IRVINE – Aiden Desormiers took the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown, and he and his Dana Hills teammates spent the rest of Thursday night running away from Northwood tacklers.
The Dolphins breezed to a 49-6 victory over Northwood, making Senior Night for the home team memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Showing no ill effects of its 49-40 loss to Laguna Beach last week that cost it the Foxtrot League title, Dana Hills scored on its first six possessions as it built a 42-0 lead at the break before subbing for the starters in the second half.
“We played with a little bit of rage after last week’s loss,” Dana Hills coach Tony Henney said. “The kids were very disappointed. It was good we had a game on Thursday because we couldn’t wait to get back on the field.”
Before Henney started leaning on his bench, James Leicester had touchdown receptions of 49, 7, and 5 yards – all from quarterback Carter Anderson in the second quarter. Leicester has 12 touchdowns during the regular season.
After his bolt on the opening kickoff, Desormiers added an 11-yard scoring reception to make it 21-0 after Radley Geiss had scored from 2 to make it 14-0. Desormiers had five receptions for 50 yards.
Anderson had 181 passing yards by halftime, including 110 to Leicester on eight receptions, and four TD passes before exiting after 24 minutes.
“Carter was great,” Leicester said of his QB, who completed 14 of 15 passes. “He’s a sophomore, but he’s been developing really well. He’s going to have a great career. In the playoffs, his confidence will be way up and he’ll be a big part of the offense.”
The Northwood offense mustered just 16 yards in the first half. The Timberwolves weren’t able to close the gap much in the second half, though they did gain 28 yards on a pretty over-the-shoulder touchdown reception by Tommy Green from Caden Jacobs with 5:25 remaining. The two-point conversion failed.
The second half was played largely by reserves, but with the starting offensive line still in the game, Dana Hills drove 99 yards on its first drive of the third quarter with backup QB Tommy Moro scoring from 12 yards. After that, the bench was cleared.
Dana Hills improved to 9-1 overall, 4-1 in league; Northwood dropped to 4-6, 1-4.
It was a grand night for the Dolphins, who may have actually improved after the setback to Laguna Beach that cost it the league title.
“Obviously last week was a bummer but we had a great bounce back win and that’s definitely going to give us a lot of confidence going into the playoffs,” Leicester said. “It should give us a home game now, and in front of our home crowd, we feel confident we can do the job.”
Dana Hills got outstanding defensive play, but linemen Chuck Eckl, Micah Langohr, and linebackers Will Reardon and Thompson Foulger drew praise from Henney – especially Eckl, who had a couple of sacks. “He’s starting to look like himself after coming off an injury,” he said. “The defense was great. We didn’t let [Northwood] get going.”
But Dana Hills is going … to the playoffs. And if if the Dolphins impose their will as they did on Thursday, they might find themselves going a long ways.