Nicholaus Iamaleava and Warren strike early in rout of Dominguez

All the hype of this week’s high school football games centered on the most anticipated matchup of the season between Mater Dei and St. John Bosco.

But while social media was flooded with predictions, feature stories and video content preceding that game, just a couple of miles away at Warren High School, in Downey one of the area’s top quarterbacks was focused on making sure his team was among the Saturday headlines.

Nicholaus Iamaleava, the 6-foot-6, five-star quarterback for the Bears, was locked in on his team’s most important game of the season against Dominguez — a battle of unbeaten teams who were the two favorites to finish atop the San Gabriel Valley League. Iamaleava completed 15 of 29 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns in Warren’s 54-12 win.

Iamaleava and Warren (6-0) shook off a sloppy start and got into an offensive and defensive groove to take a commanding 41-0 lead in the third quarter.

Dominguez (5-1) lost a fumble on its opening possession and couldn’t generate any momentum with its offense.

The Dons’ first half was littered with turnovers (two) and punts (three) and a safety after the snap flew over the punter’s head and out of the back of the end zone.

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Meanwhile, Warren took advantage of the good field position and put up 29 first-half points while blanking Dominguez.

The Bears’ first score came on a 30-yard pass from Iamaleava to Joshua Johnson at the 4:58 mark of the first quarter. Warren added another touchdown on a one-yard pass from Iamaleava to Jordan Anderson on the first play of the second quarter.

Romeo Clark picked up Warren’s first rushing touchdown of the game on a goal-line push from the one-yard line, giving the Bears a 20-0 lead at the 7:08 mark of the second quarter.

Dominguez lost the second of its two fumbles on its ensuing possession and looked to be tightening things up on the defensive end in forcing Warren into a third-and-33 situation from its own 46 yard line.

But Iamaleava showed poise in pocket and hit Anderson on a screen pass resulting in a 54-yard touchdown to give the Bears a 27-0 advantage with 4:21 left in the first half.

Warren scored on the opening possession of the second half on a six-yard run from Marcus Higgs and added another touchdown on a fumble recovery and 35-yard run from J.T. Houston to take a 41-0 advantage.

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