Casa Roble defense stars as Decelle has three interceptions in win over Burbank

Dylan Decelle ran the perfect route to the ball. The Casa Roble senior locked onto the quarterback, got in position, leaped and hauled in the pass, then sprinted downfield for a touchdown.

Not bad, considering the ball was intended for a Burbank receiver.

Decelle, the Rams’ defensive back, hauled in three interceptions, including a 93-yard pick-six as Casa Roble handled host Burbank 37-6 Friday night.

While running back Dylan Overstreet had his typical stellar night, going for 214 yards and three touchdowns, it was the Rams defense that had the most eye-popping numbers. Decelle had more receiving yards than the entire Burbank team. In the first half, the Titans completed six passes for negative 11 yards.

Hopefully somebody from Arizona State saw Decelle’s effort. That would be his dream school. Maybe coach Herm Edwards could use a guy with ball-hawking abilities.

“He’s like Deion Sanders,” coach Chris Horner said. “He’s a very, very, very good athlete. His football IQ is very high.”

Decelle had a more aw-shucks approach to describe his defensive abilities.

“I see what the receiver is doing, I read it, look at the quarterback and I know where to be at,” Decelle said.

The senior leader was more effusive with his praise for Justin Spradling, Dylan Shaw, Nolan Nye and Luke Gunter. The defensive linemen gummed up the Burbank run game, holding the Titans to just one first down in the first half. The defense earned five turnovers in total for the game.

“Oh my God, the defensive line was just pushing their O-line and they kept pushing ‘em,” Decelle said. “They were getting pressure, the quarterback was scrambling, it was big.”

It was also necessary. Casa Roble sputtered through a scoreless first quarter as the Rams had just one practice in the past two weeks because of COVID-19 protocols. Horner said Casa Roble didn’t have any tape to watch of Burbank so he counted on the defense to gum up the middle.

“We knew coming in we were going to put a lot of pressure on these guys,” Horner said. “We were coming in blind. We didn’t know anything about Burbank. We figured we would just put the pressure on them and lock up the option.”

While Decelle and the defense earned the headline, Horner’s eyes lit up when he was asked who else had a big night. That would be receiver Greg Zane Jr., who earned a couple of claps and a Ric Flair “Wooooooo” from his coach and teammates after the game.

Zane routinely locked onto Burbank defenders and took them out of the play. If his man got off him, Zane found somebody else to hit and mowed them down.

“Greg Zane was a freaking sixth lineman out there,” Horner said excitedly.”He was out there pancaking guys. … ‘He was like, did you see that?’ I saw it! I saw it! I get more excited about those than the deep balls he catches. He balled out tonight. He contributed.”