Skip to content
  • Katella players hold "The Shield" trophy they claimed by winning...

    Katella players hold "The Shield" trophy they claimed by winning its annual rivalry game against Loara on Thursday night.

of

Expand
Associate mug of Kenny Connolly, Anaheim reporter.

Date shot: 12/31/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS /  ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ANAHEIM – Randy Furbush plays the role of the bruiser, which makes Francisco Pineda the speedster.

Asked to primarily throw the football and orchestrate the offense, quarterback Joseph Vasquez demonstrated Thursday night he, too, is just an added dimension in Katella’s running game.

Collectively, the Knights’ three-headed attack accounted for 359 yards on the ground and four touchdowns in Katella’s 38-7 victory over Loara in a nonleague game at Glover Stadium.

In improving to 3-0 on the season, the Knights gashed the Saxons to the tune of 454 yards rushing and totaled 555 yards of offense.

“We’re slowly getting better every week, the kids are blocking well and the backs are running hard,” Katella coach Fred DiPalma said. “We’ve got to continue to try and stay balanced. In the second half, we didn’t try a lot of stuff. Just kept it real simple.”

Simple was effective, though, as Furbush (164 yards) and Vasquez (101 yards) each eclipsed the century mark midway through the third quarter.

Vasquez’s 56-yard touchdown scamper midway through the first quarter gave Katella a lead it would never lose. Furbush added two first-half touchdowns, and his third of the evening put the Knights ahead, 35-7, five minutes into the second half.

Pineda added 94 yards of his own behind a dominant offensive line that has produced a 125-yard rusher in each of its first three outings this season.

The Saxons’ (0-3) struggles were not limited to the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, they tallied only 98 total yards and moved the chains just once in the second half.

Loara’s lone score came on a blocked punt in the opening quarter, when Nathan Cozza jumped on the ball in the end zone, cutting Katella’s lead to 14-7 going into the second quarter.

Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com