DIVISION I : Sualua Sets the Tone for Mater Dei Rout

All Nicky Sualua had to do was bend down, pick up the ball and run. The rest was easy.

On the first play of the game, Sualua returned a fumble 30 yards for a touchdown, setting the tone for Mater Dei’s 40-0 victory over Encino Crespi Friday night at Orange Coast College.

By game’s end, Sualua had scored six touchdowns and rushed for 106 yards in 16 carries, turning Mater Dei’s opening-round game in the Southern Section Division I playoffs into a laugher.

And speaking of laughs:

When the powers that be at the Southern Section office put together the Division I playoffs pairings, they must have had a Mater Dei-Rialto Eisenhower rematch in mind.

And why not?

In last season’s championship game, Mater Dei routed Eisenhower, 35-14, in front of some 33,000 in Anaheim Stadium, earning the school its first section championship since 1965. After Mater Dei’s victory Friday and Eisenhower’s 49-8 blowout of Lakewood, they’ll meet again in next week’s quarterfinals.

“You know, Tom (Hoak, Eisenhower coach) and I talked about a film exchange,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “We both saw this coming before we went to the (section) office to pick up the pairings.

“They’re saying, ‘We want to make some money and we want some interest in the tournament.’ ”

After a coin flip this morning, Mater Dei and Eisenhower, each 9-1-1, will learn the site of next week’s game.

Where Mater Dei goes, a big crowd is sure to follow.

Friday, Monarch fans among the 4,000 at OCC watched Sualua blow through huge holes in the line for one big gain after another.

His fumble return for a touchdown seemed to be a back-breaker for Crespi, an at-large team that finished with a 7-4 record.

“It took the sting right out of them,” Rollinson said.

Said Sualua: “I just saw the ball rolling on the floor and picked it up.”

Perhaps thinking the play--a run over the right side by fullback Deron McElroy--was whistled dead, no one gave chase.

Things only got worse for Crespi after that.

Sualua capped Mater Dei’s first possession, a 75-yard drive, with a two-yard scoring run with 3 minutes 31 seconds left in the first quarter.

By the end of the half, Sualua had added touchdown runs of seven, two and one yards and Mater Dei led, 34-0.

Touchdown No. 6 came on a two-yard vault into the end zone with 3:56 left in the third quarter.

Asked if he had ever scored that many touchdowns before, Sualua smiled and said, “Oh, no.”

Mater Dei’s defense, led by Sualua and defensive back Ray Jackson, held Crespi to 77 yards passing and 104 rushing.