Athlete of the Week: Serra's E.J. Lahlouh

With Serra celebrating its senior day in the final home game on its regular-season slate, Lahlouh was mindful the pregame ceremony to honor those on roster from the class of 2018 might come at a cost. And with Serra entering the game tied atop the West Catholic Athletic League standings with Valley Christian, Lahlouh — on this day, of all days — embraced his role as a junior leader.

“Just stay focused with all the distractions today,” Lahlouh said of his pregame mindset.

Sure enough, Serra stumbled out of the gate. A breakdown in the secondary saw Valley Christian go up 7-0 on its third play from scrimmage. An ineffective Padres possession and the Warriors were right back on the attack.

Then Serra’s defense, fronted by Lahlouh’s game-high 12 tackles, took over the contest. The Padres held Valley Christian to 146 total yards of offense. And in doing so, Serra’s offense, after opening the game with two straight three-and-out series, found its sea legs to score 35 unanswered points.

Lahlouh played his most inspired game of the season. In his first year as a starting middle linebacker — he backed up WCAL Most Valuable Linebacker TC Lavulo last season — he has been a fiery presence all year; but to say he has been rough around the edges at times might be an understatement.

As he proved Saturday, though, his emotion can be an asset.

“E.J. is a tough kid,” Serra head coach Patrick Walsh said. “And when channeled properly in the game, you see what happened today.”

It was going to take a tough kid to take over for Lavulo, who led the Serra defense amid a historic season in 2016. While then-senior quarterback Leki Nunn was flexing his star power on offense, Lavulo was the perfect standout counterbalance on defense. The two were largely responsible for the Padres enjoying a 15-game season that included the first Northern California championship in program history.

“As [Lavulo was] a senior I just watched him play, as a sophomore trying to learn,” Lahlouh said.

And Lavulo constantly reminded Lahlouh the future of the Padres defense was in his hands.

“He just told me take control of the defense,” Lahlouh said. “And that’s what I am trying to do.”

This year, the Padres have fielded less star power. But the results through eight games have been just as spectacular. Currently 5-0 in WCAL play, Serra is all alone in first place. Should that hold up, and the Padres win the league title outright, it would break a streak of four straight years in which the league championship has ended in a tie.

Yet, while Serra’s offense is scoring points at a program-record pace this season, the defense has been the secret to the team’s success. And it has been a revolutionary defense at that.

In giving up 49 combined points through five WCAL games, Serra has technically utilized a four-man front. But using Nick Brown as a flex defensive tackle-linebacker Saturday, the Padres essentially ran a five-man front. It’s a lineup that shuffles from play to play, with great complexity.

But defensive coordinator Chris Vasseur has done his homework in instituting this approach, having refined his philosophy when he was a cornerbacks coach under defensive coordinator Brandon Lechtenberg at Millsaps College, a Division III program in Jackson, Mississippi.

Now in his fifth year at Serra, Vasseur’s revolutionary defense is enjoying its best incarnation. The Padres don’t have a lot of size upfront, save 6-3, 330-pound Atonio Mafi. But they are generating big plays just the same.

“It’s ridiculous,” Lahlouh said. “I just read the holes. They create the biggest holes.”

And while the three tiers of Serra’s defense receive play-calling signals independently from one another, that doesn’t stop the different departments from mixing it up between plays. Lahlouh was at the forefront Saturday, constantly stepping up to the defensive line to breathe inspiration to the front five.

In terms of following in Lavulo’s footsteps, Lahlouh certainly has some ginormous shoes to fill. The Serra brass, though, believes in his talent. And Lahlouh rewarded that belief Saturday with a career day.

“He already is that type of impact player, thankfully,” Walsh said. “I never compare players. That’s your guys’ job. But he’s as fantastic a high school linebacker as I’ve seen.”