Football: Don’t overlook the St. Bonaventure defense

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Ventura St. Bonaventure has certainly passed the eye test so far this season.

Most of the attention has focused on the offense and rightfully so--the Seraphs have put 88 points on the scoreboard in their first two games. Easily overlooked, however, is a defense that came up huge late in last Friday’s interdivisional victory over Corona Centennial.

Centennial crept to within 40-35 with 2:06 remaining, then recovered an onside kick to get the ball back with a chance to take the lead. However, senior linebacker Dalton Rocha tackled Austin Renken short of a first down on fourth-and-five at the Seraphs’ 45-yard line.

Then, after the Huskies recovered a fumble deep in their territory by St. Bonaventure running back Zach Green, giving them one last chance with 30 seconds left, the Seraphs’ secondary broke up two desperate passes downfield.

St. Bonaventure also hurried Centennial quarterback Robert Webber all game long, sacking him twice and containing his outside receivers. In their season opener, the Seraphs blanked L.A. Garfield, 48-0.

‘We had some good stops at the end by our defense [against Centennial],’ St. Bonaventure Coach Todd Therrien said. ‘We gave up a few big plays so we have to get better on the back end, but for the most part we were solid on that side of the ball.’

The Seraphs, who moved up a spot to No. 8 in The Times’ rankings, will take on another stout defense Friday night when they travel to No. 23 Redlands East Valley, which opened with a shutout of Dominguez.

-- Steve Galluzzo