RB Jordon Davison & QB Dash Beierly should give the type of balanced offense that Mater Dei has always had on its best teams going back to the early 1990s. Photo: Harold Abend / Cal-Hi Sports.
In the first game of the season on Thursday for state No. 1 Mater Dei of Santa Ana and the first game for new head coach Raul Lara, No. 3 Centennial (Corona) only trailed 22-17 at halftime. Then the vaunted MD defense took over in the second half in a 42-25 win. Not having top national recruit Husan Longstreet hurt the Huskies.
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The streak of the Centennial (Corona) football team losing to Mater Dei that had dated back to the 2015 season when the Huskies defeated the Monarchs 42-36 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals stood at five games heading into Thursday night’s season opener at the Santa Ana Bowl, including a 28-14 loss in last season’s first game.
The Centennial faithful that made the trek from the Inland Empire to Orange County were hoping the streak might come to an end, but those hopes were dashed. In this season’s opener, the Huskies gave it their best shot, but in the end it was the Mater Dei defense that shut the door on Centennial, and the streak has been extended to six straight victories. Mater Dei (1-0) also defended its Cal-Hi Sports No. 1 and national top ranking with a 42-25 home victory over a short-handed Huskies.
Whether or not it would have made a difference we will never know, but after going through pregame warm-ups and showing off an incredible arm, Cal-Hi Sports Preseason All State First Team quarterback Husan Longstreet sat out with a reported foot injury and that left things in the hands of his 5-foot-10, 170-pound junior back-up Dominick Catalano.
For being thrust into the spotlight, Catalano played well, but his counterpart Dash Beierly, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound senior transfer from Temecula Chaparral played even better.
In his first game as the Mater Dei signal-caller after the dual-threat quarterback who was named a Preseason All State Second Team Multi-Purpose selection, started a little slow. However, he finished 10-of-19 passing for 110 yards and two TDs, and he rushed for 52 on seven carries, but more importantly he played error free football unlike his counterpart Catalano.
Raul Lara also has been a head coach at Warren of Downey and St. Anthony of Long Beach as well as at Long Beach Poly. Photo: @MDFootball / Twitter.com.
“A little nervous but not too much though,” Beierly said. “I’ve played this team a couple times before and I kind of knew what I expected. It was great to come out here with these guys for this first game and compete and get the W.”
Centennial won the toss and opted to start on offense. On the very first play, Catalano broke free for a 23-yard run. After two short runs sandwiched around an incomplete pass, junior running back Malachi Roby ran for 15 yards and Centennial was down to the Mater Dei 38 yard line and threatening.
The drive ended when Cal-Hi Sports Preseason All State First Team defensive back Daryus Dixon intercepted Catalano for the first of two picks by the Mater Dei defense.
After a 10-yard return by Dixon, the Monarchs had the ball on their own 43 yard line. Four plays later, Cal-Hi Sports Preseason All State First Team running back Jordon Davison broke free and raced around left end past several defenders and danced his way along the sidelines 44 yards to pay dirt with 8:43 left in the first quarter. Junior Sean Scott ran for the 2-point conversion and Mater Dei had an 8-0 lead it would never relinquish.
“I didn’t play at all in the scrimmage last week because I think they were saving me for the game, but I had a good idea I was getting to get the ball a lot,” said Davison, who finished with 20 carries for 119 yards and the one touchdown. “Just getting going, and getting the feel and getting more comfortable, I got up to game speed tonight.”
After the ensuing kickoff and a short return, Centennial was backed up to its own 13-yard line. On the very first play, Catalano fumbled and Cal-Hi Sports Preseason All State First Team 6-foot-3, 225-pound senior linebacker Nasir Wyatt appeared to scoop it up and score but he was ruled down on the seven. On the very next play, Beierly found 6-foot-4 sophomore tight end Mark Bowman for a 7-yard TD pass, and after a PAT by senior kicker Dominic Zante, the Monarchs had a 15-0 lead after scoring twice in the span of 15 seconds and it was looking like it might be a rout.
Centennial turned the ball over on downs on its next drive and Mater Dei got the ball near midfield. A incompletion and two runs by Davison left the Monarchs with fourth-and-one on the Huskies’ 46. At that point another score would have been devastating for Centennial but first-year Mater Dei head coach Raul Lara elected to punt and Centennial got the ball back on its own 13.
It also was at that point that penalties and mistakes by Mater Dei allowed Centennial to gain some momentum. All in all, Mater Dei committed eight penalties for 75 yards.
Aided by two penalties, Centennial drove 87 yards in 11 plays culminating in a 1-yard plunge by Catalano and with the PAT it was 15-7 Mater Dei.
Mater Dei came right back and went on a whopping 16-play, 80-yard drive that ended when Beierly connected with Ohio transfer and 6-foot-6, 200-pound junior wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. on a 15-yard TD pass it was 22-7 after the PAT by Zante.
With a back-up quarterback and a score like that, Centennial could have folded, but the Huskies showed why they were No. 3 to start the season in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings and struck back quickly.
After two short runs brought up a third-and-six, Catalano connected with Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Third Team wide receiver Cory Butler Jr., and the 5-foot-9, 175-pound senior got loose and raced 76 yards to the house to cut the lead to 22-14.
The ensuing Mater Dei drive stalled and after receiving a punt Centennial had the ball on its own 14 with around two minutes left in the first half. The Huskies ran 10 plays, including getting a pass interference call that kept the drive alive, and with 11 seconds left in the half senior kicker Kenneth Junger split the uprights from 36 yards out and the teams went into the locker room with Mater Dei only holding a 22-17 lead.
The second half was all Mater Dei and in particular the Monarchs’ defense.
Both defenses actually stiffened and neither team scored until Zante kicked a 23-yard field goal to make it 25-17 with 2:34 left in the third quarter.
From there, things began to unravel for Centennial. Its drive after the field goal only lasted three plays and ended with a sack by Scott. Then Scott blocked the Huskies punt and 6-foot-3, 315-pound junior Tomuhini Topui got the dream of every defensive lineman. He got a scoop and score after rumbling untouched into the end zone from seven yards out to make it 32-17 Mater Dei after three quarters.
Centennial still had some fight left. After a 33-yard kick return by Butler, the Huskies got the ball down to the Mater Dei 28, but an interception in the end zone by freshman Ace Leutele pretty much sealed the deal for Mater Dei.
Lara started subbing later in the fourth quarter and pulled Davison. His replacement, senior Trenton Dunn, took advantage of the opportunity and scored on a 9-yard run with 5:54 left to give the Monarchs a 39-17 lead. After a second sack by Topui (two sacks, scoop and score, seven total tackles), sophomore linebacker DJ Clanton got a second blocked punt and that led to a 34-yard field goal by Zante that stretched the lead to 42-17.
Centennial finally did score in the second half on a 13-yard TD pass from Catalano to senior wide receiver Noah Westbrook, but it came against mostly subs and with only 3.7 seconds remaining.
Centennial (0-1) got 189 yards passing with two TDs and 60 yards rushing with the one TD from Catalano, but he was sacked three times, intercepted twice, and fumbled three times. Roby finished with 85 yards rushing.
The final score makes the game look like an easy win for Mater Dei, and while by some accounts it was, but the Monarchs are going to have to clean some things up for their match-up in two weeks at home with Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, Nevada. Some rankings have Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman 1-2 in the nation and others have it reversed.
“We had some equipment issues and we had penalties that killed our momentum and so when your momentum is getting killed that really hurt us,” Lara remarked. “These are things we need to clean up.”
“I felt good about my performance but there are some things I can improve on so I’ll look at the film and get ready for Gorman,” Beierly said. “But I’m ready to take it to them for sure.”
It was the second straight year that Mater Dei started out with a new head coach. Mater Dei was debuting head coach Frank McManus for his first season in last year’s first game with Centennial after the retirement of the legendary Bruce Rollinson from the previous 2022 season. McManus left after just that one season despite the team going 12-1 and winning the CIF Open Division state title. Lara came from St. Anthony of Long Beach, but had many years at Long Beach Poly and was the head coach in 2001 for the first first national No. 1 vs No. 2 game ever played, which was Poly vs De La Salle of Concord.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
