PLACENTIA – Villa Park has one of the county’s most explosive offenses.
Spartans quarterback and Purdue commit Nick Sipe is usually the one to grab the headlines, but his supporting cast stole the spotlight on Friday night.
John Stamos rushed for 131 yards and three touchdowns as the 10th-ranked Spartans downed El Dorado, 38-24, in a nonleague game at Valencia High.
The senior running back had 143 total yards and three TDs in the first half.
Stamos scored on three short runs. He also broke a 49-yard run on a fourth-and-1 near midfield. That set up Sipe’s second touchdown, a rollout, 2-yard toss to Paul Valle that made it 35-3.
Sipe threw for 271 yards and two touchdowns, including a 47-yarder to Hunter Ancich.
Stamos called it “a near-perfect half of football,” but he focused on his team’s lack of sharpness in the second half. El Dorado (2-3) outscored the Spartans, 21-0, after halftime.
“Never quit, never stop,” Stamos said of the lessons to be learned. “I thought before this game that we were a good team at not doing that (stopping). I guess that’s something that we have to work on.”
Robert Arroyo (89 rushing yards) had a 45-yard kickoff return that led to El Dorado’s only points of the first half, a 31-yard field goal by Nathan Jaquez.
Arroyo concluded both of El Dorado’s third-quarter drives with rushing scores, bringing the deficit to 38-17.
The Golden Hawks continued to rally behind Arroyo’s third touchdown with 6:24 left. Jaquez recovered his own onside kick, but the Spartans came up with a fourth-down stop to end the threat.
Villa Park (4-1) is averaging 35.8 points per game. Sipe takes pride in the offense’s efficiency.
“I think it’s definitely a shift from last year in terms of just relying on big plays,” Sipe said. “We can be efficient and work down the field with 10-play drives.”
