Bellarmine’s last bus trip home from the state championships in Carson wasn’t a celebratory one, but in the aftermath of a 24-19 loss to Oceanside, a group of talented sophomores turned their eyes to the future.
“We told each other, ‘We’re coming back to this game,'” said senior quarterback Travis McHugh, who was one of seven sophomores on that 2009 team that made it to the Division I championship. “We promised ourselves that when we were seniors we would be back in Carson.”
McHugh has played an irreplaceable role in making sure that declaration came true, along with the rest of Bellarmine’s three-year varsity players. Tim Crawley and Conner Jauch are key contributors in the backfield, which has rushed for 4,414 yards. Joe Gigantino and Alex Manigo are big-time playmakers on both sides of the ball, and Connor Lambert and Brad Kuh are all-league linemen.
The group helped the Central Coast Section champion Bells (12-1) earn a matchup with Santa Margarita (12-2) in the Division I championship, Friday at 8 p.m. at the Home Depot Center.
Bellarmine coach Mike Janda wasn’t sure the seven standouts would ever get a second shot at a state title, but he knew he had something special on his hands.
“Even as sophomores these guys were mature football wise,” Janda said. “They could handle the ability to play against seniors in our league, and they’ve continued to develop physically and as leaders.
“So here we are.”
As the Bells have watched Santa Margarita’s film, they’ve learned that “here” presents a tremendous challenge. The Eagles are ranked 10th in the nation by MaxPreps, and it’s not hard to see what trait led them through a challenging schedule and to a CIF-Southern Section Pac-5 championship.
“They’re huge — just huge,” Kuh said. “They’re probably the biggest team in the state.”
Added McHugh, “No doubt about it, they’re a colossal group.”
The Eagles’ offensive linemen, led by USC-bound left tackle Max Tuerk, average 298 pounds. By comparison, the Bells have only three players listed bigger than Santa Margarita duel-threat quarterback Johnny Stanton (6-foot-3, 220 pounds), and one of them, Lambert, is out with a broken collarbone.
The Bells, as usual, are unfazed.
“We just have to beat them to the punch,” Kuh said. “We’ve got to use our speed and fly around the field.”
The teams’ differences will be just as pronounced after the opening kickoff. Whereas the Bells wear down opponents with their vaunted double-wing, Santa Margarita uses a high-powered spread attack that averages 412 yards per game.
“The tough part is they run and pass equally well,” Janda said. “It’s going to be a huge challenge.”
That’s nothing new for the Bells. They opened their season with a hard-fought overtime loss at state Open Division finalist De La Salle and then went undefeated through the West Catholic Athletic League, one of the state’s most competitive leagues.
Through it all, they’ve stuck to the plan, one that was hatched by a group of sophomores two years ago.
“We’re going to try to do what we always do, control the pace and use our conditioning to our advantage,” McHugh said. “We’re ready for a four-quarter game.”
