Talk Brings a Statement by Seraphs

It doesn’t pay to make the St. Bonaventure High football team angry.

The Seraphs were upset about comments they read in a newspaper article last week and took it out on Oak Park.

They opened up a 44-0 lead in the first half and coasted to a 50-0 victory Friday night over the Eagles in a Tri-Valley League game at Oak Park.

“They actually gave us the fuel for the fire when they said in the newspaper that they could play with us,” running back Lorenzo Booker said.

Booker apparently took the words personally.

He rushed for 202 yards and four touchdowns in nine carries, and that was merely the first half.

Booker finished with 274 yards and five touchdowns in 12 carries and caught a screen pass that he turned into a 47-yard scoring play in the third quarter.

He has 1,651 yards and 19 touchdowns in 110 carries this season.

“We really felt we needed to come out fast and we needed to respond,” Coach Jon Mack of St. Bonaventure said.

“With all of the talk about them having the team to beat us, they challenged us publicly and if you challenge us publicly we’ll respond.”

That was obvious on St. Bonaventure’s first play from scrimmage, when lineman Matt Bouvet ran 40 yards on a fumblerooski to set up a touchdown.

St. Bonaventure (7-0, 1-0 in league play), which has won a Ventura County record 21 consecutive games, scored the first three times it had the ball.

The Seraphs, who entered the game averaging 471 yards, finished with 455, including 358 rushing.

It made for a long night for Oak Park (5-2, 1-1), which had high expectations.

“We respect every opponent going in,” Coach Dick Billingsley of Oak Park said. “I just thought we’d play a little better than we did.”

The Eagles finished with 129 yards. Josh Walker completed six of 21 passes for 81 yards, with two interceptions.