Halftime Wake-Up Call Lets El Camino Flatten Mesa, 38-14

SAN DIEGO —  It was evident in El Camino’s first-half performance Saturday that an early-morning road trip to San Diego had taken its toll.

Having boarded a bus at their own school at 7 a.m. to play their first day game of the season, the Warriors looked sluggish despite eventually prevailing, 38-14, over a struggling San Diego Mesa team in Mission Conference play at Merrill Douglas Stadium.

The victory extended El Camino’s nation-high winning streak to 16 and improved its record to 9-0 (8-0 in the conference). San Diego Mesa fell to 3-5-1 and 2-5-1.

“There’s no question that we didn’t execute in the first half,” said a soaking-wet El Camino Coach John Featherstone after his players emptied a bucket on him. “I haven’t really had to get on their case all season, but at halftime I chewed them out a little.”

It worked. The Warriors scored four times in the second half, the first touchdown coming on a 22-yard bomb from quarterback Frank Dolce to Shannon Thompson.

The second one, a one-yard plunge by Mike Wyrick, was set up by a 14-yard pass from Dolce to David Blakes. That gave El Camino a 24-0 lead with 8:21 left in the third quarter.

On their next possession, the Warriors drove 68 yards in six plays, capped by a 30-yard pass from Dolce to Khevin Pratt, who made a diving catch.

El Camino’s last touchdown came with 13:09 left on a four-yard run by Alfred Lowe. The sophomore led El Camino with 115 yards rushing on 20 carries. Dolce completed 20 of 41 passes for 252 yards.

“I knew we were outmatched from the start,” said Mesa Coach Len Smorin, whose team was playing its homecoming game. “They just have an excellent football team, and they don’t have any weaknesses.”

Mesa scored its first touchdown in the third quarter when wide receiver Joe Welch returned an El Camino punt 94 yards.

The Olympians scored again in the fourth quarter with their best drive of the game, 79 yards on eight plays, concluded by quarterback Scott Allen’s 26-yard pass to Donnell Ragsdale.

In the first half, only the Warriors’ defense seemed awake, limiting the Olympians to 53 total yards. But El Camino’s offense fumbled twice, and Dolce completed a modest 12 of 25 passes for 130 yards.

The Warriors scored their only first-half touchdown with seven minutes left in the first quarter on a 16-yard interception return by defensive end Jeff Cummins. Louis Perez’s kick gave them a 7-0 lead.

Several fizzled El Camino drives produced only a 32-yard Joe Jezulin field goal with nine minutes left in the half.

The Warriors will close the regular season in their homecoming game against Cerritos next week.