El Camino Marks Homecoming With 35-0 Rout of Mesa

Saturday night was evening for reunions at El Camino College’s Murdock Stadium.

First, the game marked El Camino’s homecoming, and they celebrated with a 35-0 rout of San Diego Mesa.

Second, El Camino Coach John Featherstone was reunited with Mesa’s Len Smorin, who coached that school to South Coast Conference Championships in 1978 and 1979 with Featherstone as his assistant.

And third, Brian Connors, a workhorse running back, finally got reacquainted with the end zone--where he hadn’t gotten all year for El Camino--with a 1-yard touchdown plunge in the fourth quarter.

Tailback Aaron Craver had scored El Camino’s first touchdown on an acrobatic 23-yard pass play from Scott Yessner in the second quarter.

Craver caught Yessner’s toss in the flat, turned and leaped for the end zone, but he was submarined in mid-air by Mesa defensive backs Jimmie Robinson and Jim Pullman. Craver landed on his face mask in the end zone and the Warriors had a 7-0 lead.

Craver scored again in the third quarter, squirting over from a yard out. He finished with 71 yards on 18 carries and backfield mate Connors added 74 yards on 9 attempts.

El Camino got the rest of its scoring on a 1-yard naked bootleg by Frank Dolce for a TD, on 25- and 32-yard field goals by Dominic Cefalone.

El Camino (6-1-1 in the Mission Conference’s northern division) was ranked 8th in the state before the game and is now almost certain of getting a bid in either the Pony Bowl or the Western States Bowl.

The shutout was the first of the year for El Camino, which held Mesa (2-6) to only 117 yards of total offense. Cornerback Larry Bonner led the way with 3 interceptions, which tied an El Camino record for most in a game.

“Our defense from start to finish played an excellent game,” Featherstone said.

Quarterbacks Dolce and Scott Yessner split time calling signals for El Camino. Dolce, returning from an ankle sprain, completed 8 of 12 passes for 125 yards. And Yessner, Saturday night’s starter, tallied 203 yards on 13--of-22 passing.

Running back Neil Tuihalamaka and linebacker Edwin Ulufanua remained on a school suspension for their roles in an off-campus fight two weeks ago. Featherstone said he didn’t know if the two would be eligible to play in next week’s season finale against Cerritos.