No. 1 Hart Puts Away No. 2 Saugus

The New Kids on the Block met the Establishment on Friday night. The encounter was not a pleasant one for the upstarts as Hart High rolled over Saugus, 42-13, in a Foothill League opener before approximately 9,500 at College of the Canyons.

Hart, ranked first in The Times’ regional poll, improved to 6-0. Number 2 Saugus dropped to 4-1-1. The Centurions, perennial losers in seasons past, have climbed to prominence under second-year Coach Jack Bowman, but they were no match for Hart on Friday.

Hart quarterback Davis Delmatoff, shook off a slow start and completed 11 of 21 passes for 226 yards and five touchdowns. He threw one interception.

Versatile tailback Deriek Charles gained 190 yards in 15 carries. His nifty running sparked the Indians in the second quarter when they blew the game open with 21 consecutive points.

Charles, whose older brother, Joey, coaches the defensive backs at Saugus, ran for one touchdown and caught a 29-yard shovel pass from Delmatoff for another. Charles said he and his teammates wanted to avenge last season’s 40-21 loss to Saugus.

“Oh, yeah, we definitely wanted some pay-back for what they did to us last year,” Charles said. “A lot of us are seniors this year and we wanted revenge.

“Our defense stumped then and gave the ball to (the offense) and that’s just the way we wanted it.”

Hart’s defense, which had shut out two previous opponents and allowed only 19 points, was again dominant. After a nine-sack performance last week against Quartz Hill, the Indians controlled Centurion quarterback Bobby Cowan, one of the better passers in the area.

Hart limited Cowan to 14 completions in 35 attempts for 198 yards. He did throw two touchdown passes but had three interceptions.

Hart also limited powerful tailback Chris Johnson to 56 yards in 15 carries.

Hart put the game out of reach on its second possession of the third quarter. Jared Halverson caught his second touchdown pass from Delmatoff, for 20 yards in the right corner of the end zone to make the score 28-7.

Kicker Tim Cronk was successful on all six of his extra-point attempts. Cronk missed last week’s game at Quartz Hill because of strained muscles in his lower back and right thigh.

“We did it all tonight,” Charles said. “I just don’t think we can be stopped.”