For Openers, Booker Shows St. Bonaventure’s Dominance

Right at the start of league play, St. Bonaventure High showed that it may be in a league by itself.

Lorenzo Booker scored six touchdowns and St. Bonaventure routed Oak Park, 55-0, in a Tri-Valley League opener on Saturday afternoon at Ventura High.

Booker rushed 17 times for 182 yards and five touchdowns, caught a scoring pass and ran for a two-point conversion to account for 38 points. He scored on runs of 21, three, nine, one and 43 yards, and on a 33-yard reception.

“This is the best game I’ve ever had,” Booker said. “I never thought I’d score six touchdowns.”

Booker scored St. Bonaventure’s first six touchdowns, including four on consecutive possessions in the Seraphs’ 28-point second quarter.

The outburst gave St. Bonaventure (6-0) a 35-0 halftime lead.

The torrent of touchdowns continued into the second half, with Booker running 43 yards for his last score at the end of the Seraphs’ first series of the third quarter. He left with 7:53 to play in the quarter.

His teammates took over from there, adding a pair of field goals and one touchdown.

“This is probably the best team I’ve ever been involved with,” Booker said.

“If we keep playing like this, we can be the best team this school’s ever had.”

Booker, a 5-foot-8, 160-pound sophomore transfer from Oxnard, matched the school record for touchdowns in a game, set by Topi Sanchez in 1995. Sanchez scored 40 points in that game.

Booker had 249 yards rushing against Santa Maria St. Joseph two weeks ago but had never scored more than three touchdowns in a game.

Booker, however, was not a one-man show on Saturday.

Kicker Mike Barrow made field goals of 25 and 29 yards, and converted his five extra points. The 11 points surpassed Chris Lombardo’s school game kick-scoring record of nine set in 1997.

The Seraphs recovered a fumble that led to one field goal and senior linebacker Chris Nelsen intercepted a pass by Nate Elder and returned it 75 yards for St. Bonaventure’s final touchdown with 3:15 to play.

Brandon Mascorro returned an Oak Park quick punt 39 yards to the Eagle 21 to set up Booker’s first score.

Adam Gray-Hayward, who had five receptions for 72 yards, caught a 28-yard pass from Michael Spargo to fuel another drive.

Spargo finished with 10 completions in 21 attempts for 130 yards and one touchdown.

The Seraphs took advantage of poor punting by Oak Park to ensure good field position throughout.

St. Bonaventure outgained Oak Park, 251 yards to 39 in the first half, and 359-150 total.

Oak Park gained only 33 yards on the ground.

Junior Eric Testan was limited to 25 yards in 10 carries. Testan had two games of 200 yards or more and another of more than 100 yards this season.