De La Salle’s defense answers challenge, shuts down St. Mary’s-Stockton in blowout win

CONCORD — De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh demanded better. 

After watching his defense – previously perfect in its first three games – give up 20 points to Grant-Sacramento last week, Alumbaugh publicly challenged the Spartans, saying players needed to “grow up.” 

On Friday night, his unit responded. 

De La Salle’s defense gave up no offensive touchdowns as the host Spartans defeated Sac-Joaquin Section powerhouse St. Mary’s-Stockton 36-7. 

De La Salle surrendered just 130 yards of total offense and allowed the Rams to get into the red zone only once. 

“They responded well,” Alumbaugh said. “I thought our guys stepped up and I knew we were going to play better because we practiced better. They had better intent. They were more focused. They had a much better understanding of our opponent and they weren’t letting a lot of the noise kind of get to him, so they focused on the work that needed to be done.”

De La Salle rushed for 296 yards, with Duece Jones-Drew leading the way with 76 and two scores. The Spartans had 11 first downs while St. Mary’s converted just 1-of-12 third-down attempts.

“It was all about taking the criticism and being humble with our performance last week,” senior linebacker Bubba Vargas said. “This week we made the decision to block out the noise and go play ball. And that’s what we did tonight.” 

De La Salle’s defense made its presence felt early.

St. Mary’s put together its best drive in the second quarter, marching all the way to the De La Salle four-yard line in seven plays. 

But the defense held strong as it forced three negative plays and stopped Kenneth Moore III just short of the goal line on an end around. 

On the ensuing possession, St. Mary’s got excellent field position on an errant De La Salle punt. But the Rams couldn’t move the ball into the red zone, and the Spartans forced a turnover on downs. 

Meanwhile, De La Salle’s offense was humming. 

After a fumble on their opening possession, De La Salle responded with 21 first-half points. 

Brayden Knight found Dylan Scott for a 71-yard touchdown on a quick slant. Later in the quarter, Jones-Drew capped off a six-play, 67-yard drive with a four-yard score. 

The junior standout helped De La Salle capture a three-score lead at halftime when he found a hole through the middle of St. Mary’s defense and burst for a 32-yard rushing touchdown. 

St. Mary’s momentarily found a spark out of the halftime break after Mehtaab Bhangu intercepted a De La Salle pass and returned it for a touchdown. 

But that’s the only points the Rams would put on the board. 

Later in the quarter, Jaden Jefferson scored on a 10-yard run to grow the De La Salle lead back to 21. In the fourth quarter, Brady Smith added a 27-yard score to ice the game for De La Salle as it cruised to its fifth straight win. 

“The gameplan was just to dominate,” Jefferson said. 

De La Salle will have another tough challenge next week as San Diego powerhouse Cathedral Catholic comes to town. The Dons are 5-0 after beating Granite Hills 40-30 on Friday.