DOWNEY – All it took was 12 minutes to end the season for the Bears.

Their offense? Flat. Their defense? Gone, missing. Their season? Over. All of this in the first quarter of Warren’s second round 28-7 loss to Alemany in the CIF Southern Section playoffs last Friday.

Alemany’s quarterback Vernon Adams passed for 11-for-17 totaling 198 yards, two touchdowns and 28 yards rushing. Running back Malcom Marable rushed 19 times for 125 yards and a touchdown in a very balanced attack that had Warren head coach Chris Benadom uttering confused words about the first quarter after the game.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We had a bad first quarter. We struggled. We just didn’t play a game. How about that? I don’t know. There’s not much I can say.”

The first quarter was a nightmare for the Bears who didn’t have anything going for them defensively or offensively. Alemany put up 21-unaswered points in the first 12 minutes that became the difference in the game.

On Alemany’s first possession, Adams found an open Chike Mbanefo for a 17-yard touchdown pass to put the Warriors up 7-0.

Warren’s first possession went no where and was three-and-out, punting the ball back to Alemany who quickly put up another touchdown, this time a 19-yard pass from Adams to Sean Haynes, pushing the score to 14-0.

Hoping to get some offense going, Warren running back Jesse Callier managed to hit a hole in the defense and break out for a 19-yard run in the Bears’ next possession. But that would be that for Warren’s drive as the next three snaps moved the Bears no where, again having to punt.

Alemany finished up their torrid first quarter with an eight-play drive that saw Marable dive up and over a pile at the line of scrimmage at the goal line for a 1-yard touchdown.

Warren did shape up defensively after the first quarter and Alemany didn’t get into the end zone again until the opening minutes of the third quarter. But by then it was too late. The Bears’ offense stalled completely and was only able to scratch on the scoreboard with a 14-yard pass from Callier to receiver Bailey Cowins in the third quarter.

“We didn’t come out to play,” said Callier, the state’s leading rusher who ran for a season-low 147 yards and was kept out of the end zone for the first time this season. “We didn’t come out ready. We didn’t expect that to happen.”

The Bears’ offense turned the ball over five times, never got Callier going, and quarterback Sam Bettencourt only had 10 passing attempts, being picked off once. The seven points is also a season-low for the Bears who had high hopes of advancing to the third round for the first time in years. Instead, they got a chest full of heartache.

“A lot,” Callier said about how much it hurts to not get into the third round. “It hurts a lot. We didn’t expect this.”

Warren finishes their season 10-2 overall, 5-0 in league repeating as the San Gabriel Valley League champions, and Callier also broke the 3,000-yard mark as promised earlier this season reaching 3,021.

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Published: December 4, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 32