St. Joseph Academy rolls to second straight 8-man football title

by Rick Hoff

ESCONDIDO — For an encore, the St. Joseph Academy football team delivered an award-winning performance.

St. Joseph won its first-ever CIF championship in football last year, and the San Marcos-based school followed up by claiming its second straight San Diego Section title on Saturday.

The Crusaders achieved the feat by rolling to a 68-13 triumph over Borrego Springs in the Division 6 final for 8-man teams.

Senior running back Asher Larkin showed the way in the contest at Escondido High’s Wilson Stadium, rushing for 239 yards and five touchdowns on just 11 carries.

“The brotherhood we have here at St. Joseph Academy is incredible, and I’m just honored to be a part of it,” said Larkin, who amassed 221 yards in the first half alone and had just one carry in the second half, an 18-yard scoring run on the third play of the third period which extended a 46-13 halftime lead for the Crusaders.

St. Joseph went on to culminate its second straight 10-1 season under coach Tom Davis by beating Borrego Springs for the second time this season following a 48-20 win over the Rams during the regular season.

“I wasn’t expecting that kind of a score, but our guys played out of their minds,” said Davis, whose team was appearing in its fourth straight section final. “They all left it on the field.”

Borrego Springs was seeking its first section crown under coach Tim White, but a second loss to St. Joseph ended the Rams’ season at 9-2.

“That team is a well-oiled machine, and Tom has done a great coaching job them,” said White. “And we didn’t block or tackle today so that didn’t help.”

The Rams relied on a balanced attack throughout the season, but they were held to their lowest scoring output of the year and were shut out over the final three quarters.

“Our defensive linemen did a lot of work,” said Larkin, who had two of the Crusaders’ seven sacks of Borrego Springs quarterback Christopher Alcaraz. Johnny Sheldon and Ben Lapadula also had two sacks apiece for St. Joseph.

“We knew we had to contain No. 3,” Davis said of Alcaraz, who was 8-of-17 passing for 104 yards with one interception, which was a second-quarter pick by Blaise McMahon with the top seed holding a 16-7 lead.

“We made a bunch of adjustments coming in, but they were ready for it,” White admitted.

St. Joseph ended the season on an eight-game win streak, which included the Ocean League championship and a 64-16 playoff win over Francis Parker in the semifinals. Borrego Springs won the Manzanita League title and had a four-game win streak halted after advancing to the final with a 55-14 win over Julian.

Josef Rocha began the championship game with a bang by returning the opening kickoff 77 yards for a Borrego Springs touchdown, but it was all St. Joseph after that, beginning with a 43-yard touchdown by Larkin on the Crusaders’ third offensive play of the game.

Larkin went on to add scoring runs of 55, 22, 38 and 18 yards to help send the Rams on a long way home back to the desert. Last year, Larkin had an 88-yard kickoff return to help St. Joseph win its first section title with a 60-22 win over Calvin Christian.

“Our kids work hard, and they have really bought in to what we’re trying to do,” Davis said.