September 17, 2021
The Pioneer • www.pioneerpublishers.com
Page 11
SPORTS
De La Salle’s 30-year undefeated streak ends Another historic and most likely never-to-be-duplicated streak by the De La Salle football program came to an end last Friday night in Mountain View when the Saint Francis Lancers scored the winning touchdown with 16 seconds left for a 31-28 win over the Spartans. It was the first time since Dec. 7, 1991 that the Concord powerhouse lost a game to a California team north of Fresno. The Spartans were unbeaten in 318 consecutive games against NorCal opponents since coach Herc Pardi’s Pittsburg squad defeated them 3527 in the Oakland Coliseum in the North Coast Section championship game. Of those 318 games, there were 316 wins and ties in 2004 to Palma and Clayton Valley (also coached by Pardi). In the midst of that run, of course, was the 151-game winning streak of which a movie and multiple books have been written. It started with the first game of the 1992 season through Sept. 4, 2004 when the Spartans lost in Seattle to Bellevue. St. Francis lost to De La Salle 48-0 in 2019. The year before when the Class of 2022 players were freshmen, the Spartans frosh team lost one game all season and that was to St. Francis! De La Salle coach Justin
Alumbaugh acknowledged that his team was second best last Friday and told the East Bay Times, “I give them all the credit in the world. They showed up prepared and fired up and physical. They were the better team tonight. ... They’re a great team, and they beat us tonight. It’s not like one of those, ‘Well, we should have.’ No, they beat us.” The fired-up home crowd of students, parents and alumni saw the Lancers go up 24-7 early in the third quarter. De La Salle TV reported that it was the first time the Spartans trailed a NorCal team by three scores since 1979 when Salesian of Richmond blanked DLS in the old Catholic Athletic League during coach Bob Ladouceur’s first season. The Spartans came back last Friday overcoming fumbles, penalties and a dropped interception in the St. Francis end zone for a sure TD in the fourth quarter to take their first (and only) lead 28-24 with 1:38 left in the game. Very few of the 318 games in the steak were even close and this time St. Francis had the winning answer as the Lancers drove 80 yards with senior runningback Viliami Teu making a huge run to put the ball in DLS territory and quarterback Matthew Dougherty throwing a 16-yard TD pass to Nicolas Andrighetto for the winning score.
SPORTS UNDERWAY OVERCOMING BAD AIR, HEAT AND PANDEMIC
The last 18 months have been like no other for local high schools so who should have expected the 2021-22 school year sports schedules to be much different? A combination of late summer heat and poor air quality from the numerous wildfires gave school officials, coaches and their student athletes more challenges since athletics returned last month. Concord High’s first football game of the season against Dougherty Valley was canceled due to air quality issues. De La Salle and Clayton Valley Charter had their first games delayed by one and three days, respectively. Northgate’s opener at Deer Valley was moved to Oct. 1. Last Saturday at the Honor Bowl in Brentwood, Clayton
BRENDEN BUSH CLAYTON VALLEY CHARTER
Valley Charter edged Liberty See more high school sports of Bakersfield 14-13 with Ugly results all month at Eagles quarterback and co- pioneerpublishers.com. captain Brenden Bush named FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Character Player of the Game. & RESULTS His senior classmates running Clayton Valley Charter 2back/linebacker Jordan Barbadillo and running back/safe- 1 (Div. 1)- 8/30 W 35-23 at ty Rahsaan Woodland II were the game’s co-MVPs. All fall sports except girls volleyball are contested outdoors so the air quality issues and extreme heat have been challenges for practice and games. Cross country celebrated the return of the Ed Sias invitational in Martinez last Saturday after the bizarre 2020-21 season when “meets” were held on school campuses. Carondelet finished third in the girls small school varsity race as junior Mary DeMartini took fourth and sophomore Kendall Foxworthy 10th. Clayton Valley Charter girls were ninth in the large schools led by soph Skylar Bennett who was 13th overall. On the boys side College Park was third and CVCHS seventh in the large schools race. Alex Walker and Daniel Messer were 18th and 19th for the Ugly Eagles. The 26th De La Salle Nike Invitational returns this Saturday at Newhall Park in Concord. The first DAL center meet is Sept. 29 at Hidden Valley Park with the second center meet Oct. 20 at Newhall. School: Mt. Diablo
D’Antonio Jerome
JAY BEDECARRÉ The Pioneer
DE LA SALLE ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
Coach Mark Halvorson is posthumously inducted into the De La Salle Athletics Hall of Fame. He was named the head varsity wrestling coach in 1999 and led the school’s program until 2021 when he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 57. In his 21 years as the head wrestling coach, he led the school to 11 each North Coast Section dual meet and team championships in the past 12 years while sending nearly 100 Spartans to state meets, where they claimed 23 medals and two individual state champions (Peyton Omania in 2018 and Kyle Parco in 2019). Halvorson also coached for Team USA Wrestling in Singapore, Mexico and Brazil. In 2016 he was selected as a Greco-Roman volunteer coach on Team USA for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Photo courtesy Tennessee Athletics
Kevin Simon was a star linebacker and running back for the Spartans and never lost a varsity game in three years, including two De La Salle USA Today national championship teams. As a senior, Simon was named 2000 Rivals National Defensive Player of the Year, Cal-Hi Sports’ State Defensive Player of the Year, and rated the No. 1 linebacker in the nation by ESPN and Rivals.com. He played football at the University of Tennessee from 2001-05, before a brief NFL career. Noah Merl (Class of 2001) was a standout soccer player for De La Salle for three seasons, earning two first team all-BVAL selections. A captain of the 2001 NCS championship team along with classmate Chris Wondolowski, he was named all-Contra Costa Times following his junior and senior seasons. Noah played college soccer at UC Berkeley where he was a threetime all-Pac-10 and Pac-10 allAcademic honoree and a three-year team captain. Merl was selected in the third round of the 2005 Major League Soccer Draft by the San Jose Earthquakes and later played three seasons with the Seattle Sounders, winning a United Soccer League championship in 2007. Travis Pfeifer (Class of 1997) excelled as a two-way lineman at De La Salle. He was named a Prep all-American by PrepStar. Following his senior season, he earned first team all-State, allCity, all-League, all-East Bay and all-Bay Area honors as an offensive lineman. Additionally, he was selected the City Player of the Year, East Bay co-Offensive Player of the Year and NCS Defensive Player of the Year. Pfeifer helped De La Salle win three straight mythical Division I state championships (1994-96) as the Spartans were 38-0 during that stretch. As a sophomore, he was part of the 1994 football team
that won the program’s first national championship and as a junior helped the Spartans to a No. 4 national ranking. His senior season team ranked second nationally. He earned a full scholarship to Stanford, where he was a three-year letter winner at nose guard and a member of the Cardinal’s 2000 Rose Bowl team. Jason Price (2006) was a three-year standout for De La Salle track and field. During his senior season, he posted the third-fastest 400-meter time in school history (48.28) and finished second at the NCS Meet of Champions. He also ran the first leg for the Spartans’ 4x400m relay team, which set a school record of 3:17.27, before finishing first at the 2006 NCS MOC. After De La Salle, Price attended the University of Southern California and was on the track and field team four seasons. A team captain as a junior and senior, he was Academic all-American in 2010 and a two-time all-American as part of USC’s 4x400m relay team, placing fifth in 2010 and seventh in 2009 at NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Price graduated from USC as a Presidential Scholar and also graduated from Harvard Business School in 2018. Kevin Simon (2001) was to be inducted with the class of 2020, but due to scheduling conflicts,
See Football, page 13
Athlete Spotlight
Mt. Diablo, De La Salle honor latest Hall of Fame inductees De La Salle and Mt. Diablo high schools will be honoring their latest Hall of Fame classes this fall with in-person ceremonies after neither Concord school was able to hold a similar ceremony last year. The class of 2021 with one coach, one team and six athletes will be inducted into the De La Salle Athletic Hall of Fame on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 3 p.m. on the school campus. The event is open to the public and registration is available online through the school’s Hall of Fame webpage. The Mt. Diablo Sports Hall of Fame will hold its delayed 2020 induction dinner honoring five athletes on Saturday, Nov. 6, at Zio Fraedo’s in Pleasant Hill. Tickets are available from Lou Adamo by calling 212-9332 or mailing a check to MDHS Hall of Fame, 1401 Stonecreek Ct., Martinez 94553. Checks are payable to MDHSSHOF. Tickets are $55 per person with proceeds going to help fund girls and boys athletic and academic programs at the school. DH
Turlock, 9/3 L 20-26 at Del Oro-Loomis, 9/11 W 14-13 Liberty-Bakersfield (Honor Bowl) at Liberty (Brentwood), 9/17 Stellar Prep-Hayward,
he will be inducted this year. He excelled at De La Salle as a star linebacker and running back for the Spartans. He played on two De La Salle USA Today national championship teams (1998 and 2000) and contributed to the school’s national-record 151game winning streak. As a senior, Simon scored 16 touchdowns as the team’s leading runningback. He was named 2000 Rivals National Defensive Player of the Year, Cal-Hi Sports’ State Defensive Player of the Year, USA Today, Parade, PrepStar and Super Prep all-American and was rated the No. 1 linebacker in the nation by ESPN and Rivals.com. He played in the inaugural U.S. Army All-American Bowl in 2000, before playing football at the University of Tennessee from 2001-05, before a brief NFL career. Simon was selected by the Washington Redskins in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL Draft. After his playing days ended, he has coached and scouted at both the collegiate and NFL levels. He on now on the Vols football staff. Dan Vinson (2004) was a four-year starter for the De La Salle lacrosse team beginning with the school’s inaugural 2001 season. A team captain for the Spartans in 2003 and 2004, Vinson earned all-America honors
See Hall of Fame, pg 13
High School
Grade: Senior Sport: Football & Basketball Coach Donald James is in his fourth year coaching Mt. Diablo football. One of the first players he met when he started in the fall of 2018 was freshman D’Antonio Jerome, one of five seniors on this year’s team who started on the junior varsity that first year and have been with the varsity the past three seasons. “D’A is a leader on and off the field. He’s one of those kids who works hard. He’s at practice every day, even when he’s injured,” his coach says. The team’s quarterback and free safety has been a captain for three years. Jerome was all-Diablo Athletic League Valley Division his sophomore year when the team was 2-8 after James’ first team went winless the previous fall. Last year’s squad won the school’s first league football championship in decades. There were no playoffs or all-league teams last year for the abbreviated spring season when Jerome led his team to an unbeaten record. In the DAL title game against crosstown rival Concord Jerome threw five touchdown passes to freshman Willie Ward and ran for another TD in the 60-13 victory. More than his success on the football field or basketball court, James looks forward to Jerome graduating next June and hopefully finding him a spot to continue playing in college. To demonstrate his player’s dedication, Coach DJ says Jerome is in the weight room with football teammates after his basketball practice. The Red Devils defeated American 16-6 last Friday in their first home game, but the QB was disappointed by his performance and told his coach, “I need to get back in the lab and watch film.” The Pioneer congratulates D’Antonio and thanks Athlete Spotlight sponsors Dr. Laura Lacey & Dr. Christopher Ruzicka who have been serving the Clayton and Concord area for 25 years at Family Vision Care Optometry. www.laceyandruzicka.com Do you know a young athlete who should be recognized? Perhaps he or she has shown exceptional sportsmanship, remarkable improvement or great heart for the sport. Send your nomination for the Pioneer Athlete Spotlight today to sports@pioneerpublishers.com.
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