CARSON – In the final hours of a grueling 16-game season, with everything from an unbeaten season to a state title and even a possible national championship at stake, St. John Bosco’s football team had to dig deeper than it had all season.
What emerged was a dynamic all-around performance that showed off just what a deep and talented team the Braves were in 2013.
The Braves’ 20-14 victory over De La Salle of Concord late Saturday night at StubHub Center didn’t just give them a 16-0 record (the best-ever in state history), the first state title in their history and a national high school championship on several season-ending polls, one being Cal Preps. It didn’t just end the powerful Spartans’ 40-game winning streak and their four-year reign as California’s open division state champion.
It also established, once and for all time, that the Braves’ defense was worthy of as much praise as their explosive, headline-grabbing offense. It showed that the Braves’ bench could make a difference. And, as an added bonus, it proved that on those rare moments when special teams needed to make a difference, the kicking game was pretty darn good, too.
Start with the fact the championship was preserved when 6-foot-1, 203-pound junior end Gavin Windes – an oft-used backup – deflected a pass by quarterback Chris Williams. The fourth-and-7 play began at the St. John Bosco 30 and Gaines leaped sideways to intercept his own deflection at the 38 with just 2:15 left.
“That was the play of the year,” Coach Jason Negro said minutes after the Braves’ survived a scary comeback by the Spartans, who trailed 20-7 with seven minutes to go but scored on Williams’ stunning 49-yard touchdown bomb to Marquis Morris and got the ball back at the Braves’ 49 with 4:30 left.
“Their momentum was great. They had their fans and it’s a proud program,” Negro said. “I could almost feel it slipping away. The D dug in deep and made that big stop.”
It was a proud moment for defensive coordinator Chris King, who had the Braves well-prepared to play their best game of the season against the Spartans’ veer offense.
“They did an amazing job against a great team that makes that offense very difficult to stop,” he said. “(At the end) I’m not really sure if Gavin didn’t tip that ball that it wouldn’t have been a first down for them.
“That’ll go down in Bosco lore as a big-time play.”
The Spartans, who came in averaging 365 rushing yards and 453 total yards a game, managed just 157 net rushing yards against the Braves. They ended up with 254 total yards.
Linebacker Chandler Leniu, as he usually did during the season, led the defense with 10 tackles and an interception that was followed by Josh Rosen’s 60-yard touchdown pass to Jaleel Wadood, making it 10-0 in the second quarter. Malik Dorton added seven tackles.
Defensive lineman Ivan Martinez had a key sack in the game and was part of a front seven that engaged in a physical war with the Spartans.
“This is an amazing feeling. Ecstacy,” said the 6-foot, 253-pound Martinez. “Winning CIF was a good feeling. This is a great feeling. We ended their streak, which made it even better.”
The fact the defense was critical to the outcome was a nice little bonus.
“It’s always fun when you win the games on defense, because they say defenses win championships,” Martinez said. “Even though we don’t get all the notoriety, we still play. We play hard.”
De La Salle would no doubt agree.
“Everyone was kind of doubting (the defense) after the Centennial game because we gave up 49 points (in a 70-49 win),” Negro said. “But we understood the reality of that game and prepared well for De La Salle.”
The Braves might have won the game handily had it not been for a rash of out-of-character holding calls in the third quarter. Leading 17-7 at halftime after a masterful 10-play, 73-yard drive ended with Rosen’s second touchdown pass to Jaleel Wadood, the Braves were called for holding five times on their first three second-half possessions.
A 51-yard touchdown run by Sean McGrew that would have made it 24-7 entering the fourth quarter was negated, as were several other big plays. All the Braves ended up with despite moving the ball well was a 25-yard field goal by Reid Budrovich that made it 20-7 with 8:48 left in the fourth quarter.
“I want to keep it PG, but that was pretty frustrating,” senior center Elijah Zabludoff. “There must have been 200, 300 yards of offense called back.
“If we didn’t get those holding calls, some of those plays would have been the back breaker.”
As it was, Rosen completed 12 of 17 passes for 200 yards and the two TDs to Wadood, who enjoyed a grand finale to his storied career at St. John Bosco. Wadood caught five passes for 113 yards.
The Braves also got 148 yards from sophomore running back Sean McGrew, who would have been well over 200 without the holding calls. With Rosen adding 69 rushing yards, one a late 37-yard run that sewed up the state title, the Braves finished with 399 total yards.
That last run was a bit of a lifesaver for Rosen, who bobbled a couple of snaps and almost lost a fumble that contributed to De La Salle getting the ball at the SJB 44 with a real chance to pull off a comeback victory.
“I would never have been able to live with myself if it ended like that,” Rosen said. “The defense had a huge stop. It felt so good to have the opportunity to put the game away.”
Kicker Reid Budrovich and punter R.D. Cole also played a role in helping the Braves overcome the miscues by the normally unstoppable offense. Budrovich made two field goals, which just happened to be the difference in the game, and Cole dropped 42- and 34-yard punts at the Spartans’ 2- and 5-yard lines in the third quarter, making it a lot easier for the defense to keep De La Salle bottled up while it was 17-7.
“Its unbelievable, all the work, all the adversity,” Wadood said. “It’s been a long season, not just because of the games we played, but how hard we worked from the time we came back to workouts.
“We knew we had to play confident as a team to finish this out.”
Team being the operative word.
Contact the writer: jimthomas@lbregister.com
