Big Five Conference Final : White Gets 4 Touchdowns in Crespi’s 49-14 Victory

Four scores and seven days ago, Russell White talked of revenge, of getting back at St. John Bosco High School of Bellflower for the regular-season defeat that cost his Encino Crespi team the Del Rey League title.

Friday night, a week after their semifinal win over Rialto Eisenhower, White and the Celts got their revenge, winning the Big Five Conference football championship.

Fueled, as usual, by White’s lightning, Crespi rolled up 436 yards rushing to score a surprisingly easy 49-14 win over previously unbeaten St. John Bosco before a crowd of 12,651 at Anaheim Stadium. Likewise, the performance by the 6-1, 190-pound sophomore was, as usual, spectacular, a 258-yard, 4-touchdown effort that should leave no doubt as to who is the best prep running back in Southern California.

“It was a bummer to lose to them the first time,” Crespi senior linebacker Sean Howard said. “But we knew that if we met them in the playoffs, we would win. Our team got down after losing to Bosco, but we rebounded the next week against St. Francis. We knew we could fulfill our goal, and we did it tonight.”

St. John Bosco (13-1) also played it close to script, falling behind by two touchdowns by halftime. The Braves were down, 21-6, in the second quarter when the teams met the first time, and there were other great comebacks during a season in which they were the surprise team of the conference, but it would not happen this time.

A 21-7 halftime lead for Crespi (13-1) made it a White-wash from the start:

Carry No. 1: After St. John Bosco scored on the opening drive of the game on a Jim Sterner keeper from the two, Crespi returns the kickoff to its own 31. From there, White sweeps right, turns the corner, makes a stop-and-go move that sends Bosco defensive back Cary Windes flying past and sprints 69 yards for the score.

“It gave the team a boost, a real big boost,” White said of the play. “We tried to plan it somewhat like this.”

Carry No. 2: On first and 10 at the 50, he gains 25 yards to put the ball deep in Bosco territory. Five plays later, with 11:11 left in the first half, quarterback Rob O’Byrne hits 6-5 tight end John Carpenter in the end zone and, with Jon Budge’s extra point, makes it 14-7.

Carry No. 7: On fourth and one at the Bosco 45, White blasts through a big hole over left tackle and scores again. Budge’s kick gives the Celts a 21-7 lead.

White had 99 yards after his first three carries, more than Bosco (86) had all night, and teammate Jeff Kellogg added 147 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground. All told, O’Byrne passed just nine times on the night.

St. John Bosco, working out of the veer, got the bulk of its offense through the air, Sterner completing 13 of 27 attempts for 206 yards and 2 interceptions. Kelvin Means caught nine of those for 172 yards, including one of 51.

Carpenter, for one, could see it all coming.

“We’ve improved 1,000% (since the first meeting),” he said. “When we played them the last time, we did not play as good as we knew we could have. This time, we gave it everything we could.

“This morning, I looked at the newspaper and saw the Reseda score (in the City 3-A final Thursday night). They blew out University and it gave me the feeling that the championship was right in our hand. We just had to come out tonight and close the fist.”