Evan McKeegan is a fullback who can motor.
The Bishop Diego junior showed off his breakaway speed on a 90-yard touchdown run during the Cardinals’ 62-15 romp over Nordhoff in their Tri-Valley League football opener on Saturday night at La Playa Stadium.
Bishop Diego improves to 6-2 heading into a TVL title showdown with Grace Brethren on Friday at Moorpark College. Grace Brethren is 7-1 and ranked No. 1 in Division 8. It beat Santa Paula 74-14 in a TVL opener.
McKeegan scored three touchdowns and intercepted a pass in the second straight 60-point game by the Cardinals.
“I just run the plays that are called,” said the humble McKeegan.
On the 90-yard run that gave Bishop a 41-7 lead in the second quarter, McKeegan took a handoff from quarterback David Gladish, broke to the right and out ran Nordhoff defenders up the sideline.
“I heard the play and said, ‘I’m going to try and make something of this,’ and I did,” said McKeegan.
Bishop coach Tom Crawford is glad to have McKeegan back in the lineup. He missed three games with a high ankle sprain and the Cardinals lost two of them.
“We’ve been fortunate in the last three games to do some running back by committee,” Crawford said. “Certainly Evan has taken advantage of the carries he’s getting. I think he’s surprising teams with his speed and he’s getting into space and turning plays into big plays. It was loss for us when he went out for those three games. We missed him in our two losses, so it’s nice to see him going 100 percent.”
McKeegan scored the first touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run and caught a 29-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Jake Engel in the third quarter to put the Cardinals ahead 48-7.
“I’m just trying to be the best player I can,” he said. “When my number is called, I’m going to be the best player I can.”
The Cardinals dominated the undermanned Rangers (2-6). Nordhoff’s two TDs came on passes from quarterback Parker Johnson to receiver Brendon Looker.
For Bishop, John Harris rushed for two scores (4 and 14 yards), Mark Soracco had an 80-yard punt return and a 17-yard run, Tommy Murrillo caught a 22-yard scoring strike from Gladish and freshman Adrian Soracco bulled through defenders on a 13-yard TD run.
Dylan Streett, in his second game back from injury, intercepted two passes.
“I credit the guys because I think they did a nice job of staying focused the last two weeks,” said Crawford of coming off a bye week. “They were ready to play, they wanted a contest after two weeks of dealing with one another. Being able to compete was important for them. This group, like last year’s group, is a one-game-at-a-time sort of group. I was very pleased for the most part on how we played.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.