Villa Park rumbles past Damien in both teams' season openers

Villa Park’s Carter Christie (12) rushed for 181 yards and scored two touchdowns over the Monarchs at Farrington's Edward 'Skippa' Diaz Stadium at Kusunoki Field. CJ Caraang | SL

Villa Park trailed early, then rattled off 30 unanswered points via the ground game to roll past Damien, 37-13.

Carter Christie carried the ball 27 times for 181 yards and two scores, all game-highs, to pace the Spartans, who tallied 308 yards on the evening via the run.

Damien struck first, with a Micah Neizman interception return for touchdown spotting the home team an early 7-0 advantage, but Villa Park took the lead back ona Ethan Fraser run from 11 yards out followed by a Dominic Ancich run on the point after to cap the scoring of the opening quarter.

Ancich added a one yard plunge in the second quarter and Christie tacked on a 31 yard scamper for this first of two scores to end the half with the Spartans ahead 23-7.

Christie reached the end zone again in the third on a 70 yard gallop to make it 30-7, before the Monarchs finally were able to put points on the scoreboard on a scoring pass from AJ Tuifua to Wyatt Ho-Williams to trim the margin to 17.

Villa Park added a passing TD to cap the scoring in the final quarter, as Nate Lewis found Jarrell Spencer on a 50 yard scoring play. It was the only catch of the day for Spencer and just the third completion for Lewis in the game.

The Monarchs were held to just 203 yards of total offense and just 27 on the ground.