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Raiders rumble through Lancers
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There is no quit in East Union’s Andrew Sena.
Early in the second quarter of the Lancers’ 55-7 Valley Oak League loss to Central Catholic, Sena attempted to tackle Raiders running back D’Angelo Bellamy and failed miserably as Bellamy straight-armed Sena onto the turf.
Undaunted, Sena recovered to make the tackle on that play and doubled down two plays later when he brought the Dino Cunial Field fans to their feet, returning an interception 85 yards behind some excellent downfield blocking for the lone East Union touchdown.
“In our program we have a title called the ‘Dungeon Master,’” Lancers coach Willie Herrera said. “That is a pound-for-pound thing in the weight room, and typically the guys who are smaller get the short end of the stick because usually the bigger guys have the higher weights.
“So, we do a percentage thing, and he was a two-time `Dungeon Master’ winner this year. It doesn’t matter that he is 5-foot-7, 130 pounds. He plays way bigger than that.”
The interception is the fifth of the season for Sena, who left the game with a shoulder injury.
“He’s a fighter,” Herrera said. “I know he is one of those guys that when other teams watch film they think they can take advantage of that 5-7 guy on the edge, and he keeps making them pay for it.”
The Raiders (3-0 VOL, 5-0 overall) ran for 431 yards and were led by Dauson Booker, who scored four touchdowns and gained158 yards on nine carries.
Central Catholic’s top four running backs — Booker, Bellamy (four carries, 96 yards), Coleby Garron (two carries, 73 yards) and Ricky Soto (six carries, 62 yards) — averaged 18.5 yards per carry.
“They were a little bigger and a little faster than any team we have played,” two-way Lancers lineman Jaysen Reindel said. “We started pretty solid but then we didn’t execute like we needed to.
“Oakdale’s running-back rotation last year was pretty solid, but these guys had so many weapons it was insane.”
Undefeated through five games — one of the Raiders’ non-league games was canceled due to extreme heat in Marin County — Central Catholic coach Roger Canepa is looking for his team to keep improving.
“We have played some pretty good football teams,” Canepa said. “We are trying to keep getting better.
“East Union worked hard. They have a good team, but our group plays hard. We are trying to get better every week and we have quite a few football games left.”
The score could have been worse, but rather than punch in one more score Canepa had his team take a knee four times deep in East Union territory late in the game.
The Lancers (1-2, 4-2) had just 42 yards of offense.
“We can’t dwell on this,” Herrera said. “We can’t have a hangover from this. We can’t have a pity party — it’s over. They’re No. 19 in the state for a reason and we know that we made it a lot worse than we should have.”