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Led by seven Perrantes scores, St. Francis football is headed to CIF title game

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LA CAÑADA – For more than 50 seasons, St. Francis High’s football team found the CIF semifinal round an arduous obstacle it just could not overcome.

But on a fortuitous autumn night, the Golden Knights almost made it look easy this time around.

Junior quarterback Darius Perrantes turned in a performance that is apt to be remembered for seasons to come as he accounted for seven total touchdowns in St. Francis’ 52-17 victory over El Toro on Friday at Friedman Field in the CIF Southern Section Division III semifinals.

For the first time since 1964, the Golden Knights are headed to a CIF championship game.

St. Francis (12-1) will host No. 4 seed Rancho Verde, which toppled top-seeded Charter Oak, 41-22, in the division championship on Friday or Saturday.

“I can’t think of any scenario in which the game goes better for us,” St. Francis coach Jim Bonds said of an evening in which St. Francis led from the start, claiming a 42-17 halftime lead en route to a second half that ended with a running clock.

The high-octane offense of El Toro (8-5), which was led by quarterback Cooper Jones, who finished the season with 43 touchdown passes, was held in check by the St. Francis defense for the most part.

“I’m just so proud of our defense,” Bonds said. “We had a great game plan and the kids executed the plan to near perfection.”

Offensively for the Golden Knights, Perrantes was spectacular. He completed an outstanding 21 of 24 passes for 296 yards and five touchdowns. He added two rushing touchdowns and 44 yards in nine carries.

Receiver Greg Dulcich was huge again, tallying his second straight 100-yard game, as he hauled in nine catches for 169 yards and three touchdowns (51 yards, four and 42).

“Big-time players step up in big-time games,” Bonds said. “Those two guys have stepped up for us all season.”

Perrantes also threw no interceptions, while the St. Francis defense had three takeaways (Malcolm Wallace had an interception and a fumble recovery and Bobby Gazmarian had an interception).

“I wasn’t really thinking about that,” Perrantes said of scoring seven touchdowns, “but the game was coming very easy.”

Since taking over the program before the 2000 season, Bonds had coached the Golden Knights to five previous semifinal appearances.

He also coached Alemany to a semifinal, but came up short in all of them. Now, he will return to the CIF championship for the first time since 1986, when , as a quarterback for Newhall Hart, he led his team to a CIF Southern Section Northwestern championship win over Temple City and was named the division’s player of the year.

“It’s so much harder as a coach. I had no idea as a player it was this hard to get there as a coach,” said Bonds, who played in two title games. “I’m so happy for these guys and all the guys before them.

“I’m happy for all the guys I’ve coached before, a lot of them were here today.”

In front of a packed house at Friedman Field, St. Francis dominated.

Isaac Cordova (five catches for 73 yards) had a pair of touchdown catches and running back Elijah Washington very quietly had a big game with 114 yards in 16 carries as St. Francis scored on its first eight possessions.

Its eighth ended with a Nico Boschetti field goal, all the rest were touchdowns as St. Francis forced a running clock with Boschetti’s kick putting the home team ahead, 52-17, with 10:54 to play.

Dulcich’s final score was a 42-yard touchdown that, even with the Chargers’ quick-strike offense, seemed to put the game to bed with 8:35 to go in the third quarter.

Jones finished 18 of 35 for 345 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. But El Toro was held to 114 second-half yards and no points.

“[El Toro’s] offense was crazy, but our defense was great tonight,” Perrantes said. “Overall, we played great.”

St. Francis’ first half was a phenomenal one, as it scored on all six of its possessions, buoyed by a fumble recovery and a late interception by Wallace.

The interception led to Perrantes hitting Dulcich on a four-yard touchdown pass for a huge 42-17 halftime lead.

The Golden Knights scored 21 points in each of the first two quarters and Perrantes had six total touchdowns. He was a remarkable 18 for 21 for 234 yards and four touchdowns. He hit Dulcich, who had seven catches for 124 yards in the opening half, for two scores, including a 51-yarder for a 14-0 lead just after Wallace’s fumble recovery.

El Toro answered with a 74-yard scoring pass on its ensuing offensive play when Jones hit Shane McLaughlin. Jones had 248 yards passing in the first half and McLaughlin had 154 yards receiving (158 for the game).

The two hooked up again for a 66-yard score in the second quarter to cut the score to 28-17, but after the 14-0 advantage, St. Francis maintained a two-score lead throughout the half.

After cutting the score to 28-17 on the second McLaughlin touchdown, El Toro gave up two touchdowns to end the half with Cordova hauling in his second touchdown pass of the half on a 16-yard play-action from Perrantes. Then came the huge late Dulcich score.

Perrantes had a five-yard run for a 7-0 lead and a one-yard sneak for a 21-7 lead. St. Francis led, 21-10, after the first stanza.

Cordova also had an 18-yard touchdown in a first half in which the teams combined for 611 total yards, with St. Francis tallying 357.

“First week, nobody really expected this,” Perrantes said. “But week by week, we got better.”

And now, St. Francis is a win away from hoisting up a CIF plaque.

grant.gordon@latimes.com

Twitter: @TCNGrantGordon

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