Prep Wrapup : Hawthorne Slams Door on Palos Verdes, 20-0

Palos Verdes High football Coach Bill Judy predicted that his team would have to hold Hawthorne under 10 points to have a chance of winning Friday’s Bay League opener.

As it turned out, the Sea Kings could have shut out Hawthorne and still not triumphed.

“I don’t think our offense is that bad,” Judy said after Hawthorne’s 20-0 victory at Palos Verdes. “I think their defense is that good. They’re awfully quick. They just overran us.”

The Cougars made it another long afternoon for Judy, who has lost six times without a win to Hawthorne in seven years as Palos Verdes’ head coach.

It was same scenario Friday. Hawthorne simply had too many athletes for the Sea Kings to contend with.

The Cougars (4-0) were especially dominating on defense. They limited Palos Verdes to 127 yards rushing and prevented Sea Kings quarterback Blake Anderson from completing a pass (0 for 9, one interception).

“I didn’t have much time,” said a banged-up Anderson, who was tackled for eight losses. “They blitzed a lot. We couldn’t stop them.”

It was the third consecutive shutout for Hawthorne, which has not allowed a point since giving up a touchdown to Hueneme in the first quarter of its first game. The Cougars have outscored the opposition, 75-7.

“No team scores on them,” Judy said. “I thought if we didn’t give up the big one, somewhere along the line we would be able to punch it in.”

Palos Verdes (3-1) prevented the “big one” until the third quarter, when Hawthorne erupted for all its points. Backup quarterback Kalvein Latu returned the second-half kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown, tailback Chris Alexander ran 92 yards for a TD on the next possession and quarterback Jamil Williams scored on a four-yard sneak, set up by an interception.

“We just had to execute,” Hawthorne Coach Goy Casillas said of his team’s second-half turnaround. “We had to play Hawthorne football.”

Judy said the kickoff return by Latu was a crushing emotional blow. “You could see the blood being pulled out (of us) right there.”

Hawthorne arguably has the South Bay’s best pair of inside linebackers in seniors Sione Mahe (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) and Anthony Smith (6-2, 202). They were in on nearly every tackle Friday, and Smith’s 37-yard interception return to the Palos Verdes 5-yard line set up the Cougars’ third touchdown.

“We had a linebacker a few years ago by the name of Robert Morris who was all-everything,” Casillas said. “Sione Mahe is definitely in that category, and Anthony Smith is right behind him.

“They complement each other. One (Mahe) is very physical, and one (Smith) is very quick.”

Casillas also lauded the play of Alexander, the speedy tailback who led all rushers with 149 yards on 11 carries.

“We knew that Alexander was going to be a good one,” the coach said. “He was good last year until he broke his arm.”

Alexander’s junior football season was cut short because of the injury, but he returned in the spring to help Hawthorne capture the state track title with a fifth-place finish in the 100 meters (10.68 seconds).

The 5-10, 175-pounder gave Palos Verdes a demonstration of his speed on his 92-yard touchdown run. Although several defenders appeared to have an angle on him, Alexander sprinted untouched up the right sideline.

Said Alexander: “I just tell the line to get me past the line of scrimmage and I’ll do the rest.”

It’s finally over.

Narbonne’s string of 23 consecutive losses, the longest skid in the state, came to a dramatic end Friday as the Gauchos pulled out a 23-20 victory over visiting L.A. Wilson on a 46-yard field goal by Wilfred Rodriguez on the last play of the game.

Characteristically, Narbonne did it the hard way.

The Gauchos blew a chance to take the lead with 57 seconds left when a low snap by Richard Fordiani botched the extra-point attempt. It ironically came after Fordiani’s diving, three-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Mike Ramirez had tied the game, 20-20.

But a coaching blunder by Wilson gave Narbonne another scoring chance.

After three incomplete passes, Wilson quarterback Feliciano Ramirez was instructed by his coaches to down the ball at his team’s 31 on fourth down. The change of possession stopped the clock long enough for Narbonne to rush its field-goal unit into the game.

Don’t expect Narbonne’s celebration to last more than a week, however.

The Gauchos open Southern-Pacific Conference play Friday night against Banning.

Rolling Hills football Coach Gary Kimbrell was understandably disappointed after his team committed six turnovers and lost its Bay League opener against Beverly Hills, 21-14, on Thursday.

The Titans (3-1) had looked sharp in their non-league wins over Redondo, Mira Costa and North Torrance, but Kimbrell sensed there was something wrong before the game at Beverly Hills.

“We were not ready to play,” he said.

Kimbrell hopes his team regroups by Friday. That’s when Rolling Hills plays host to Bay League favorite Leuzinger (4-0).

Because of an editing error, a headline in Friday’s South Bay sports section reversed the winner and loser of the Rolling Hills-Beverly Hills football game. The story carried a correct account.

Chris Cormier, Jeff Kimball and John Karambulas each scored two goals to lead Palos Verdes over visiting Miraleste, 8-7, in a non-league game Friday matching the premier water polo teams in the South Bay.

Karambulas’ second goal made it 8-6 and turned out to be the game-winner, as the No. 9-ranked team in the CIF-Southern Section 3-A Division prevailed over the No. 6-ranked team in the 2-A Division.

Miraleste’s Kyle Hildebrand led all scorers with four goals, three coming on penalty shots. Zoltan Gyurko added two goals for the Marauders (5-5).

In other events:

Leuzinger romped to a 40-0 win over Inglewood on Thursday, but the Olympians didn’t come out of their Bay League football opener unscathed. Wide receiver Quang Banks, who caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Zak Odom, suffered a knee injury and is listed as “doubtful” for Friday’s game at Rolling Hills. . . . South Torrance football Coach Don Morrow, formerly the offensive coordinator at Redondo, came back to beat his old team Thursday as the Spartans (1-3) posted their first win, 23-21, in an Ocean League opener. . . . How much does Coast Christian miss Earl Rhodes, the running back who was declared ineligible this season because he had already completed eight semesters of high school? Last year, with Rhodes, Coast Christian beat Chadwick in an eight-man game, 22-21. Friday, the Rhodes-less Saints fell to Chadwick, 47-0, to drop to 0-3-1. . . . Serra improved to 4-0 Friday with a 22-7 win over Saddleback and has now outscored its opponents, 144-27. . . . Bishop Montgomery (3-1) extended its winning streak to three games Friday with a 20-0 non-league victory over Pius X.