Big Five Conference Final : Crespi Routs St. John Bosco to Earn 1st Championship

Want to win a high school football championship? Just keep giving the ball to Russell White. The problem is finding the 15-year-old behind the blur.

White gained 256 yards on 19 carries and scored 4 touchdowns on Friday night to lead Crespi High to a 49-14 victory over St. John Bosco in the championship game of the Big Five Conference.

The championship was the Celts’ first. They had lost two previous title games, the last in 1973 against Los Altos. It was also the first major-division championship by a Valley-area team-- ever .

An Anaheim Stadium crowd of 12,651, more than twice as large as any crowd Crespi has played before this season--and the Prime Ticket television crew--hardly fazed the Celts, who finished the season at 13-1.

“I did sense some awe by our players,” Crespi Coach Bill Redell said, “but it came at 3:30 this afternoon, instead of tonight. I brought them in here early just for that reason--to see it and get it out of their system. I think they did.”

Despite scoring on its first drive, St. John Bosco appeared more intimidated.

“Crespi came to play and I’m not sure we did,” said St. John Bosco Coach Bill Friedrich. “I thought we were awed by the stadium and the television and the crowd.”

The victory avenged a 32-27 loss to St. John Bosco in the ninth week of the regular season. That game decided the Del Rey League championship.

It was a sweet win for Crespi linebacker Sean Howard.

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

That goal may have seemed a little ridiculous two years ago, when Crespi was mired in a 0-9-1 season.

“This was a big win for us,” Redell said. “No one thought we could turn it around this fast. To go from an 0-9 season to the Big Five championship in two seasons is pretty remarkable.”

But not if you consider that White has appeared on the Encino campus since then.

On Friday night, he set a school record by outrushing the entire St. John Bosco team, 256-86. He had them outgained after only three first-quarter carries, when he gained 98 yards, the longest coming on a 69-yard touchdown run.

He finished the season with 2,354 yards and 31 touchdowns on 196 carries. Both his yardage and touchdown marks are state records for sophomores, according to Cal-Hi Sports.

White was not the only Crespi player to give the Braves headaches on Friday night. Senior fullback Jeff Kellogg gained another 147 yards on 16 carries and scored on second-half touchdown runs of 51 and 7 yards, as the Celts outgained St. John Bosco in total yardage, 483-292.

Crespi gained an average of 9.1 yards per play.

Oscar Meza, St. John Bosco’s leading rusher going into the game with 1,578 yards, was limited to only 58 yards on 16 carries.

The Braves’ only effective weapon was the passing combination of quarterback Jim Sterner and receiver Kelvin Means. They connected nine times for 172 yards. Sterner completed 13 of 27 for 206 yards but threw two interceptions.

St. John Bosco scored on the game’s opening drive.

The Braves (13-1) spent 6:26 marching 73 yards on 14 plays. Quarterback Jim Sterner took it in for a two-yard touchdown run.

While the drive was effective, it proved that St. John Bosco knew very little about play economy. They learned very quickly.

Crespi took the ensuing kickoff and began its drive at the Celt 31.

On the first play, White took a handoff and headed right. After plowing over Brave defensive back Means, he sidestepped Cary Windes and continued on for a 69-yard touchdown run, pulling the Celts even, 7-7.

Time of possession: about 10 seconds.

It took Crespi a little longer to score on its next possession.

This time, the Celts used eight plays to march 67 yards. Quarterback Rob O’Byrne capped the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Carpenter.

Gaining yardage was not exactly a problem for the Celts in the first half. Led by White’s 185 yards on 10 carries, Crespi racked up 243 yards to St. John Bosco’s 158.

Crespi, which didn’t punt in the first half, came right back to score again on its third possession of the first half. And again it was White doing the damage.

His 45-yard scoring run with 6:31 left in the half, increased the Celts’ lead to 21-7.

The Braves had an opportunity to trim the margin late in the half, but kicker Joe Gludt’s 25-yard field goal attempt was wide, prompting holder Windes to throw the kicking tee toward the St. John Bosco bench.

The frustration was understandable. The Braves, which had outscored its playoff opponents, 125-71, could barely stop Crespi’s offense.

The only possession in which Crespi did not score in the first half was its last.

The Celts got the ball at their own 20 and marched to the St. John Bosco 43 before O’Byrne was intercepted by Windes at the nine with 13 seconds left.

The win was the second by a Valley team in two days. On Thursday, Reseda defeated University to win the City 2-A title.

“I woke up this morning and saw the Reseda score,” tight end Carpenter said. “They blew University out. It gave me a feeling that the game was right there in our hand. We just had to close the first.”