De La Salle Routs Mater Dei

It doesn’t matter who or where it plays. The Concord De La Salle football team just wins, baby.

The Spartans ran their national-record winning streak to 91 games Saturday night, blowing out Santa Ana Mater Dei, 42-0, before an announced crowd of 15,819 at University of the Pacific.

In their second meeting in two years, the Northern California powerhouse had no trouble handling their Southern California challenger. And this time De La Salle was much more convincing in victory than the 28-21 win it recorded at Edison Field last year.

Sophomore quarterback Matt Gutierrez blistered the Monarchs, completing 15 of 22 passes for 300 yards and six touchdowns. Junior wide receiver Demetrius Williams caught three touchdown passes, and had 119 yards on four receptions.

The victory improved De La Salle’s record in the 1990s to an astonishing 115-1. The Spartans’ only loss this decade was a 35-27 defeat by Pittsburg in 1991.

Mater Dei (1-2) had not been shut out since a scoreless tie with Servite in its 1992 season opener. It was the Monarchs’ worst defeat since losing to Rialto Eisenhower, 56-3, in the 1993 Southern Section Division I final.

But the Monarchs contributed to their demise by committing seven turnovers, losing five fumbles and having two passes intercepted.

The closest Mater Dei came to scoring was in the fourth quarter, when the Monarchs drove to the Spartans’ seven yard-line. But the threat ended when Kevin Fordon intercepted a pass by quarterback Matt Grootegoed at the one with 7:40 to play.

“We lost our poise tonight,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said.

When asked how he planned to lift the spirits of the team, Rollinson shot back, “I don’t care about their spirits right now. We’re all going to suffer from this one.”

Convinced they had been too tentative on offense in last year’s game, Mater Dei was determined to throw its entire playbook at De La Salle. The key move was using Grootegoed at tailback, instead of only alternating Grootegoed at quarterback with Matt Leinart.

That was the one move that worked, as Grootegoed rushed for 88 yards in 13 carries. But the Monarchs could not throw effectively. Leinart passed for 55 yards, Grootegoed 21. Both had passes intercepted by Fordon.

Rollinson had said that for Mater Dei to have a chance, the Monarchs needed to stop D.J. Williams on the Spartan’s bread-and-butter play--the “dive” or handoff to the fullback up the middle.

“We must stop him,” Rollinson said, “and make their quarterback beat us.”

That’s precisely what Gutierrez did.

After seeing how geared the Monarchs were to stopping the run in their first series, the Spartans took to the air and drove 79 yards in eight plays for the game’s first touchdown. At the Monarch 24, Gutierrez found Demetrius Williams wide open at the 10 and Williams waltzed into the end zone to put De La Salle ahead, 7-0.

De La Salle forced the game’s first turnover, recovering a fumbled punt on the Monarch 25 two minutes into the second quarter. But Mater Dei’s defense stiffened, and eventually blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt.

But the Spartans took advantage of the next one. Fordon intercepted a Leinart pass at the De La Salle 30 at the 7:44 mark. Gutierrez drove his team 70 yards in eight plays, finishing with a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Devin Cook.

Mater Dei could have halted the Spartans’ march twice. Grootegoed forced Kevin Simon to fumble at midfield the the Monarchs could not recover the ball. On the next play, Gutierrez floated a pass down the middle that went through hands of Grootegoed and into the hands of Fordon for a 20-yard gain.

Mater Dei’s first-half miseries weren’t over. De La Salle got the ball one more time at its 36 with 1:23 remaining. The Spartans needed only five plays for their third touchdown. Gutierrez hooked up with D.J. Williams for a 36-yard pass play, taking the ball from the Spartans’ 49 to the Monarchs’ 15. On the next snap, Gutierrez threw a perfect fade pass to Fordon in the end zone to up the lead to 21-0.