WOODLAND HILLS — The Dorsey Dons football team will advance to the CIF LA City Division 1 quarterfinals after a stout defensive performance at El Camino Real High School on Friday.
The Dons won the playoff opener 26-8, in a defensive performance for the record books. Dorsey picked off three passes and held the El Camino offense to just two first downs in the first half.
El Camino trailed 12-0 on the Dorsey 9-yard line and elected for the third time to go for it on fourth down. The decision flipped what could’ve been a 9-point game with a field goal into a 20-point deficit at halftime as Kentrell Holley picked off Royals quarterback Gabriel Varga and returned a 95-yard pick six to put Dorsey up 20-0.
“We knew that it was going to be a tough game,” said El Camino coach Rick Hayashida. “Dorsey has that tradition of being one of the best teams in the city for a long time. We knew that they also had a lot of guys that we didn’t see because they were injured, and we knew they pretty much all came back today. So, we kind of expected this.”
The Royals offense struggled, and their two first downs in the first half were both thanks to Dorsey penalties.
Dorsey (6-5) got off to a slow start, partially due to turnovers on back-to-back drives in the first quarter. However, from the second quarter on, it was all Dons.
Dorsey’s ground game got going with big runs from Isaac Flowers. Dons quarterback Jamell Edmond hit receiver Stafon Johnson for a 26-yard touchdown to open up the 20-point quarter. Johnson was swarmed by four Royals in coverage but somehow managed to slip through the cracks and blast into the end zone untouched.
Mahkai McCluster kept the scoring going with a 20-yard rushing score, his third-straight big run of Dorsey’s fourth drive.
El Camino found some rhythm in the third quarter with its top running back Shane Bogacz starting to take reps. An injury sidelined the two-way standout on offense for the first half but Hayashida agreed to let him loose in the second half, which gave El Camino life.
“(Bogacz) has a bad quad,” Hayashida said. “He wanted to gut it out because it’s his senior year. I probably shouldn’t have put him in, but he just wanted to play so much, so we let him go. I’m sure he would have helped out offensively.”
Bogacz capped off the team’s only scoring drive with a 25-yard touchdown pass to AJ Gupta on a trick play.
The El Camino defense played a tighter game in the second half but the offense just couldn’t get into rhythm against Dorsey. Sophomore Luke Ulibarri added an interception for the Royals defense.
The Royals (6-5) will now graduate 19 seniors after another strong year for the program that Hayashida has turned around in his second stint at the helm.
“We’ve got a lot of got a lot of young kids coming back next year and really excited, it’s a good bunch of kids,” Hayashida said. “So we’ll just work hard in the spring and do it again next year.”
Dorsey will remain on the road and face the third-seeded Eagle Rock Eagles next Friday in the Division I quarterfinals.