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CONCORD — In three games this season, De La Salle High has won them all, by a combined score of 107-23. None of the games have been perfect, according to the DLS coaches.
But the Spartans came pretty close on Friday night, running past a good Bishop O’Dowd team 58-16 before a crowd that included former Raiders coach John Madden, who was there to see his grandson quarterback the O’Dowd junior varsity.
Madden was gone by halftime of the varsity game, as the Spartans scored 38 points in the second quarter to turn a close contest into a 44-10 rout at the break. Twenty-three of those points came during a 2:36 stretch late in the second period, when DLS scored on a 15-yard run by Henry To’oto’o, a 21-yard interception return by Isaiah Foskey, a safety on a quarterback sack in the end zone, and another To’oto’o touchdown run, this one from two yards.
It was 21-10 when De La Salle went on its run, and the Spartans scored two more second-half touchdowns before O’Dowd running back Austin Jones turned in an electrifying 80-yard run to cap the scoring.
All three four-star recruits turned in great performances. Foskey had his pick-six and was a defensive thorn all night for O’Dowd, To’oto’o scored both DLS offensive touchdowns during that 23-0 run, and Jones scored two touchdowns.
De La Salle junior running back James Coby also electrified the crowd by returning the second-half kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown.
“Our offense really pleased me,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “Our runners ran a lot better. Both quarterbacks made good decisions. The offensive line was a lot crisper than it had been.
“But the defense gave up too many yards. It was not as tight as I wish it would have been.”
De La Salle outgained Bishop O’Dowd 426-302. But Jones, the Stanford-bound running back and one of the top high school prospects in California, accounted for 252 of those yards. He had 213 yards on the ground and both of the Dragons’ touchdowns. His first came on a 34-yard jaunt in the second quarter shortly before De La Salle went on its 23-0 run to close the first half.
The back-breaker in that outburst was Foskey’s pick-six that made it 35-10, followed by the safety 14 seconds later. After the interception, De La Salle kicked the ball to O’Dowd, which didn’t do very well with the kickoff, getting the ball at its own 6. On the next play, De La Salle sacked the quarterback in the end zone — it was one of five sacks for the Spartans — then got the ball back on the ensuing BOD punt, and marched 48 yards in nine plays to close the half.
Foskey credited De La Salle’s defensive line for his interception.
“I saw the defensive line, Beau Tagaloa, getting to the quarterback,” Foskey said. “I saw the quarterback cock his arm back and I knew he had to throw to number 20 (Jones).”
Foskey, a four-star recruit who ranks right up there on the prospect list with To’oto’o and Jones, jumped the pass and took it back for six.
Foskey also had some news on his recruitment, saying he will tweet on his final five next week. Thus far, he has been very quiet about his recruitment.
Jones was not discouraged despite the lopsided score. Bishop O’Dowd was playing its first game of the season. Though the Dragons came in 1-0, their victory was a forfeit win over Kennedy-Fremont.
“We hung with them for a while,” he said. “Then a couple of bad plays broke it open.”
It was 6-3 De La Salle at the end of the first quarter, and 21-10 with under four minutes to play in the first half before the Spartans erupted.
Bishop O’Dowd hosts Seaside in its home-opener next Friday while De La Salle takes on St. Francis in Mountain View.