He Shows His Stuff to Alemany, 43-15

By TRIS WYKES

Sept. 12, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SHERMAN OAKS — Justin Fargas wore no cape, went nowhere near a phone booth and turned no airborne somersaults Thursday night, but the Notre Dame High senior did nothing but add to his role as the area’s football superman.

Fargas, regarded by many as the nation’s top running back, led the Knights past Alemany, 43-15, by rushing for 272 yards and three touchdowns. In the second quarter alone, he sped to 113 yards and two touchdowns in seven carries.

“I’ve said before that [Fargas] should have skipped his senior year and gone on to college,” said Alemany Coach Jim Bonds, who made his head coaching debut. “I said it jokingly but I don’t think there’s much doubt he’s one of the top backs in the country.”

Fargas scored on runs of five, 76 and two yards and also had carries of 23 and 50 yards. Aided by a dominant performance from right guard Craig Johnson, right tackle Brandon Woods and tight end Joe Aragno, he was able to consistently turn the corner ahead of his pursuers.

“I ran hard and I’m confident in the way we played,” Fargas said. “It was a little sloppy and we slowed down in the second half but as we get more experience we’ll be able to correct that.”

The Knights (1-0) led, 33-7, at halftime and scored on all five of their first-half possessions. After driving 93 yards in 11 plays and taking a 7-0 lead on a five-yard run by Fargas, they allowed Alemany (0-1) to drive 67 yards in nine plays and tie the score when freshman Deandre Scott took a shovel pass from Casey Clausen 18 yards to the end zone.

Notre Dame took control with consecutive one-play drives for a 20-7 advantage.

The first was a 76-yard run by Fargas. The second was a 59-yard touchdown pass play from David DeMartinis to Rod Arzu.

Notre Dame scored twice more in the half, on a 71-yard touchdown pass play from DeMartinis to Todd Fenton and on a two-yard run by Fargas.

“The little mistakes we made hurt us,” Bonds said. “Granted we faced a great back but our tackling was not what it needed to be. We had angles on him and had him in our sights a couple of times and didn’t bring him down.

“But I was happy with our defense in the third quarter. It could have been 66-7 by then but we didn’t throw it in.”

Notre Dame scored twice in the fourth quarter to take a 43-7 lead. Juan Plascentia kicked a 38-yard field goal and Kevin Mugavero recovered Miguel Fletcher’s fumble in the end zone.

Alemany scored with seven seconds left on Deon Scott’s eight-yard run. He caught a conversion pass from P.J. Arguello.

DeMartinis completed eight of 15 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns in his debut as a varsity quarterback.

Clausen, a sophomore transfer from La Canada, completed nine of 21 passes for 113 yards and had two passes intercepted by Fenton.

Fletcher rushed for 120 yards in 19 carries and Deandre Scott caught six passes for 62 yards.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Fargas Breakdown

A quarter-by-quarter look at Notre Dame running back Justin Fargas’ performance against Alemany

QUARTER: CARRIES/YARDS

First: 7/81

* Long gain: 23

* Touchdown run: 5

* Average yards per carry: 11.6