Serra football can’t stop Viliami Teu, St. Francis

Viliami Teu ran 45 times for a school record 344 yards as the Lancers earned the West Catholic Athletic League football championship, emerging from a battle of unbeatens with a convincing 44-21 win.

“We just lost to a better team today, clearly,” Serra head coach Patrick Walsh said. “They’re well-coached, they’ve got size and they have experience. Many of them are three-year starters.”

The lasting image may not be Teu’s 64-yard run on the second play from scrimmage or his 52-yard pickup in the second quarter to restore momentum after Serra (6-1 WCAL, 8-1 overall) had gotten on the board. Rather, it was his 45th and final carry, a 6-yard touchdown in which he absolutely flattened a Padre defender at the goal line with a ferocious stiff arm with 50 seconds left.

No, St. Francis (7-0, 9-0) wasn’t trying to run up the score or pad Teu’s stats. The Padres still had two timeouts remaining, and the Lancers capped the game off with the same play that had worked for them so many times all day, sending Teu over the middle.

Though only two of his 45 carries went for scores, Teu was involved in every significant Lancer offensive play. The visitors scored on all eight of their drives, settling for three field goals and reaching the end zone five times.

The Serra defense forced a 22-yard Matthew Karic field goal to close the second quarter still within two scores at 27-14, and Petelo Gi’s 33-yard pickup across midfield and 2-yard touchdown run on the opening possession of the third quarter had the hosts back within a touchdown. But Teu and company ensured the momentum wouldn’t last for long.

“I tried to give my best Knute Rockne to fire them up,” Walsh said. “We came out of halftime with guns blazing.”

After seven runs, with six by Teu and one from Camilo Arquette, Josh Perry hit a streaking Andrew Adkison for a 43-yard score to reopen a two-touchdown lead. Serra went three and out on the following possession, and though a holding penalty took the Lancers out of the red zone, Karic drilled a 42-yard field goal through the north goalposts a minute into the third quarter. Sione Laulea, who played excellent defense to neutralize St. Francis receiver Tim Netane, returned the ensuing kickoff 57 yards, but MJ Artmore’s pass breakup on fourth-and-goal all but sealed the game.

From there, the Lancers finished things off with an 89-yard drive that took up over eight minutes. Of the 15 plays on the drive, 14 were runs by Teu. The 15th was a 9-yard carry by Arquette, who ran eight times on the day for 43 yards. Teu finished it off with the stiff arm, an emphatic play that represented a release of the frustrations that St. Francis had been holding since losing 49-7 at Brady Family Stadium in April.

“When teams are playing with a deep level of pain, they’re tough to beat, and that’s what I saw in St. Francis today,” Walsh said. “I remember seeing some of the St. Francis kids’ faces after the spring game, and I was already thinking that would be used in Mountain View for this season.”

Any jitters the Lancers may have arrived with vanished quickly as Teu ran 64 yards on the second play, with Leo Galindo making a touchdown-saving tackle that led to St. Francis settling for a 24-yard Karic field goal. A quick Padre three-and-out sent Serra’s defense right back to the field, and though Dominique Lampkin’s QB punt rolled all the way to the Lancer 4, Perry hit Dillon Golden and Riley Long for third down conversions before Teu broke free for a 33-yard touchdown run.

Lampkin’s 39-yard completion to Jayden Weber and 3-yard touchdown pass to Seamus Gilmartin awoke the home crowd, but Teu quickly shifted the energy back to the away stands with a 52-yard run that set Arquette up for a leap over the pile to score from a yard out. Again, Serra fired back as Lampkin (7-of-17 passing, 118 yards) hit Dylan Joudieh for a 29-yard gain on a flea-flicker and found Gilmartin again for a 31-yard score, but the Lancers needed just two plays to answer, with Teu gaining nine yards before Perry’s 56-yard touchdown pass to Adkison to stretch the lead to 24-14. The Lancers only threw nine times on the day, but Perry completed five of those for 143 yards, with 112 of those yards and both passing touchdowns going to Adkison.

With explosive playmakers Hassan Mahasin and Joey Villaroman out with season-ending injuries, Gi carried the weight for the Serra offense, with 92 yards on 19 carries. The Padres were also missing 350-pound defensive lineman Soane Siolo. Without Siolo bearing down the middle, St. Francis center Alex Bobadilla was constantly able to block defenders well beyond the line of scrimmage.

“Getting to the second level’s the best part of being a lineman,” Bobadilla said.

For the Padres to have a shot in a potential rematch with St. Francis, they’ll have to match up better with Bobadilla, Taliauli and the rest of the line. There was buzz that both teams would refrain from showing their full hands with the likelihood of a second meeting, but there was no such thing from either coaching staff on Saturday.

“You have a chance to win a WCAL title, you throw everything on the table,” Walsh said.

With the win, St. Francis earns the No. 1 seed in the CCS Division I tournament.

Serra was seeded No. 2 and is set to host No. 7 Valley Christian this Saturday at 1 p.m.