Unbeaten St. Paul Upsets No. 5 Loyola, 10-2

The heavyweight champion is still waiting in the wings. But now we know who the most dangerous contender might be.

Santa Fe Springs St. Paul High knocked off highly touted Loyola, 10-2, Friday night in a Del Rey League football opener at St. Paul.

The Swordsmen, seventh in The Times’ Top 20 poll, can now set their sights on a Nov. 11 showdown with No. 1 Bishop Amat.

Or can they?

“Bishop Amat? We can’t even think about a team like that yet,” St. Paul Coach Marijon Ancich said after his team improved to 6-0 overall, while dropping fifth-ranked Loyola to 4-1. “We’ll send Cerritos Junior College over to play them on that day. Until then, we’ll start by worrying about Crespi next week.”

St. Paul had little to fret about against the Cubs. Using a ball-control offense, the Swordsmen had possession for most of the first half in building a 10-0 lead.

The critical point of the game came early, when St. Paul mounted an eight-minute, 17-play drive that covered 80 yards on its first possession. Quarterback Gerry Ceballos scrambled in from 11 yards, giving his team a 7-0 lead.

What made it worse for Loyola and Coach Steve Grady was knowing that the Cubs committed two critical penalties to keep the drive going.

“We made a couple of key mistakes on that first drive,” Grady acknowledged. “(From that point) their defensive line dominated the game.”

St. Paul boosted its lead to 10-0 in the second quarter after Andy Wilcox’s 32-yard field goal followed a Damon Tomeo recovery of a muffed punt.

The Cubs scored with 3:21 remaining when Wilcox was tackled in the end zone recovering a high snap on a punt attempt.