“No huddle! No huddle!”

St. Joseph coach Mike Hartman wasn't about to watch his team beat itself in the first round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs on Friday.

A week after watching his team run a disciplined 2-minute drill to perfection during a critical stretch, he put his faith in his team's preparedness once again.

Standout wide receiver Scott Cathcart had just pushed the Knights back five yards with a false start penalty, and Hartman wouldn't let his team talk about it.

Instead, he barked out, “Run the same play and get it right!”

Boy, did they.

Quarterback Shawn Winters stepped up to his valiant offensive line, took the snap and watched Cathcart more than make up for his mistake.

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Catchart blocked two defenders up the Torrance sideline and left running back Thomas Sua blazing a path through open space into the endzone for a 28-yard comeback killer and 21-0 lead.

Tartars coach Rock Hollis would in fact watch his own team beat itself on this night, as Torrance fumbled not more than one minute later to set up another Knights touchdown in an eventual route.

St. Joseph earned the right to practice on Thanksgiving and play another Friday with a convincing 35-8 win over Torrance.

“They gave us a different look defensively than we'd seen on the tapes,” Hartman said. “It took our offense a little time to get used to it, to figure it out but in the second half, our offense played well, very well and we were able to pull away from them.”

Torrance finally ran into a team that could handle its unique offense.

The Tartars kept pounding and pounding with the running game, but St. Joseph didn't give an inch on the ground.

With their running game stymied, the Tartars struggled to amass any sort of offense.

A week after running circles around North in their final league game, the Tartars managed only 110 rushing yards on Friday night. They rushed for 475 yards in their previous game, according to Hollis. Torrance runs the unorthodox “Double-Wing T” offense, a system that has propelled the team into the playoffs for the past three seasons.

In the previous five years, the Tartars ran a more traditional spread offense, and never made the playoffs.

“They run an offense that puts a massive amount of humanity at the point of attack,” St. Joseph coach Mike Hartman said.

Basically, humanity equals an offense line that contains 6 foot, 9 inch, 325-pound James Vicars and a host of other gargantuan linemen.

On Friday, Tartars running back Chris Marzan hit that pile of humanity at full speed, but only managed 71 yards on 20 carries. Marzan had 837 rushing yards entering the game and was part of a running game that scored a combined 115 points in Torrance's last three league games.

But many of those linemen play on both sides of the ball, and were huffing and puffing by the time the third quarter came around.

“When you run the pitch, then the toss, then the trap and they (the Knights) still beat that ...then they're better than you,” coach Rock Hollis said.

St. Joseph cut Torrance's oxygen supply off, and Sua punished the Tartars on the ground, amassing 162 yards, 2 rushing touchdowns and a 26-yard touchdown reception. St. Joseph also got things going through the air.

Winters finished throwing for 156 yards on 15 attempts. His favorite threat was Cathcart, who finished with 99 yards on four catches.

“Scott is one of those guys that creates problems with his size and speed,” Hartman said.

The 6-foot, 4-inch wide receiver kicked off the scoring when he hauled in a 46-yard heave, after speeding past his man, who fell down helplessly to the grass. Special teams play set up another first-half touchdown, with Hartman providing the play-by-play.

“Tyler Kirchhof ‘s block of their punt attempt was a great play,” he said. “We were up 7-0 late in the second quarter and he just went in and got the big block. We took over deep in their territory (at the 17 yard line) and Sua ran it into the end zone on the next play. That gave us a little cushion at halftime.”

Sua's run capped the first half scoring.

But it was a critical two-minute stretch in the third - captained by Winters' no-huddle play - that sealed the win.

Following Sua's 27-yard catch, the Torrance comeback killer proved to be their own self-inflicted gaffes.

One minute later, Torrance would fumble, handing the ball back to the Knights offense with only 26 yards separating them from another touchdown. Joaquin Vasquez returned the fumble all the way to the house for another touchdown and 28-0 lead.

It would be the first of four turnovers in the second half. These miscues come a week after Torrance fumbled five times, according to Hollis.

Sua's 15-yard run capped the St. Joseph scoring before Marzan found the endzone on a 21-yard run for the Tartars' only score.

Covina defeated Nordoff of Ojai 42-7 on Friday, setting up a second-round showdown between St. Joseph and Covina. St. Joseph will hit the road.

Nov. 18, 2006