There were many highlights Friday night in Lathrop’s 36-6 Western Athletic Conference win over Ceres at Bennie Gatto Field, but Dario Joseph’s 70-yard punt return was highlight-reel worthy.

“Coach said to be ready for a ‘Peter’ so I hesitated a little bit,” Joseph said. “But I saw the ball hit the ground, and I saw that lane that we have been practicing because they leave a lane open that their gunners don’t get to.

“I pick up the ball, I see my blocker No. 11 (Joshua Talalele) down field and I go take it to the house.”

Talalele hand checked the last Bulldogs defender for the final 20 yards, leading Joseph into the end zone for a 16-0 lead.

“I saw my teammate and I knew I was the last blocker,” Talale said. “I was trying my hardest to get him that touchdown.”

Roman Duvernay ground out 147 yards on 18 carries and scored a pair of first-half touchdowns for the Spartans (5-1 WAC, 6-3 overall), notching scoring scampers of 25 and 27 yards sandwiched around Joseph’s punt return for a 22-0 halftime lead.

“Senior night was tonight, and this was the last home game and I am a senior, so I had to play with a lot of heart,” Duvernay said. “It was a fun game.”

Lathrop’s Dasani Brown added a pair of rushing touchdowns in the second half, scoring on runs of 2 and 8 yards.

“We came in with the intent of run the ball, run the ball, run the ball,” Spartans coach Justin Muschott said. “And we wanted to control the clock and we did that.”

Lathrop held the Bulldogs (2-4, 3-6) to less than 100 yards of offense and take away Tyler Phongsa Chhoeum’s 42-yard scoring pass to Anthony Santillan to start the second half, Ceres had just 35 total yards.

“Ekam (Sohal) was flying around,” Muschott said. “We really like the way he played. We put a lot on his plate defensively this game for sure.

Talalele and (Samari) Sumpter were playing hard today. We asked them to motor, motor, motor because their quarterback liked to run around and find ways to get yards – he’s their leading rusher – he is dangerous and we wanted to get to him and we did.”

Ruben Maldonado intercepted a pass for the Spartans in the fourth period and in the third Sumpter blocked a punt, setting up Brown’s second touchdown.

“I was just coming off the edge and I was trying to reach as far as I could,” Sumpter said. ‘I thought he was going to fake it but I was able to block it.”

Lathrop was scheduled to wrap up the WAC calendar on Friday against Beyer, but for disciplinary reasons the Patriots have forfeited that contest. The Spartans are looking to plug in that hole in their schedule.