Dorsey Pummels Taft, 37-7

Somewhere, the 6 teams that Taft High defeated this season are probably breaking out in a collective, ear-to-ear grin. Wednesday night, Taft, purveyor of bash-em-till-they-bleed football, ran into a team that looked like it invented--it’s difficult to say refined --power football.

Dorsey, behind 343 yards on the ground, defeated Taft, 37-7, in a City Section 4-A Division quarterfinal playoff game at Taft.

After Dorsey scored on its first possession of the second quarter, the Dons (9-2) were never headed, scoring on 6 consecutive possessions. And for Taft, a team that calls its offense “smashball,” it was payback in a big, big way.

“Oh, boy, speed really kills,” Taft Coach Tom Stevenson said. “They’re a lot bigger and faster that we are. They just came right at us and we couldn’t stop them.”

Dorsey used its backfield to perfection after the first quarter. The Dons failed to move the ball on their first 3 possessions--thanks to 3 punts inside the Dorsey 17 by Taft punter-quarterback Rich Cosentino--but roared back in the second quarter and kept on rolling until it was a rout.

Taft (6-4) trailed, 10-7, at the half after taking a 7-0 lead on an 11-yard run by senior tailback Kelvin Byrd, who finished with a game-high 138 yards in 21 carries. But in the second half, Taft was unable to slow, much less stop, the Dorsey ground attack. On the Dons’ first possession of the third quarter, senior quarterback Roman Foster scored on a 2-yard keeper to give Dorsey a 16-7 lead with 7:53 left.

Taft tried a razzle-dazzle play on its next possession, and paid for it. Byrd’s halfback-option pass was intercepted at the Taft 48 by Dorsey’s Chris Cook. Two plays later, Foster rolled to his right, avoided 2 would-be tacklers, rolled back to his left and ditched 3 more Taft defenders, then cut up the left sideline and back across the field into the right corner of the end zone for a spectacular 27-yard touchdown to give Dorsey a 22-7 lead.

Sharrieff Shah had 135 yards and 2 TDs in 8 carries for Dorsey.