De La Salle easily handles St. James, 63-7, to remain unbeaten

VACHERIE – After cruising through many of its games this season, De La Salle was preparing for the toughest road matchup it has faced to date against St. James. By the end of Friday night’s district contest, the undefeated Cavaliers were still making it look easy.

Ryan Hamrick ran for 202 yards and three touchdowns, all in the second half, as De La Salle strolled its way to a 63-7 victory over the Wildcats.

“I didn’t expect this,” said De La Salle head coach Ryan Manale. “But we did a great job of executing especially on special teams. Good players can execute at their assigned position, great players can execute at all positions. I had a lot of great players tonight.”

Even after building up a 35-point halftime lead and pulling all of their starters, the Cavaliers continued to pour it on the Wildcats, with the backup running back Hamrick playing the role of the driving force.

The Cavaliers also excelled on special teams, recovering three blocked punts for touchdowns,

“We just got to go back to the drawing board,” said St. James head coach Robert Valdez. “In order to be considered an elite program like (De La Salle) is, we have to keep working and make sure we don’t make the mistakes we made tonight. I think we competed at the onset. Their depth wore us out a little bit. Like I said, we just need to get back to the drawing board.”

The special teams playmaking started early for De La Salle on a blocked Alec Mahler punt in the end zone. the loose ball was pounced on by Ian Paz to put the Cavaliers up 7-0.

The second quarter was when De La Salle took total command.

Senior quarterback Julien Gums ran the ball right through the middle for a 20-yard score. He finished with a pair of touchdowns in one half of work while Flynn LaBreche converted all five of his extra points before the break.

The Cavs special teams struck for the second time on the ensuing St. James next possession with another blocked punt in the end zone, this one recovered by Noble Scott to continue the punishment.

Wide receiver Aaron Marquez scored from 26 yards out on a jet sweep to make the halftime score, 35-0.

Lance Robinson returned the third De La Salle blocked punt of the night for the final score for the Cavaliers.

Shemarr Smith’s three-yard fourth quarter touchdown run gave St. James their only points of the evening.

De La Salle (7-0, 3-0) has its second consecutive key road test when it faces off against St. Charles Catholic next week in LaPlace, while St. James (6-2, 2-1) will take on Lusher Charter.