Hancock College's defense bent but did not break for three quarters Saturday night.

The unit broke three times for West Hills scores in the fourth quarter. However, sophomore Andre Cirino and his blockers ran enough roughshod over the Falcons defense that Hancock won its home opener fairly handily, 41-24 at Righetti High School's Warrior Stadium.

Hancock led 21-0 after three quarters.

“We have some really good receivers and we're trying to be balanced, but running really is our bread and butter,” Cirino said after he racked up 262 yards on 23 carries, scored four touchdowns and set up his own 19-yard touchdown run with a 69-yard kickoff return.

Hancock squared its record at 1-1. West Hills is 0-2. The teams started their home-and-home series in 2003, and the Bulldogs have won every time.

One of the Western State Conference's premier backs in 2006 was back in form after rushing for 68 yards on 10 carries in Hancock's 30-14 loss at Fullerton last week.

“I just run through the holes,” Cirino said.

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Actually the 6”4”, 236-pounder from Staten Island, N.Y. who besides being very powerful is light on his feet, often does a lot more than that. West Hills defenders found that out the hard way.

Cirino's biggest highlight came in the second quarter. Hancock led 7-0 when Cirino took a handoff and the right side of the line - as it did much of the night - opened a big hole for him.

Cirino took care of the rest. He jumped over a would-be tackler at the 15, ran through an arm tackler a few yards later, juked a defender at the 10 and then went in behind Luke Conley's crushing block at the 5 for a 37-yard touchdown run.

His most spectacular run in his Hancock career?

Cirino didn't seem to care much whether it was or not. “A score's a score, no matter how you get it,” he said. “If the people enjoy watching that type (of run), I'm happy.”

James St. Germain and Tau Sudlow opened a lot of holes Cirino ran through.

“We were getting a lot better surge off the ball this time (than last week),” said Sudlow. “We're coming together as a unit.”

“Once we got going, it all came together,” said St. Germain. “The receivers, especially (Kyle) Pollock were blocking downfield.”

Linebacker William Roundtree was all over the field for Hancock as the Bulldogs shut out the Falcons - despite 425 yards passing on the night for West Hills quarterback Jayson Tyler - for three quarters.

Tyler threw (gasp!) 61 passes. He completed 36 of them, including three for touchdowns. Lance Lewis had seven catches for 115 yards.

Roundtree said the Bulldogs have the momentum they want going into their Western State Conference Mountain Division opener at West Los Angeles College next Saturday. Kickoff is at 1 p.m..

“It's about the offense coming together, the defense coming together, the special teams coming together,” Roundtree said. “We're coming together as a family.”

Hancock reserve quarterback Greg Draper, a 6-3, 238-pound freshman from Paso Robles, was impressive after he came in for starter Casey Cathcart in the fourth quarter.

Draper was 4-for-6 passing for 67 yards. He tossed a 32-yard TD pass to Tyrell Munnerlyn to help the Bulldogs salt the game away.

J.D. Berwick and Chris Etheridge helped Hancock keep West Hills from making things more interesting late by recovering Falcons onside kicks. George Henry III made some timely catches. He was the Bulldogs' receptions leader with four for 56 yards.

Lineman Isiah Anderson and linebacker Luke Swangler helped make the Falcons' running game mostly an exercise in futility. West Hills had 53 yards rushing.

“We're going to keep coming together, and we're going to win the conference,” Sudlow said. “You can quote that.”

Idaho 20, Cal Poly 13

MOSCOW, Idaho - Deonte Jackson ran for 214 yards Saturday to lead the Idaho Vandals past Cal Poly 20-13.

Idaho (1-1) took advantage of seven fumbles by Cal Poly. The Mustangs (0-2) lost four of those, leading to 13 Vandal points.

Jon Hall led the Mustangs on the ground with 114 yards on 20 carries.

Cal Poly quarterback Jonathan Dally was 10-for-24 for 175 yards, while Idaho's Nathan Enderle was 7-for-22 for 101 yards. Lee Smith led Idaho's receivers with 41 yards on four catches.

Idaho jumped on top when Enderle found Max Komar for a 36-yard touchdown pass with 11:22 left in the first quarter. The Vandals went up 10-0 on a 51-yard field goal by Tino Amancio with 3:53 left in the quarter.

Cal Poly got two field goals from Andrew Gardner. Dally and receiver Tredale Tolver also hooked up on a 69-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter to close the gap to 20-13.

Jackson, a redshirt freshman from Hope, Arkansas, scored his first touchdown of the year at the 8:31 mark from 11 yards out to pad Idaho's lead, 20-6.

His 214-yard total was the eighth-best individual day of rushing in school history.

The Associated Press contributed to this roundup.

Sept. 9, 2007