PREP FOOTBALL : St. John Bosco Shreds Millikan Defense, 33-14

Every year, the Long Beach Millikan High School football team adopts a nickname for its defense. This season, it was “Top Guns,” and they shot down almost everybody they faced, limiting opponents to 6 1/2 points a game.

Bellflower St. John Bosco wasn’t intimidated. With quarterback Jim Sterner leading the way, the Braves assaulted Millikan by ground and by air and advanced to the Southern Section Big Five Conference semifinals with a 33-14 win Friday night at Millikan.

St. John Bosco (12-0), The Times’ No.3-ranked team, was leading 20-14 when Sterner, a 6-1, 190 pound senior, broke off an 82-yard touchdown run down the right sideline with nine minutes left in the third quarter. He sealed the win with a three-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Prukop with three minutes left in the third quarter.

“The stuff about their defense being overpowering wasn’t a factor,” said Sterner, who completed 7 of 16 passes for 129 yards and scored two touchdowns. “Our running backs just don’t get tackled at the line of scrimmage when they’re bursting through the holes.”

Bosco running back Oscar Meza, a 6-0, 180-pound senior, carried 16 times for 174 yards and scored on runs of 36 and 41 yards. He has 19 touchdowns this season.

Equally impressive was the Bosco defense, which stymied Millikan and sent standout running back Raoul Spears out of the game with an ankle injury in the second quarter.

“The defense really won the game for us tonight,” Bosco Coach Bill Friedrich said. “It’s about time.”

Until Friday, the most points that Millikan (9-2) had allowed was 16 in the Rams’ only previous loss, to Long Beach Poly.