It was reminiscent of Serra’s road to the state football championship in 2017.
A young sophomore stepping into a role vacated by an injured senior superstar — quarterback Dom Lampkin taking the helm after an injury to senior Daylin McLemore, the sophomore making his first varsity start in the Padres’ biggest game of the year to date, a 10-0 win over Valley Christian to clinch no less than a share of the West Catholic Athletic League championship.
Defensive end Nusi Malani wrote the same fairytale story as a sophomore two years ago, taking over for 2017 WCAL Player of the Year Atonio Mafi in the Central Coast Section Open Division II opener against Mitty.
 
“Just like Dom with Daylin,” Malani said. “That’s when I got moved up.”
Malani played the 2017 regular season with Serra’s junior-varsity team, but only because he suffered an ACL tear in his left knee prior to the season. He missed the first two games, then hit the ground running with the JV squad in Week 3. Malani still got to play 10 games and then some, moving up to the varsity squad for the postseason to emerge as a rushing force en route to Serra’s CCS and CIF Division 2-AA championships.
Serra head coach Patrick Walsh said Saturday’s shutout of previously undefeated Valley Christian — the Padres held the Warriors to a mere 118 total yards of offense — was the best defensive performance he’s witnessed since Serra’s 38-14 win over Cajon in the 2017 state championship game.
And like that game, for which the Daily Journal recognized cornerback Patrick Nunn for the same award, Malani has been named the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week for fronting Saturday’s dominant defensive performance.
“Offense always gets the nod when it comes to popularity … but when it comes to a championship culture or a championship narrative, there’s always a great defense behind it,” Walsh said.
Malani’s presence as the strong side defensive end had Valley Christian throwing double- and triple-teams his way all day in an attempt to open lanes for a run-heavy offense that entered the day averaging 385 yards per game. But while Malani was absorbing blockers, the rest of the Serra defense had a field day, highlighted by defensive tackle Marcellus Eison’s two sacks.
“[Malani’s presence] affects it heavily,” Eison said. “Being on the strong side … they don’t want to run to the strong side. Nusi, he’s a big, great player. So, he’s always flushing it inside. I’m always helping him out with that. So, he’s a great help.”
Junior defensive tackle Sioeli Helu was right there with Eison to stack the middle. And at the other defensive end spot, senior Jerry Gaoteote stepped into a new role after patrolling linebacker all season. Not that Gaoteote’s position change hurt the linebacker corps, as senior Will Mauer was fitting the gaps between the tackles. And strong safety Jackson Lataimua got in for one of Serra’s four sacks on the day.
“In a way I was surprised (we dominated) and at the same time I wasn’t,” Malani said. “Our defense throughout the whole week … we watched a lot of film and we practiced a lot of their runs, and we fitted really good. So, I really wasn’t surprised about that.”
 
Malani also had one sack, but he was in proximity to the quarterback for all four. And the 6-6, 250-pounder celebrated every one of them.
Now, the Padres are looking at a season of destiny. With a 9-0 record, Serra can wrap up an undefeated regular season, and an outright WCAL championship, Saturday at St. Ignatius. This too is reminiscent of the 2017 season. While the Padres didn’t record an undefeated overall record, they ran the table in WCAL play en route to earning three title banners — WCAL, CCS and CIF.
“It started way back in January,” Malani said. “We just have a changed culture here. Our brotherhood has never been this tight before; [Walsh] always says that to us. We’ve been working really hard; [Walsh] says we’re one of the hardest working teams that have walked through here. So, it’s something really special and it shows on the field.”
After playing at Levi’s Stadium earlier this year, defeating Menlo-Atherton 38-13 on the home turf of the San Francisco 49ers, the season started with an air of something special brewing for Serra. Now, the Padres and 49ers are living parallel dream seasons as both are currently undefeated.
“Shoot, it’s great that in my world my two favorite teams are 17-0 right now, which is really cool,” Walsh said.
Like the vaunted 49ers defensive line that recently fronted a shutout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0, the Padres are rallying around otherworldly defense. The cornerstone of that ‘D’ is Malani. And Saturday was — so far — the 2019 Padres’ defensive masterpiece.
“It’s an epic defensive performance given everything that was on the line,” said Walsh, whose brother Nicholas “Coach Eagle” Walsh is Serra’s defensive line coach. “It kind of set the tone for continuing an undefeated season. … We lost our starting quarterback, which is really the piece that resonates the most, given that we probably weren’t going to be as good or efficient as we were without Daylin, obviously. So, that they rose up, the entire defensive staff and the team during that moment, puts it right up there with the very best.”