Central Catholic runs past Sierra, puts stamp on The Bee’s No. 1 ranking

Central Catholic coach Roger Canepa was looking for a clean performance by his team on Friday night.

And that’s exactly what he got.

Running back Dawaiian McNeely, looking fresh from an early season shoulder injury, rushed for 116 yards and three touchdowns — all in the first half — as the Raiders cruised past Sierra 55-7.

“Our job is to get better every week,” Canepa said. “We got better this week.”

After allowing 28 points against Manteca last week, the Raiders’ defense pitched a shutout in the first half and limited an opponent to seven or fewer points for the fourth time this season.

Central Catholic led 41-0 at halftime, and pulled its starters. A running clock was used for most of the final half.

McNeely had touchdown runs of 14, 60 and 3 yards as the Raiders, the top-ranked team in The Bee’s large-school poll, improved to 5-1 overall, 2-0 in the Valley Oak League.

Central Catholic plays host to East Union next Friday. The Lancers (2-4, 1-1) beat Kimball 39-27.

“He’s 100 percent,” Canepa said of McNeely. “We cleaned some things up tonight. We had no injuries.”

Starting quarterback Dalton Durossette completed 6 of 10 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown and DeAngelo Bellamy scored twice on a pair of 3-yard runs.

In the second half, Kimoni Stanley had a 60-yard TD run and Tyler Streeter tacked on 10- and 50-yard touchdown runs.

Sierra, which fell to 3-3 after having won its last two games, plays host to Oakdale next week.

This story was originally published September 21, 2018 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Central Catholic runs past Sierra, puts stamp on The Bee’s No. 1 ranking."