Westmont started the year with tough losses to Fremont, Gunderson and Mt. Pleasant in the non-league season, then lost 28-24 to Branham in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa Division opener. But the Warriors ended their losing ways with a rousing 42-6 win over Overfelt last Friday night under the lights at Westmont.

"It's been pretty frustrating," said Westmont coach Tony Santos. "If we'd have had a few plays go differently, we could be undefeated right now."

The win came in the second week of the league season after the Warriors opened with the loss to the undefeated Bruins.

"That was a heartbreaker," said Santos. "We rushed for more than 200 yards and had over 400 yards of total offense."

Still, the coach wasn't about the dwell on the past—he was more interested in talking about his club's outstanding performance against the Royals.

"It was kind of nice to have the offense and defense working well together," said Santos.

Westmont's defense held Overfelt to just 75 yards of offense and shut out the Royals for the first three quarters. The offense, meanwhile, put six touchdowns on the scoreboard.

"I'm real happy because it seems that we were able to break out of our shell," said the coach, whose club rushed for 210 yards and finished with more than 300 yards of total offense.

Dan Weller led the offensive attack with 14 carries for 115 yards and three touchdowns. Weller, who raced for 291 yards against Branham, has rolled up 516 yards in four games for the Warriors. He missed the season opener.

Weller scored on a 2-yard run in the first quarter to give the Warriors the early lead, then senior quarterback Mike DeNardi tossed 13 yards to sophomore Chantz Staden for a score. Alan Schuman kicked the extra points after each of the touchdowns, as he did after all six of the Westmont TDs in the game.

Weller scored on a 4-yard run in the second quarter and Schuman converted to give Westmont a 21-0 lead at intermission.

Weller ran one in from the 16 to open the third quarter, then junior defensive back Justin O'Connor ran back a pass interception 70 yards for a touchdown to make it 35-0 heading into the fourth.

Sophomore Stefan Fowler scored on an 18-yard run in the final period for Westmont's last touchdown of the night.

The Warriors did most of their damage on the ground in the win.

"It took us a couple of games to find our identity," said Santos, who expects his team to continue to work its ground game in the weeks to come. The Warriors ran for 265 yards in the season opener against Fremont, then 291 against the Bruins and 210 against the Royals.

The backs are running behind a solid front wall of tackles Danny Garcia and David Lee, guards Tyler Porras and An Pham and center Ramsey Habib.

But as good as the Westmont running game was, the defense was equally as impressive.

The coach praised the work of senior strong safety Eric Stambaugh for a solid game.

Middle linebacker Andrew Sharp also played well along with O'Connor, who had the pass interception for the touchdown, and sophomore cornerbacks Staden and Fowler.

The coach was also pleased with the performance of his defensive line in the win.

Porras, Brandon Bradford, Dean Antolin and Lee led the defensive charge up front.