By Steve Breazeale
JSerra’s junior running back Casey Eugenio was all over the field at Dolphin Stadium on Friday night in the Lions 21-10 non-league victory over Dana Hills.
The shifty tailback rushed for 140 yards on 25 carries and scored all three of the Lions (4-0) touchdowns in the contest that left the Dolphins (0-5) still searching for their first win of the season.
The first half had a distinct old school feel to it as both teams came out with an apparent plan to run the ball and gain yards chunk by chunk.
After botching a fake punt attempt early in the first quarter the Dolphins turned the ball over to the Lions and Eugenio took over. After picking up a few short gainers Eugenio made his first big move by breaking to the outside, scrambling back to the inside and beating a Dolphin defender in a sprint to the goal line to complete an impressive 41-yard touchdown run. The junior would strike again with three minutes to go before halftime on a two yard run that gave JSerra a 14-0 lead at the break.
“Dana Hills was aggressive with their defense,” Lions head coach Jim Hartigan said. “But we stayed with our running game and were able to pull off some good runs.”
The smash mouth football picked back up again at the start of the second half when Dolphins senior running back Marcus Hughes drove the Dolphins down the field and finally broke through for a big 21-yard touchdown run to cut the Lions lead in half at 14-7.
With the Dolphins inside the Lions 30-yard line on their next possession, senior backup quarterback J.P Ashton was sent in to replace junior starter Mac Vail, who had to leave the game due to back spasms. The Dolphins were facing a third and long situation and Ashton scrambled his way out of a broken play for a 16 yard run. Ashton’s big gain set up a Logan Warren field goal that made it 14-10.
The Dolphins sustained drives in the third quarter ate up a majority of the clock and kept JSerra off the field.
“We were slow in the first half but we stepped it up in the second both offensively and defensively,” Dolphin head coach Todd Rusinkovich said. “Unfortunately it was just kind of too little too late.”
Ashton was a perfect three out of three on pass attempts until an errant ball was intercepted by Lions junior defensive back Dante Pettis. It was big play for the JSerra defense, which held on to survive the late Dolphin offensive surge.
Both teams would tack on a score each. JSerra scored on the drive following Ashton’s interception (which was Eugenio’s third touchdown) and Dolphin junior Jack Clendenen reeled in a Hail Mary bomb as the clock struck zero.
