High school football: Former safety shines at quarterback in Westmont victory
Mason Pound shows dual-threat ability as Westmont withstands Del Mar rushing attack
SAN JOSE, Calif. — On Thursday night, longtime Westmont coach Mark Kaanapu found his next dual-threat quarterback.
He only needed to look in the secondary.
Mason Pound started his senior season at center after spending his junior year as a safety.
What are his stats? Eighty yards rushing, 42 yards passing, two touchdowns, and a 23-7 road win over a Del Mar team looking to control the clock with its ground game.
“When you’re up against an offense like that, you’re not going to get many possessions,” Pound explained. “And it’s just a different game because we’re rivals and we know some of the players on that team.”
Del Mar’s senior quarterback Andre Latimore, on the other hand, carried the Dons, rushing for 231 of his team’s 312 yards and scoring one rushing touchdown. It was nearly twice as many as Westmont’s leading rusher Spencer Hoang, who ran for 121 yards and a touchdown while also catching four passes for 38 yards and hauling in Pound’s TD pass.
“Andre is a stud, and he carries and leads this team,” said Del Mar coach Robert Chapman. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m proud of the way the guys played.”
After Pound connected with Hoang on a rollout pass that resulted in a jump-ball touchdown in the corner of the end zone on the first drive, Del Mar responded with a clinical 16-play drive — all runs — that ended with a three-yard Latimore score on a powerful QB sneak to tie the game at 7-7.
On Thursday, senior Bradley Tavish had 47 yards as an interior rusher. Del Mar didn’t finish any of its four passes.
Pound scored on a seven-yard run with 1:35 left in the second quarter, set up by Hoang’s darting 28-yard run down the right sideline. Up to that point, there had been three possessions and three scores.
Early in the third quarter, the tone of the second half was set. Del Mar had fourth and goal on the two-yard line after methodically working its way down the field with run after run.
Adrian Parra of Westmont led a charge that suffocated the determined Del Mar runner and forced a change of possession.
“That goal line play was probably the biggest moment,” said Chapman. “The quarterback stuck out the ball, there’s a pile of bodies, and they went the other way.”
On Westmont’s next possession, Del Mar received a gift in the form of a fumble, but the home team had a 35-yard field goal blocked, keeping the score at 13-7.
Westmont’s Demsin Bet-Varda hit a 37-yard field goal with eight minutes remaining to cut the lead to 16-7, and Hoang sealed the deal with a late 62-yard touchdown with a couple of minutes remaining.
“It’s difficult to get a road win, and when you get the first one, you can use it as a building block,” Kaanapu said, adding that he wanted his team to eliminate the penalties that contributed to the game lasting nearly three hours.
Westmont will face Fremont-Sunnyvale on Friday, while Del Mar will face Sobrato on Thursday.
