By Ron Vrooman
(Alhambra) – Senior quarterback Zachary Lifton completed 14 of 20 passes for 280 yards and five touchdowns, and also scored on a 24-yard scramble in the visiting La Salle Lancers’ 49-13 victory over the Alhambra Moors on Thursday night.
Lifton threw each of his scoring passes to a different receiver as he effectively spread the ball around the field. His most prolific receiver was sophomore Drew Ward, who made three catches for 127 yards and a TD.
The Lancers posted 35 points in the second quarter to go ahead, 42-0. La Salle not only made the most of its strong passing attack, but also took advantage of Alhambra’s special teams during that scoring outburst.
The Moors fumbled the ball away on two kickoff returns and also allowed the Lancers to recover another kickoff; two of those mistakes led to quick touchdowns for La Salle. An interception thrown by Alhambra quarterback Bryan Leonard set up an additional score by the Lancers in that same quarter.
Running back David Vanden Bosch, who carried 16 times for 87 yards and a touchdown, scored La Salle’s final TD on a 31-yard pass reception midway through the third quarter.
Alhambra’s offense was led by senior running back Julian Venegas Khavari, who returned to action after sustaining a concussion against Wilson High two weeks earlier. Venegas Khavari rushed for 117 yards in 17 carries and scored two second-half touchdowns for the Moors.
The Moors gained a total of 141 yards on the ground, but 133 of those yards came in the second half, with the outcome of the game having been long since decided. Leonard threw for only 59 yards on five-of-15 passing for Alhambra. The Lancers outgained the Moors, 426 total yards to just 217 yards.
La Salle lifted its nonleague record to 2-2, while Alhambra dropped to 0-4. It’s not going to get any easier for the Moors this week, as they’re scheduled to face undefeated South Pasadena on the road Friday night. In the meantime, the Lancers will play the Covina Colts (3-1) at home.
@ Anonymous: It’s not quite clear who you were talking to at the end of your rant, so I’ll make a general statement: Nobody at Alhambra is dreaming about the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Those teams had a talented young quarterback who was surrounded by a very good supporting cast that was made up almost entirely of upperclassmen. Collectively, those squads had three All-CIF receivers and were also good on defense and special teams.
Right now, the coaching staff at AHS is busy dealing with the reality of trying to improve a struggling team in-season. The coaches are literally teaching many of our guys how to play football; we have some good athletes, but they haven’t developed into polished football players as quickly as we would’ve liked.
We don’t do any recruiting as far as I know, and we get few transfers. Our philosophy is to work with the guys who enroll at AHS as freshmen. Many of those freshmen, and even some of our older players who enter the program later, have no prior experience playing tackle football. Alhambra hasn’t had a feeder youth football program for a decade, which has been a significant disadvantage for us, but we’re doing our best anyway.
As I said on another thread, the closest analogy I can make to this team is with our 2021 squad, which started out 1-4 but then went on a 5-2 run to make the Division 14 semifinals.
The current situation in the Almont League could work in our favor, but only time will tell.
So far, it looks like Schurr could be the team to beat, and Montebello, which has been up and down, is coming off an impressive win. There are three teams—Alhambra, Bell Gardens, and San Gabriel—which could either sneak into a playoff spot or end up out of contention. That part of the story is yet to be written, and we haven’t given up on the idea of making it to the postseason this year. Stranger things have happened.
It’s gonna be a long season for that coach.. lol keep dreaming of 2018 2019!! Let go of ur ego!!!!