PREP FOOTBALL : Amat Has Answers on Field

La Puente Bishop Amat High consistently fields one of the top football teams in the state.

But even though the Lancers had little trouble defeating Compton Dominguez, 21-0, in a nonleague opener Friday night at Bishop Amat, it marked the end of a tumultuous and strained off-season.

Consider what Bishop Amat has gone through since the end of the 1998 season.

The Lancers’ coach, Tom Salter, left after five seasons. He was replaced by a former assistant, Mike DiFiori.

Their quarterback, highly regarded Chris Rix, transferred to Santa Margarita for his senior season.

And last month, defensive lineman Paul Reyna, a 1999 Bishop Amat graduate playing at Boise State, collapsed and died shortly after beginning fall practice.

It didn’t matter. Bishop Amat scored all of its points in the first half, and the defense easily handled the speed of Dominguez.

“It hasn’t been hard to recover from those things,” senior safety Jason Leach said. “Our new coach was an assistant here before and we’ve really come together as a team the last few weeks.”

It showed. The Dons didn’t cross midfield until late in the third quarter and didn’t seriously threaten to score until the final minutes of the game.

Even then, Dominguez was stopped. Quarterback Shaun Hunt lost the ball on a sneak at the Bishop Amat 15-yard line and it was recovered by the Lancers, who ran out the clock.

Leach led the defense, contributing two sacks, a fumble recovery and a solid hit on receiver Marvin Simmons on a fourth-down play when Dominguez was driving in the fourth quarter.

“We really wanted to preserve the shutout,” Leach said. “We played well on defense and wanted to keep it up through the whole game.”

Junior Shane Russell, the replacement for Rix, was nearly flawless in the first half. He completed his first six passes, including a nine-yard touchdown to tight end Gilbert Perez on his first attempt.

Russell also had a nine-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Joe Huggett gained 98 yards in 14 carries and scored on a two-yard run with just over three minutes left in the half for the 21-0 lead.

Bishop Amat wasn’t as effective in the second half. Russell misfired on his three pass attempts, finishing six of 10 for 89 yards.

“There’s a couple of little things that need to be fixed,” DiFiori said. “If we had a little better pass protection, we would have been all right. We’ll get it fixed.”

Dominguez was held to 28 yards of offense in the first half, before finally moving the ball in the third quarter. But the Dons could only chew up time as they slowly moved down the field, coming up empty on every possession.

“We were powerless,” Hunt said. “We got our heads down and didn’t get them back up.”

Simmons gained 64 yards in 10 carries to lead Dominguez, which was playing without 6-foot-6, 330-pound offensive lineman Brandon Lockheart, sidelined because of a knee injury.