Bishop Diego football capped off its undefeated non-league season with a 43-18 victory over Bishop Alemany on Friday in Los Angeles.
The Cardinals (5-0) will kick off their Marmonte League schedule by hosting Camarillo next Thursday at 7 p.m. at La Playa Stadium.
Bishop Diego received the opening kickoff and quickly got on the board, marching down the field to set up a 6-yard touchdown rush by Gabe Villa.
Sebastian Garcia converted the two-point conversion to give the Cardinals an 8-0 lead, which held for the remainder of the first quarter.
Villa found pay dirt once again at the 11:48 mark of the second quarter as Tua Rojas found his running back for a 25-yard touchdown and a 15-0 lead.
Bishop Alemany’s offense then woke up, responding with a touchdown drive of its own before the extra-point attempt was blocked to bring the score to 15-6 with 7:40 left in the half.
The Cardinals answered right back in the second quarter with Rojas completing a 6-yard touchdown pass to Mason Bidlow to extend the lead to 22-6 heading into the halftime locker room.
Bishop Alemany came out of the break on fire, beginning with a 40-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive to cut it to 22-12.
The Cardinals then fumbled on their ensuing drive to give the Warriors stellar field position, which they took advantage of with another passing touchdown.
However, Bishop Diego once again blocked the extra point to make its lead 22-18 with 9:29 left in the third quarter.
The Cardinal offense then went on a methodical drive down the field that was capped off by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Rojas to Bidlow to extend the lead to 29-18 with one quarter to play.
The Bishop Diego special teams unit then got in on the fun, blocking a punt early in the fourth to kickstart a drive from the Bishop Alemany 26-yard line.
The big play was immediately turned into points as Gabe Villa ripped off a 26-yard touchdown run to pull away at 36-18 with 10:04 on the clock.
The defense then stepped up as Sam Crawford hauled in an interception to set up a 70-yard touchdown run by Ian Bartley to balloon the lead to 43-18.
That lead held until the final whistle to cap off a perfect non-league schedule for Bishop Diego.
