10-0 season again for Spartans
SHS pummels LHS 56-14
LINDSAY — The Strathmore High School football team doused their head coach with ice water, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when winning championships.
They posed for pictures with a blue bell, shot some confetti in the air, and high fived anyone who looked like a Spartan, because this should be a pretty big deal what they just did.
But, if you were looking for uncontained celebrations and unquenchable euphoria at Friday’s 56-14 victory over Lindsay, well, the Spartans are saving that energy for a bigger stage.
“They’ve tasted a little beyond this,” Strathmore coach Jeromy Blackwell said. “We tell them to enjoy the small things, enjoy being 1-0 each week, but they’re reaching for a little more than that.”
Don’t get Blackwell wrong: he can do these 10-0 regular seasons all day, and has done so in back-to-back years. Friday’s victory in the Battle of the Bell gave them their fourth undefeated regular season in 98 years of Spartan football, and won their 24th victory in the past 25 tries.
They’ve won consecutive East Sequoia League titles, and thumped a rival Cardinals team that, in theory, came into the game with the chance to share that trophy with Strathmore if they could only win their shared regular-season finale.
Last year, these Spartans absolutely brought down the barn when they beat Lindsay. This time, the postgame party definitely was subdued by the heightened expectations that come with having been there and done this before.
Beat Lindsay, and all other comers from Week 1 through 10? Of course they did, that’s what these Spartans do for breakfast.
“Every week, we want go 1-0 and trust the person next to us to do his job,” said senior running back Joseph Garcia, who always does his job behind an offensive line that always does theirs. “We trust each other more than any team out there.”
Most amazing about Friday’s victory? That Strathmore made it 10 straight weeks without stumbling. That’s hard to do when you are the defending Central Section Division VI champions, who always gets everyone’s best shot because of the target on the back of your jersey.
Sure, Orosi kept it close in a 35-13 loss in Week 4, but we’re talking about an entire season sans letdowns in a schedule littered with potential trap games. Friday was no exception, with all the fever pitch of Rivalry Week threatening Strathmore’s better senses to stick to their usual business.
If Lindsay supposed it could pull off the upset at home, the thought was fleeting at best. Strathmore took five plays — Garcia rushes, one and all — to take a 7-0 lead on Garcia’s 1-yard touchdown run.
One drive later, the Spartans needed four plays to make it 14-0 on Nick Salas’ 8-yard touchdown pass to Armando Rodriguez.
Drive three, all the more, an 83-yard, 12-play touchdown drive capped by Garcia’s 3-yard touchdown run. It was 35-7 by halftime, with Salas adding two more touchdown throws, which is to say it was game over with two quarters to play.
The Cardinals didn’t hold Strathmore to 21 points in the second half — the running clock in the fourth quarter did. That’s how overwhelming, and championship caliber, this team is playing as it awaits its playoff seeding this weekend.
That 42-point margin of victory? That makes nine times out of 10 they blew an opponent out by 30-plus points. Those 56 points scored? That’s five games they hung half-ahundred on the board.
Garcia ran another 15 times for 121 yards and four touchdowns. Salas completed 8 of 10 passes for 142 yards and three touchdowns. Even backup Fabian Alcantar got carried away with a 60yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
As for that Spartans defense? The firstteam unit gave up just its fourth touchdown of the year, a hard-earned, 1-yard run by the amazing Ethan Duran, who churned his legs for 85 yards against a defense that doesn’t forfeit that kind of ground.
So, it’s another blowout by a team that wants to ride its wind back to the state championship game.
“We tell them to stop dreaming about championships and start winning them,” Blackwell said. “Set goals … goals come with deadlines. The deadline for our goal is in five weeks.”