Cal U trounces Clarion, 40-13
CALIFORNIA — The California University of Pennsylvania football team opened up Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division play with its seven straight victory in conference openers after a 40-13 win over Clarion University Saturday afternoon.
The Vulcans’ (3-1, 1-0) offense started out slow against the Golden Eagles’ (0-4, 0-1) defense, as the first four drives produced no points.
With the game deadlocked at zero in the late stages of the second quarter, the Vulcans galloped to a 20-0 lead in a span of 4:22.
Quarterback Peter Lalich capped off a 10-play, 95 yard drive with a 16-yard strike to wid eout Chedrick Cherry at the 5:32 mark of the second stanza.
The Vulcans’ defense got into the scoring action, as defensive tackle Steve Santia broke through the line of scrimmage, caused the Clarion’s running back to fumble, and then scooped it up and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown.
“It was a read-run and I just broke through the line and made the tackle,” Santia said. “I saw the ball was on the ground and just picked it up and ran as fast as I could to the endzone. I was tired after the score. Our entire defense has played well and we are all running to the ball.”
The Golden Eagles went three-and-out on its next drive, and the Vulcans made it 20-0 when Lalich tossed a 56-yard score to Thomas Mayo.
“We just cleaned some things up and finally started driving on them,” Vulcans coach John Luckhardt said. “They threw a lot of different looks at us and it took us time to get adjusted. That defensive score was the turning point, and after that our offense took over the game.”
On the second and third possessions for Cal in the second half, running back Jeff Knox punctuated each drive with one-yard plunges into the end zone.
The Vulcans garnered their last score of the contest, as Mayo broke a 65-yard bubble screen from Lalich with 7:35 left in the game.
“We just have to believe in our system,” Mayo said. “Consistency is big for us. On that bubble screen, I broke some tackles and just took off. That corner was talking trash a couple of plays before, so it felt good to beat him and get the touchdown.”
Mayo caught a team-high seven balls for 164 yards, while Lalich finished his day with 350 yards on 23-of-32 passing. Tailback Lamont Smith added 155 yards on the ground for the Vulcans.
“Keeping our turnovers down was a big thing we talked about this week,” Luckhardt said.
“We turned the ball over way too much the last two games. Our offense was balanced, and Pete spread that ball out a lot. We lost some people due to injury last week, but those new people need to fill in the holes and we have to continue to improve.”