BUENA PARK – That tidal wave of black jerseys crashing down on a line of scrimmage near you is John Park, Eric Vasquez, Rodolfo Bustos, Nick Sheffer and Marquis Knighten.
And riding that nightmarish tidal wave of destruction are Alex Jung, Brandon Castelo and Cade Caffrey.
Sunny Hills’ offense is a pulverizing and polished rushing machine.
The Lancers ran for 313 yards Friday night and beat Fullerton, 21-7, in both teams’ Freeway League opener at Buena Park High.
“These guys love each other,” second-year coach Pete Karavedas said of his offensive line. “They absolutely love being around each other, in the locker room, in practice, at school. They believe in being physical; they believe in our style of play.
“We talk about winning ugly, and they take pride in it.”
After losing 29 straight league games from 2010 to the penultimate week of the 2015 season, Sunny Hills (5-1, 1-0) has consecutive Freeway wins at Fullerton’s expense.
Last year’s streak buster catapulted the Lancers into the playoffs. This year’s should earn Sunny Hills some top-10 votes in Division 8.
“We’ve got that rush now,” Jung said. “We have the talent, the work ethic – everything we need to keep grinding and pulling out wins.”
Quarterback Jung led the team with 143 rushing yards and scored twice. Castelo and Caffrey rushed for 165 yards between them.
“We love blocking for our guys,” Knighten said. “If they run hard, we block hard. We preach that every game.”
Sunny Hills took a commanding 21-0 lead at the break. In the first two quarters, Karavedas’ offensive line – comprised of four juniors and a senior – sprung its running backs for seven rushing plays of 10 or more yards.
The Lancers converted second-and-long and third-and-short situations all the same. Jung and Castelo rarely were brought down on initial contact. Caffrey, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound bowling bowl, begged a bulldozer to knock him off his feet.
Fullerton (3-3, 0-1) gained 28 total yards in the first half. The Indians didn’t mount any sort of threat offensively until late in the fourth, when Adam Gonzalez scored on a 10-yard reception.
Contact the writer: bwhitehead@scng.com
