El Camino dominates Bell Game, 39-0

El Camino and South City players line up for a second half snap in the Bell Game on Nov. 9, 2019. The Colts beat the Warriors, 39-0 for their second straight win in the series.

After time ran out on more than a decade of frustrations ended for El Camino in last year’s rivalry against South City, the Colts made time move even faster on Saturday by dominating the Warriors, 39-0, in the first ever Bell Game featuring a running clock.

It was the Colts’ second straight Bell Game triumph, although the Warriors still lead the all-time series, 47-11. Prior to 2018, South San Francisco had won 14 straight.

“Every El Camino program before us, this is revenge for them,” said El Camino senior Javion Tarusan, who had five touchdowns last year and two on Saturday. “Even though the season was hard, this is a good group of fellas and we worked really hard as a team.”

South City finishes 0-10 for the second straight year and was shut out for the seventh time this season.

“The energy was there, I’m not going to blame it on a lack of experience,” said first-year South City head coach Taulaga Elisaia. “They’re all athletes, they know how to get out there and compete.”

El Camino (2-8) received the kickoff and scored on its first possession on a 7-yard run from sophomore Sonnie Terreros. But the Colts were only in position to score after Noel Valdez converted a fourth-down quarterback sneak at midfield a half-dozen plays earlier. Tarusan caught a PAT pass to put El Camino up 8-0 with 5:27 left in the first quarter.

“We ran a pitch to the left,” Terreros said. “I saw the corner go out, so I cut in and the safety was already beat.”

South City (0-10 for the second-straight season) just couldn’t get it going offensively, tallying only 78 yards on the day, 70 of them on the ground. The Warriors were paced by Elijah Avegalio’s 29 yards on six carries, followed up by Christopher Garcia Magallon’s 27 yards on nine carries.

The lack of offense also indirectly contributed to the Colts’ second touchdown, when Tarusan received a South City punt exactly at midfield and ran it 50 yards, right up the middle, to put El Camino up 16-0 after the PAT midway through the second quarter.

“My blocks helped me out. That was it,” Tarusan said.

Tarusan added a second touchdown – his seventh career Bell Game TD – with 1:06 left in the half, on a 57-yard rush up the right side. Valdez again passed for a two-point conversion, making it 24-0 going into the break.

El Camino kicked off the second half with a bullet into the South City frontline, but the Warriors frontmen muffed the kickoff and the Colts had the ball on the South City 45 to start the second half. A couple plays later, El Camino’s Thomas Haysbert pulled down a 44-yard Valdez airstrike to put the Colts up 32-0 after a fourth two-point conversion pass.

The Colts scored one final time four seconds into the fourth quarter on a one-yard Elijah Vasquez run, and for the first time ever, the Bell Game went to a running clock.

The closest the Warriors came to the end zone was on their very first drive when South City got to the El Camino 23, but turned over on downs. It was a disappointment for the all-alumni South City coaching staff, of whom only the head coach is over age 23.

“We have to be consistent,” Elisaia said. “We were not able to keep up the momentum.”

Valdez completed 5 of 6 passes for 107 total yards for El Camino, while Ferdinand Galang completed 2 of 9 for 8 net yards for South City. The Colts tallied 274 total yards to South City’s 78. There were no turnovers.

Terreros, who rushed for 62 yards on nine carries, transferred from Hillsdale to El Camino for his sophomore season, but said he already could feel the rivalry.

“Even in the locker room and walking up, you could feel the pressure, you could feel the hate on the field,” he said. “During the season, it was bad; we were stressing over the record. But today we feel like a whole new team.”

Colts and Warriors shake hands following the completion of the Bell Game.