‘Like a machine’: Serra too much, pulls away from Central Catholic in second half

Roger Canepa’s postgame speech to the Central Catholic High School football team was full of reassurance, encouragement, points of correction and a challenge.

The veteran coach, in his 16th season as the Raiders’ head man, urged his team to be “like a machine.”

When a machine is firing on all cylinders it is the epitome of consistency, repeating the same process, yielding the same result. That is Canepa’s goal for his team.

“We have to do things right in practice, do things over and over and just perfect it,” senior receiver/defensive back Trace Hernandez said of how he interpreted Canepa’s challenge. “If we run on perfection, everything will go well for league.”

The Raiders’ opponent Friday night, California’s fifth-ranked team Serra of San Mateo, was the definition of a machine.

The Padres were consistent over and over and over, slowly but surely marching down the field until their long drives simply wore down the host Raiders.

What was a 10-7 Central Catholic deficit at halftime turned into a 24-7 Serra lead by the end of the third quarter.

When the final horn blew, it signaled the end of a second half dominated by Serra and sealed the Raiders’ fate. Central Catholic fell to 2-2 on the season, losing to Serra 38-7.

Central Catholic played the best first half of any of Serra’s first three opponents. The Raiders’ defense kept Serra’s dynamic playmakers in check and offensively, they scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak from TP Wentworth early in the second quarter.

It took three plays for the Padres to score the game’s first touchdown. They did not score again until Thomas Gooch made a 41-yard field goal to break a 7-7 tie.

“We played great defense,” Canepa said. “We’ve still got to move the ball a little better, but a lot of that is … we’ve got guys (on the line) that haven’t had a lot of reps.”

The Raiders received the second-half kickoff energized and put together one of their patented long drives, but two straight delay of game penalties and a pair of incompletions ended the possession in a punt.

“The first half we played really well, going in 10-7 and coming out getting the ball we were really excited to try to maybe take the lead,” Wentworth said.

Serra scored on five of its six second-half drives, including punctuating their final three drives with touchdowns, dominating the second half and showing why they are regarded as one of the favorites to represent Northern California in the CIF state championship for a second straight season. The Padres scored 28 second-half points.

“We gave it a good go, but we didn’t execute,” Canepa said. “They’re good, so when you don’t execute, you lose.”

The game gave the Raiders a peek into the future. Entering their second season in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs, they will have to face a number of teams like Serra on their way to a possible title.

“It builds us and makes us better for playoffs because those are the kind of teams we’re going to play,” Hernandez said. “It makes us better and gets us used to that competition … we know that they’re coming. Folsom, Monterey Trail, all of those big schools.”

Help is on the way

The Raiders won’t play a game this coming Friday before hosting Pleasant Valley on Sept. 22 in their final nonleague game. They visit East Union in their first Valley Oak League game Sept. 29.

Hernandez played through a strained Achilles tendon he suffered in practice. He says he spent Thursday and all day Friday in a walking boot. Cal Berkeley defensive back commit Brooklyn Cheek missed three days of practice due to illness and tight end Seth Van Dyk played just his second-ever game at offensive tackle. The tight end shifted positions when starting tackle Kaisarra Afusia-Breeland broke his hand against St. Mary’s.

The Raiders were down to five offensive and six defensive linemen after Afusia-Breeland and Zion Denning — who injured his knee last week against Bishop Manogue — were forced to sit out.

“We were hurting on the line,” Canepa said. “I mean, we had to put our tight end at tackle.”

They are hoping to get those players back to 100% in the next two weeks.

The Raiders’ highest-profile lineman was one of the team’s waterboys for the first four games.

Manasse Itete, who last month gave a verbal commitment to play at Florida State, transferred in from Modesto Christian and had to sit out the first month due to the Sac-Joaquin Section’s transfer rules. He will be eligible to play against Pleasant Valley along with Daruis Brown and Anthony Todd, who transferred from Gregori.

The bye week couldn’t come at a better time.

“We need some fresh legs,” Canepa said. “We had the same guys play O-line that play D-line. It’s a big deal to get some more bodies.”