BUENA PARK — The Buena Park football team had the misfortune of going up against defending CIF-SS Division 12 champion Cerritos in the season opener for both teams Thursday at Buena Park High School.
Cerritos was in control from start to finish, despite racking 105 yards in penalties, and the Dons came away with a 38-0 victory.
The Dons (1-0) relied mostly on their ground game, scoring four of their five touchdowns on the ground.
Dikshanta Adhikari had touchdown runs of 14 and 18 yards, Josiah Ungos scored on a 13-yard run and quarterback Justin Sagun had a 12-yard scoring run and threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Ruben Castro.
All four players had key roles on last season’s championship team, which defeated Yuca Valley 19-13 in overtime in the Division 12 title game.
With last season’s number one running back, Josh Park, having graduated, Adhikari said he knew he would be stepping into that role this season.
“We have a target on our back since we won CIF,” Adhikari said. “So, we’ve got to come out strong. That’s what we did today. And I knew I was going to get the main load today because we’ve been practicing the same thing every day since spring, so you know I was I was prepared for it.”
Dons second-year coach Demel Franklin said the play of the offensive line made it possible to run the ball the way they did.
“Those five guys up front did their job,” Franklin said. “There was a couple of little mistakes, but for the most part, they dominated the line of scrimmage. As long as they do that, I love our team.”
Cerritos started seven of its nine drives inside Buena Park territory, including three inside the 30.
In most cases, the good field position was set up by the defense.
Six drives by the Coyotes (0-1) resulted in negative yardage.
The Coyotes did put a good drive together late in the second quarter, driving from their 25 to the Cerritos 20.
But that drive ended on an incomplete pass on fourth down and the Coyotes never got inside Dons’ territory again.
Franklin said his team should only get better.
“We were very young last year,” Franklin said. “That’s what people don’t understand. We have our 22 starters. I think 15 of them were sophomores last year. Now those guys are juniors and guess what, they’re coming back again next year.”
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