AKIL EDWARDS of SPSV (right) gets away from St. Francis defender Efren Magana and scores on a 5-yard touchdown run.

The St. Patrick-St. Vincent High football team completely dominated St. Francis of Watsonville in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V playoffs Friday night, building a 41-point lead by halftime and coasting to a 55-22 victory at Dante Magnani Field.

The No. 5 seeded Bruins (8-3) fumbled on their first play of the game but went on to score touchdowns on their other six possessions of the first half to turn the game into a rout. It was only the second playoff victory for SPSV in the past seven years and sent the Bruins to a quarterfinal game against No. 4 seed Stellar Prep of Oakland.

A big run by Marshel Martin, a 30-yard pass from Michael Pappas to Marquel Johnson and some strong running by Akil Edwards set up Martin for SPSV’s first touchdown of the night. Martin broke off a 56-yard run on SPSV’s next possession, and five plays later, the junior scored on a 5-yard run to make it 14-0. When Pappas found Kailon Johnson-Loud for a 44-yard hookup and later scored on a 2-yard quarterback keeper, the Bruins had a 21-point lead after one quarter.

St. Francis (6-6) had its chances early but failed to capitalize. When Martin fumbled on the game’s first play, the Sharks recovered at the SPSV 30-yard line but went three-and-out. The Sharks followed that up with an 11-play drive that got inside SPSV’s 30-yard line, but again No. 12 seeded St. Francis came up empty.

A short touchdown run by Edwards, a 33-yard TD pass to Johnson and another Edwards touchdown run with 14 seconds left in the half gave the Bruins an insurmountable 41-0 lead.

St. Francis showed signs of life in the third quarter as Richie Martinez and Andrew Ciandro scored back-to-back rushing touchdowns to make it 41-14. The Bruins responded with a TD catch by Martin and another rushing touchdown by Edwards to put SPSV back up by 41.

Edwards rushed for 93 yards and three touchdowns while Martin added another 115 yards on the ground – 91 coming in the first quarter. Johnson had three catches for 79 yards and Johnson-Loud had three catches for 69 yards. Pappas completed 6-of-8 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns.

St. Francis managed only 64 yards of total offense in a first half that saw the Sharks punt four times and turn the ball over on downs twice. SPSV’s Devin Devlin and Shiteng Jiang anchored a defensive front that dominated the line of scrimmage.

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