WESTMINSTER – Nathan Arrington threw for 204 yards and two long first-quarter touchdowns to James Fatasia and ran for two more scores as visiting Katella overpowered Westminster, 42-21, in a nonleague game Friday night.
Francisco Pineda ran for 153 yards and two more touchdowns for the Knights (4-0), who pushed their regular-season winning streak, dating to October 2014, to 19 games.
Noah Melbon passed for 146 yards, his first time in triple digits, and touchdowns to Isayah Anderson and Brandon Cox for Westminster, which has lost its first three games for the first time since starting 0-4 in 2010. The Lions, already missing running back Jacob McGookin with a sprained knee, lost six players to injury, the most serious an apparent broken arm to two-way starting lineman La’au Masaniai.
Katella was ahead less than two minutes into the game, when Fatasia caught Arrington’s pass over the middle at midfield and outran the defense for a 56-yard touchdown. The lead lasted just 73 seconds, until Melbon hooked up with Arrington for a 24-yard score, and Carlos Rocha‘s kick made it 7-6.
The Knights took charge with two scores in the last three minutes of the half – an Arrington run and another 56-yard pass to Fatasia. They went ahead by three touchdowns on an 11-yard Pineda run five plays after Nick Fernandez collected a fumble by Josh Avila, who ran for 73 of his 93 yards in the second quarter, at the Lions’ 31.
Westminster made it 28-14 as Melbon found Cox in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 8 just before halftime, but Katella scored on its first two possessions of the second half to put the Lions away. The first, an Arrington run, was enabled by a fumbled punt that Edward Williams recovered, and the next, a Pineda run, followed a 60-yard Arrington-to-Christian Sanchez pass play to the 9-yard line.
The Knights’ reserves reached Westminster’s 12 before the drive broke down midway through the fourth quarter, and Westminster drove 85 yards — with Christian Jaime running for 60 yards on five carries — to narrow the deficit on Irving Rosete’s 9-yard run.
