It was a conference opener fit for a king.
Make that a Viking.
The Diablo Valley College football team walked off the field with a winner's grin for the first time in nearly a month Friday night, after a 33-0 rout of De Anza at Viking Stadium in the teams' Bay 6 openers.
The Vikings (3-3, 1-0), who ended a rough three-game losing streak, rode the arm of Drew Anderson, the forcefulness of Kory Lamberts, the hard running of D'Amora Cooper, and the daring do of wideouts Marcus Armstrong-Brown, CJ Cornwell, Dominic Paoletti and Nick West, who each had a touchdown catch.
It was a perfect time for a complete effort, with a home game against winless Foothill Junior College on Friday.
The Vikings dominated in all phases on defense, working their first shutout of the season. Lambert played a big role with a sack, a tackle for loss and a huge hit on the quarterback to force and incompletion.
"It was good," Lamberts, the Vikings; emotional leader, said of the defense. "We had a couple of rough weeks back there. We let in some big plays previously, and we really locked it down in practice this week and came out and executed and did our job, and dominated this week. It was good to start the conference like this."
The state's top-ranked quarterback, Anderson passed for four touchdowns, and had no interceptions for the first time since the season-opening 45-14 win over Feather River.
"If we can win the turnover battle we've got a good shot in every game, because we've always been moving the ball back-and-forth across the field," Anderson said. "I feel like we just got to clean up some turnovers and get a little better in the red zone, and we'll be going. It was good to get a win, though."
Liberty graduate Kyle Trego had a fumble recovery, and Marcus de la Pena, a former star running back at San Ramon Valley, had an interception. Linebacker Steven O'Brien of College Park batted down a pass attempt on fourth down, and linebacker Thompson Pulu of Hayward had a sack of speedy De Anza quarterback Ron Johnson. The dynamic Johnson was held in check after bolting for a 40-yard run on the Dons' second possession.
Paoletti and Anderson, battery-mates on a prolific Miramonte High offense two years ago, recaptured some of that old Matadors magic. Anderson's long completion to Paoletti set up a 3-yard scoring pass to Cornwell in the second quarter that made it 13-0, with Brandon Brown's extra point.
Then Paoletti scored on an electric 57-yard pass play from Anderson on the Vikings' first drive of the second half, somehow keeping his feet while fending off a shoestring-tackle before barely plunging across the goal line.
"I was happy to stay up," Paoletti said with a grin. "I had to dive for it."
Paoletti, a redshirt freshman, had waited a long time for that touchdown. It was his first TD catch since he caught two Anderson passes for scores in the 2013 North Coast Section Division II championship game, when the Matadors beat Casa Grande of Petaluma 41-28.
"That was pretty sweet," Anderson said of Paoletti's opening his collegiate touchdown account. "I thought was he going to get one early, but he didn't quite have the burners. He finally got one there at the end, so that was pretty sweet."
The Vikings opened up a 23-0 lead by halftime, courtesy of three touchdown passes by Anderson and a 44-yard field goal by Brown.
Anderson opened the scoring with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Armstrong-Brown of Justin-Siena late in the first quarter. Anderson's 22-yard scoring pass play to Nick West of Liberty rounded out a stellar first half for the Vikings.
How good was Anderson in the win?
"Oh, incredible," Paoletti said. "He's an incredible quarterback. He keeps his mindset right during the game, and doesn't let anything affect him."
-- Matt Schwab
