St. John Bosco beats Mater Dei every which way

In case his teammates didn’t grasp the significance of their game against Santa Ana Mater Dei on Friday night, DaVonte Young addressed them prior to taking the field.

And on the off chance they weren’t paying attention, the Bellflower St. John Bosco running back gave another speech at halftime.

“I said, ‘We’re playing Mater Dei. We haven’t won nothing yet,’” Young said. “‘We’re going to beat them sideline to sideline and goal post to goal post for four quarters.’ That’s exactly what we did.”

In a start-to-finish display of domination, host St. John Bosco routed its Trinity League rival, 24-3, for the Braves’ first victory over the Monarchs since 2002.

Young led the way with his words and his feet, rushing for 162 yards and two touchdowns in 23 carries. Royce Moore helped carry the load when Young’s hamstring tightened, rushing for 89 of his 101 yards and a touchdown in the second half.

“We didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes tonight, and that was the key,” said Braves Coach Jason Negro, whose team is 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the Trinity League.

St. John Bosco stopped Mater Dei (3-4, 1-1) on fourth down deep in Braves territory on the Monarchs’ first drive, then converted a pair of fourth downs on a drive that ended with Young’s five-yard touchdown run.

The Braves added a 35-yard field goal late in the first quarter before Young’s 39-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter gave them a commanding 17-0 lead.

Mater Dei’s offense had trouble sustaining drives. Quarterback Ryan McMahon completed 13 of 27 passes for 171 yards with an interception, but most of his yardage came with St. John Bosco comfortably ahead.

“We couldn’t answer with anything offensively,” said Monarchs Coach Bruce Rollinson, whose team had won three in a row before Friday. “All the bad stuff that was happening early in the year came back up.”

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