Venice Defense Dominates Granada Hills, 28-0

It’s been a goal of the Venice High football team to build a championship defense to complement its high-powered offense. That defense may indeed bring a title home if it keeps performing as it did Friday night against Granada Hills.

The Gondoliers throttled quarterback Brandon Charls and the usually high-scoring Highlander offense in a dominating 28-0 nonleague victory at Venice.

Venice (4-0), The Times’ No. 13 team, sacked Charls 11 times for losses of 88 yards to partially negate the quarterback’s 233 yards passing.

Linebacker Oton Garcia had five sacks and defensive tackle Erick Lobos and defensive end Tommy Walker each had two, and defensive backs Mesphin Forrester and Dontrail Cail each made an interception.

Granada Hills (3-1) averaged 39 points in its three victories.

“We know our offense can score points,” Lobos said. “Offense wins games but defense wins championships.”

Despite an erratic effort, the Venice offense did enough to give its defense a nice cushion. Quarterback Beau Davis completed 11 of 19 passes for 115 yards, including 11-yard scoring passes to James Lewis and Ryan Graves.

Lewis and Graves also hooked up on their own scoring play, with Lewis on the receiving end of a 57-yard option pass play.

The Gondoliers’ speed on defense wreaked havoc on the Highlander offensive line. Charls was continually pressured and Granada Hills never found its running game.

Lobos scored on defense when he picked up a fumble by teammate Byron Ellis and ran 16 yards into the end zone.

“They just out-quicked us tonight,” said Tom Harp, Granada Hills co-coach. “I was a little surprised that we couldn’t protect our quarterback a little better. They proved they were No. 1 in the City

Eric Stephens

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L.A. Dorsey 48, L.A. Roosevelt 8 -- Running back Stafan Johnson, a sophomore, scored two touchdowns and quarterback Donald Price passed for another, all in the first quarter at Rancho Cienega Park, where the Dons’ defense continued its early-season dominance.

Price completed seven of 11 passes for 176 yards, including touchdowns of 40, 30 and 27 yards. Johnson finished with 83 yards and two touchdowns in eight carries as Dorsey (4-0) scored on seven of its nine possessions, including its first four.

The Dorsey defense, which has allowed only 21 points in four games, nearly had its second consecutive shutout, but Roosevelt running back Chris Hurtado scored on a 16-yard run with nine seconds left in the game, and the Roughriders converted a two-point try.

Dorsey, which led, 27-0, at halftime, forced five fumbles and converted the turnovers into 28 points.

Roosevelt (3-1) began the game averaging 414 yards and 39 points per game, but Dorsey held the Roughriders to 155 yards.

Dorsey running back Jeremiah Johnson, who sat out last week’s game because of a strained foot, returned in limited action and finished with 59 yards and a touchdown in seven carries.

-- Peter Yoon