St. Bonaventure football takes control early, tops Notre Dame

SHERMAN OAKS — After winning the game’s opening coin toss, the Notre Dame high school football team envisioned a better result for the first drive of both halves in its non-league loss, 42-17, to St. Bonaventure Friday night.

Notre Dame deferred and St. Bonaventure took the opening drive and methodically worked its way down the field, finally capping an 18-play, 74-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run from senior standout running back Delon Thompson.

St. Bonaventure recorded five first downs on the drive and twice kept it alive by converting on fourth down. The Seraphs (2-2) ran nearly nine minutes off the clock while taking a 7-0 lead that they would never give back.

To make matters worse, Notre Dame went three-and-out before punting in less than a minute to open the second half.

“Demoralizing,” said Notre Dame coach Joe McNab. “Things just didn’t work out as planned.”

The Seraphs seemed to take advantage of any miscue along the way. The Knights committed seven penalties and took seven sacks in defeat.

“We need to coach better,” said McNab. “We need to be a little more disciplined. We had some penalties we shouldn’t have. We made some costly mistakes in some key moments. It’s a sign that we weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be.”

Thompson, who came into the game averaging over 280 rushing yards per game, looked the part of a workhorse back as he scored all three first-half touchdowns for the Seraphs, rushing for two and adding a touchdown reception. He tacked on another rushing score after halftime and finished the day with 136 yards on 22 carries.

He had 103 rushing yards on 16 carries before halftime and his lone catch was a 20-yard reception in the flat that looked like it was only going for a short gain before Thompson used a spin move to shake his defender before streaking toward the pylon.

The senior has 11 rushing touchdowns to go with four receiving scores already this season.

“He’s a tough player,” said McNab. “One of the best players in the state. He’s hard to tackle.”

Anthony Wolter, a junior quarterback for St.Bonaventure, threw the touchdown pass to Thompson. He also threw a second-half touchdown to sophomore Koen Glover and pulled in a score of his own when senior receiver Joaquin Johnson found him wide open.