SCORING SUMMARY
Central Catholic 27 13 0 7 — 47
East Union 0 7 0 0 — 7
First quarter
C — Joey Alcutt 90 run (kick fail), 11:49
C — Brooklyn Cheek 8 pass from T.P. Wentworth (Xavier Diep kick), 9:37
C — Trace Hernandez 72 pass from Wentworth (Diep kick), 6:49
C — Cheek 2 pass from Wentworth (Diep kick), 2:01
Second quarter
C — Hernandez 5 pass from Wentworth (Diep kick), 8:08
E — J.P. Abrew 26 pass from Kirk Simoni (Andres Garcia kick), 5:57
C — Wyatt Dragoo 18 run (kick fail), :11
Fourth quarter
C — Gavin Peral 50 run (Diep kick), 5:05
Completing eight of eight passes for more than 150 yards with four touchdowns is a good night for a high-school quarterback.
Unfortunately for East Union, that was the start Friday night for Central Catholic’s T.P. Wentworth on the way to a 47-7 Valley Oak League win for the Raiders at Lathrop High’s Bennie Gatto Field.
Wentworth finished 10 of 13 passing for 180 yards with an interception and touchdown throws of 5 and 72 yards to Trace Hernandez and 2 and 8 yards to Brooklyn Cheek. Joey Alcutt (nine carries, 157 yards) wasted little time getting the Raiders (1-0 VOL, 4-2 overall) on the board with a 90-yard touchdown run on the game’s first play from scrimmage.
“I have to do a better job of preparing out guys,” Lancers coach Mike Kuhnlenz said. “I just didn’t prepare them well enough. That’s the bottom line.
“I’m proud of my guys, but when you play a team like this, you have to play perfect, and we didn’t. Hats off to them, they are a great football team. (Central Catholic coach Roger) Canepa and coach (Billy) Hylla do a great job. They are good, and they are well-coached.
East Union (0-1 VOL, 3-3 overall) got a shot in the arm midway through the second quarter Chris Gallego intercepted a Wentworth pass and returned it to the Central Catholic 26-yard line. The Lancers scored on the next play with a 26-yard pass from Kirk Simoni to J.P. Abrew to draw East Union within 34-7.
“Chris Gallego gave us a little bit of life with that interception,” Kuhnlenz said. “Carson Sanders, Chris Gallego, Brayden Camera, Brady Rossi and Blake Mount all played well on defense for us.”
Scurrying from the Raiders rush all night, East Union quarterback Kirk Simoni was 11 of 18 passing for 79 yards with two interceptions.
Wyatt Dragoo scored very late in the second period for the Raiders on an 18-yard run and with five minutes left in the game Gavin Peral came off the bench for Central Catholic and galloped 50 yards for the game’s final score.
“They played hard,” Raiders coach Roger Canepa said. “But we’ve got a pretty good team. The second half, we were able to get everyone in the game.
“This is the first league game, and in this league every game is important.”
Oakdale travels to play East Union next Friday at 7 p.m.
