Westminster Deals Millikan 30-15 Setback

Westminster High School defeated Millikan, 30-15, in unrelenting fashion in a nonleague game Thursday at Millikan.

The victory represented considerable improvement for Westminster, which had a shaky opening game and lost, 20-9, to Valencia last week.

“I’ve never seen a group of high school students so serious about correcting their mistakes,” said Stan Clark, Westminster co-coach.

Early on, Westminster seemed to do little wrong against Millikan, which was playing its season opener.

The Lions scored on two of their first three possessions and the defense rendered the Rams’ offense ineffective.

Quarterback Bob Elliott scored on a 3-yard run and Osavale Fiaseu scored on runs of 40 and 16 yards as Westminster led at halftime, 20-0. The Lions’ offensive line opened big holes for Fiaseu, who finished with 113 yards and a third touchdown in 16 carries, and Mike Graff, who had 39 yards in 8 carries.

Westminster, which passed 43 times last week, stayed on the ground most of the night.

“We were moving it so well on the ground that we said, ‘Well, we don’t have to throw it,’ ” Clark said. “We had to stay with what was working.”

Elliott completed 6 of 14 passes for 97 yards and didn’t seem to mind the lesser work load.

“We worked on the run a lot in practice,” Elliott said. “Our (offensive) line and the defense won the game for us.”

When Elliott did pass, he usually looked for tight end Van Tuinei, who caught 4 passes for 85 yards. But mostly Elliott handed the ball to Fiaseu.

Ryan Pence’s 34-yard field goal with 1:47 left in the third quarter put the Lions (1-1) up, 23-0, and it looked as if the game was over for all practical purposes.

But with 34 seconds left in the quarter, Millikan quarterback John Fierro threw an innocent-looking swing pass to running back Rod Marshal. After a couple of missed tackles and a juke or two, however, Marshal raced 74 yards for a touchdown.

However, Fiaseu put the game away with a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:27 left for a 30-7 lead.

Millikan’s other score came on a botched punt attempt. Millikan’s Irnacio Ramirez recovered a fumble by punter Vince Tanauu in the end zone and a subsequent two-point conversion cut it to 30-15, but only 2 minutes remained and the Lions were able to run out the clock.