De La Salle went on the road for the first time this season on Friday night, and the experience was nothing like three previous home games.
St. Mary’s-Stockton gave the Bay Area News Group’s top-ranked team all it could handle before the Spartans finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Quarterback Toa Faavae and running back Derrick Blanche, both seniors, each scored two touchdowns as De La Salle overcame a four-point deficit after three quarters to win 38-35.
When it was over, DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh told his players that they listened too much to the outside noise.
“We told them all week. St. Mary’s is a great program,” Alumbaugh said. “They have a great coach, and they have great athletes.”
Faavae’s 10-yard keeper on the first snap of the fourth period gave the Spartans a 24-21 advantage and ignited a quarter in which the teams combined for five touchdowns.
After a blitz forced a St. Mary’s turnover, Blanche scored on the next play, reserving direction in the backfield before dashing 25 yards across the goal line to make it 31-21.
St. Mary’s wasn’t finished.
Ivan Huerta caught a 16-yard fade from Jaden Galvan to pull the home team to within 31-28 with 5:54 left.
Faavae answered with an 8-yard keeper to extend the margin to 38-28 with 2:51 to go.
Game over? Well, not quite.
With St. Mary’s facing a fourth-and-24 from its 1-yard line, the Rams converted a 25-yard completion to Kenneth Moore II. A few plays later, Moore was in the end zone, his 4-yard reception with 49.2 seconds to go cutting the deficit to 38-35.
“It was fourth-and-24 and we let them take a little quick slant and all our DBs were just chillin’,” Alumbaugh said.
De La Salle recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock to improve to 4-0.
St. Mary’s, which lost to Reno’s Bishop Manogue to open the season, fell to 2-2.
For a while, it looked as if this night might belong to St. Mary’s. A roughing-the-punter penalty kept a possession alive late in the second quarter. It led to a touchdown that cut De La Salle’s lead to 17-14.
The second half opened with a long St. Mary’s drive.
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The Rams fumbled near the goal line, but Ahmyri McGee-Hall recovered the miscue near the back of the end zone for a touchdown that gave St. Mary’s a 21-17 lead with 7:39 left in the third quarter.
After routing Grant-Sacramento, Serra and St. Francis to start the season, De La Salle found itself in a battle that went down to the final minute.
But in the end, the Spartans survived.
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