Serra routs Salinas, returns to CCS Division I football title game

No. 1-seed Serra (12-0) earned that chance Saturday with a statement win 57-21 over No. 4 Salinas at Freitas Field. The Padres now advance to Friday night’s CCS Division I finals to face No. 6 Mitty at San Jose City College at 7 p.m.

“We’re really clicking right now all sides of the ball,” Serra senior Seamus Gilmartin said. “It’s just been awesome, really.”

A two-way standout as a tight end and a defensive end, Gilmartin was a key component to Saturday’s aerial spectacle. His 9-yard touchdown haul from junior quarterback Maealiuaki Smith put Serra on the board midway through the first half. It started a landslide of the Padres scoring on each of their seven first-half possessions to take a 50-7 lead into halftime.

Serra racked up 531 yards of total offense, including 316 by air. Smith finished with a hyper-efficient 16-of-18 day for 281 yards and four touchdowns — including an 18-yard strike to Joey Villaroman; a 47-yard bubble screen to Jaden Green; and a 26-yard loft to Jayden Weber on a second-look rollout — each one of them offering a high degree of difficulty with an expert understanding of a deep offensive playbook.

Smith’s understanding of offensive coordinator Darius Bell’s playbook has catapulted the Padres into a new level of effectiveness and showmanship. But it wasn’t always that way for the junior transfer from Inderkum-Sacramento, who’s knowledge of the playbook wasn’t nearly as strong at the start of this season.

“No, it wasn’t,” Serra head coach Patrick Walsh said. “People expected it to be. But he’s a human being … he’s a young kid. He’s learning. And I think what you’re seeing now is him playing within our system that Coach Bell has created over many years. Just building trust with a quarterback and getting a quarterback to execute is maybe one of the hardest things in all of sports. And then the quarterback going out to do it is what we’ve seen from Maui the last couple weeks.”

The couple weeks have included two 57-point outputs by Serra, including a 57-7 rout of Palma in the CCS playoff opener. Both playoff wins have seen a running clock for the entirety of the second half.

“We’ve always known that he’s had that talent,” Walsh said. “There’s been some games — for instance, the last time we played Mitty, it wasn’t his best effort, and Mitty did a lot of really good things to confuse him — but today was him adopting the system, accepting what the defense was giving us, and I think that’s what he’s been challenged with all year.”

Gilmartin’s touchdown catch to put Serra on the board was a showstopper. Smith showed a knack for velocity and precision to put a high pass at the back of the end zone, where Gilmartin contended with close man coverage by getting his hands high and making a strong-handed catch in stride, while timing his steps to leave no doubt in the TD call by keeping both feet inbounds.

“It was a lot of fun,” Gilmartin said. “I was going into the first drive thinking I was blocking a lot, and we weren’t really getting anywhere, and we needed a big play. And I was happy they called my name, and I was ready.”

Serra added three rushing touchdowns, starting with a 1-yard dive by Jabari Mann on a straight snap to make it 15-0. The play previous to Mann’s score decimated the Cowboys’ defense, as middle linebacker Aidan Flynn departed with an injury. The senior ranked third on the team in tackles, and second in sacks this season.

“I was very impressed with our o-line play today,” Walsh said. “Very, very impressed, because we were very concerned with their front — [Flynn] obviously went out early, he’s an all-CCS type player, I think. … He is the heart and soul of that defense.”

Malachi Gastrock later broke free for an 18-yard scoring run. Smith’s only carry of the game was a 1-yard QB sneak into the end zone with less than a minute to play in the first half.

Salinas (10-2) went 1 of 7 on third-down conversions in the first half but managed to get on the board against Serra’s first-string defense. The Cowboys used 14 plays to move 80 yards, including two fourth-down conversions, to score with 4:05 left in the half. Facing fourth-and-8 from the Serra 18, quarterback Adam Shaffer connected with Zack Ball on a comeback route for an 18-yard scoring pass.

Otherwise, Serra’s starting defense played a flawless half, limiting Salinas to 7-of-19 passing for 34 yards in the half.

“We knew they had a lot of great receivers, and their QB is good too,” Serra safety Joseph Bey said. “But our main focus is, we execute the coaches’ game plan. They do a lot of studying every week, and so do we. So, we know they like to run screen passes, they like to get their athletes the ball. So, we just have to rally and play as a team.”

The play that sent both teams into the locker room came in the closing seconds of the first half. A tackle on a kickoff return saw Serra sophomore Johnny Latu make a bone-crushing hit on Salinas returner Nate Vazquez. Latu had a full sprint going when he collided with Vazquez near the Serra sideline, and the sound of the contact was chilling.

“It was clean,” Walsh said. “It’s a tough game, it’s a hard game, and he’s a hard hitter. There was no chicanery, there was no launching. It was just a hard, physical football hit and thankfully both of the players were healthy.”

Vazquez didn’t move for several minutes after the hit, enough time for the initial “oohs” from the crowd, and the fired-up celebration by Latu and his teammates to simmer down until the audible atmosphere at Freitas Field got really quiet. Vazquez ultimately walked off the field under his own power and was consoled by several Serra players as he did.

“It’s tough because we ask our kids to play 48 minutes, and there’s 10, 11, 12 of these (games) a year,” Walsh said. “We train our kids to be respectful, good sports and play hard, and that’s what happened. And if there was an opportunity for either team to say let’s just go home … then maybe that’s what we should do. But until then, these kids are going to play for the entire game. I wouldn’t expect anything less from either team.”

In the second half, Shaffer racked up most of his 143 passing yards, including TD passes of 19 and 80 yards to Ball. Serra quarterback Brooks Trimmer entered to total six rushes, including a 20-yard touchdown run.

Serra now returns to the CCS championship stage for the fifth time in the past six postseasons. The Padres earned Open Division II titles in 2016 and ’17, and Division I titles in ’19 and ’21. There was no CCS postseason in 2020.

“I think we came out in the game very strong,” Bey said of Saturday’s performance. “We executed our game plan very well, and we held them to … 7 points at the half. So, after half we had our reserves come in and they laid down a little bit. But we’re going to come back into practice this week and make sure everybody’s back on pace.”