Servite knocked off by Notre Dame

NORWALK - Servite and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks were determined to get their nonleague game in Friday night at Cerritos College.

Lack of electricity caused a 93-minute delay, but the two state-ranked teams eventually mixed it up on the field.

Junior quarterback Ryan Kasdorf was as good as advertised for Notre Dame, passing for over 409 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Knights (5-0) to a 31-24 victory over the Friars (3-2). (Full game stats.)

Notre Dame is ranked No. 17 in the state by CalHiSports.com. Servite is No. 15.

The electricity at the stadium went out at about 6:30 p.m. because of an event on the other side of the campus that sucked all the juice from the stadium and crashed the system.

Fortunately, trouble-shooters from the electric company were able to solve the problem and the game kicked off at 8:33, roughly an hour after the scheduled kickoff.

With the Trinity League opener against archrival Mater Dei a week away, Friars coach Troy Thomas didn't even want to think about re-scheduling the game for tonight.

"We're going to get this game in," Thomas said, while keeping his team focused on the game during the long blackout.

The first half featured three lead changes, but the Knights had a 17-14 lead over the Friars by halftime.

The Friars' rugged defense kept them in the game and set up both of Servite's touchdowns in the first half.

The Friars got five sacks and one interception in the first half.

Kasdorf had a big first half,and an even bigger second. He came out throwing the ball all over the field to start the third quarter.

He caught the Servite defense off-balance with a play-action pass to Kenny Boggs that went for a 53-yard touchdown, giving the Knights a 24-14 lead with 8:11 left in the quarter.

Servite got its offense going late in the third with a 10-play, 69-yard scoring drive that finished up early in the fourth quarter.

Bijon Samoodi caught a 32-yard pass and two plays later scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to cut the Knights' lead to 24-21 with 10:01 remaining in the game.

But the Friars couldn't stop Kasdorf. Notre Dame responded with a 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive.

And the Knights did it despite three holding penalties and an illegal procedure penalty.

Kasdorf connected with James Flynn on 10-yard touchdown pass to cap it for a 31-21 lead.

Servite came back with a 13-play drive that resulted in a 36-yard field goal by Michael Loftus.

The Friars failed on the onside kick attempt, but the defense got the ball back for them with 1:06 left and 80 yards to go with no timeouts.

The Friars gave it a valiant effort on their final drive, but Notre Dame's Chris McNeill intercepted Cody Fajardo's Hail Mary attempt at the 2-yard line with 2 seconds left.

• Click here for full game stats and the Servite schedule and full roster.

Contact the writer: carias@ocregister.com