quarter.
That’s a pretty good average. But the attendance, 12,505, seemed low. Not that there seemed to be more people in attendance. But because weather was perfect. Ken Gunn, the event director, said that he would be disappointed if there weren’t as many this year as last, when it rained on the last two games.
Well, there were fewer here than there were last year.
It was about the only thing that didn’t go right.
-- Martin Henderson
-- Image from www.rivals.com