PREP FOOTBALL : Bolsa Grande, Despite 5 Fumbles, Defeats Gahr, 34-6

Bolsa Grande High School showed Friday night just how it plans to get through the 1986 prep football season.

Until last year a perennial second-division club in the usually weak Garden Grove League, the Matadors shook off a sloppy start to defeat host Gahr, 34-6, before a crowd of about 500 at Hanford Rants Stadium in Cerritos.

“We’ve had a year to mature and we want to get things going,” Matador Coach Greg Shadid said. “Our kids were ready to play tonight. We hope to play serious football this year.”

Indeed, utilizing a multiple-set running attack that relied heavily on a veer offense, Bolsa Grande racked up 428 yards in total offense, including 350 on the ground.

But the Matadors fumbled five times--all in the first half--and lost two. It was slightly more than two quarters before it became apparent that the Matadors had settled into Shadid’s offense. When that happened the team exploded for 20 points in an eight-minute span.

Gahr was held to a total of 68 yards. The Gladiators, who have 32 underclassmen out of 44 players on the team, had just one first down until the final nine minutes of play.

“Our defense was a strong point tonight,” Shadid said, “but I thought our offense did well, too.”

Bolsa Grande scored on its first play from scrimmage when quarterback Damon Fisher ran off tackle on the the veer option for a 57-yard score. That came with less than three minutes gone in the game.

With 6:52 left in the first half, the Matadors scored again on a three-yard run by running back Travin Lui.

Fisher, who left the game with 11:50 remaining because of leg cramps, passed 21 yards for another score to flanker Jeff Weir for a 21-0 lead with 6:44 remaining in the third quarter.

Ricky LePole scored on a 5-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter and Paul Howell added a 15-yard scoring run two minutes later.

Gahr’s lone score came with 8:06 left in the game on a 1-yard pass from backup quarterback Kenneth Humphrey to end Reggie Gilliam.

Lui finished with 103 yards on the ground, LePole had 84 and Shannon Valdez added 69 for the Matadors.