Mater Dei Hammers Servite, Turning Showdown Into Rout

The Big Event--Mater Dei against Servite, No. 1 vs. No. 2--could not live up to the hype.

Top-ranked Mater Dei won every battle against No. 2 Servite in a surprisingly easy, 41-7 victory before 10,000 at Cal State Fullerton. Mater Dei is 5-0. Servite is 4-1.

“I honestly thought this would be a 28-24 game,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said, “but we came in with a good game plan, got them out of sync early and they dropped some balls, which they weren’t doing all season.”

Mater Dei quarterback Nick Stremick threw for 228 yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver Rod Perry caught seven passes for 139 yards and one touchdown. Running back Mike McNair turned a screen pass into a 43-yard touchdown and James Farley and Marcel Dailey each added a rushing touchdown. And David Castleton caught a 20-yard scoring pass from Stremick.

Servite, which hasn’t defeated Mater Dei since 1988 and trails in the series, 20-14-2, was penalized 12 times for 115 yards. And running back Vince Reed left the game with a separated left shoulder.

Quarterback Greg Cicero scored the only Servite touchdown with a three-yard run in the third quarter. Cicero, who had thrown only two interceptions in the Friars’ first four games, completed only 10 of 30 passes for 76 yards and threw four interceptions.

Mater Dei’s goal was to put Perry on Servite receiver Stephen Ward in hopes of slowing the Friars’ passing. It worked. Ward did not catch a pass.

“We wanted to make [Cicero] beat us [by passing to] someone else,” Rollinson said.

Mater Dei also hoped to pressure Cicero.

“We stressed to our kids all week we had to take Cicero out of rhythm in the first quarter,” Rollinson said. “He’s such a good quarterback. They are never out of the game.”

Cicero often tried to throw to well-covered receivers and was unsuccessful. By halftime, he had completed six of 22 passes for 54 yards. The Monarchs had three interceptions. They also had the game in hand.

Mater Dei jumped out to a 14-0 lead by converting two Friar turnovers into touchdowns. The first came at the 6:14 mark, when Ryan Neely stepped in front of a Cicero swing pass intended for Danny Rubalcava, and ran 24 yards into the end zone.

On Servite’s next possession, Cicero threw another interception.

This time, Nick Baclit returned it 17 yards to the Friar 21-yard line. Mater Dei needed only three plays to score, the touchdown coming on an 11-yard run by Dailey.

But the back-breaking touchdown came near the end of the half. Facing a second-and-10 situation on the Monarch 30, Stremick completed a 24-yard pass to Perry, and the Friars were penalized for having too many men on the field. The additional 15 yards moved the ball to the Servite 31.

Stremick, who had 122 yards passing in the first half, then threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Perry, who made a spectacular diving catch in the end zone.