Pat Lynch '59 has been covering Serra's games for several years to a limited e-mail list.

Those guys from Sherman Oaks remembered. A year ago, television debut, and it was Serra 35- Notre Dame 7. A year later, no TV on hand, they remembered, in particular, one Khalfani Muhammad remembered. It ended Notre Dame 35 - Serra 13.

The game began honoring Alfred Burke as Serra's No. 1 fan. He had attended every Serra game since 1969 until he suffered a near-fatal heart attack, in the stands during the 2010. Within the week, he had sent around a video of his stentorian Gooooo Serra cheer.

When the game got under way, Notre Dame's Muhammad, reputed to be the fastest back in the CIF, ran around Serra more or less at will -- the way George Farmer or Marquise Lee were outrunning defenses last year. 162 yards and two touchdowns, including an in-your-face touchdown reception at 5:16 in the Fourth, when the game was already out of reach. Without Muhammad, it would have been a close game, and by no means a sure thing for Serra.

Well, what goes around comes around. Serra fans got a taste of what it was like to be run over, thrown over and stifled. We can only hope we don't have to sample that flavor every weekend. A week ago, Coach Altenberg said, "We'll be good; I only hope it's sooner rather than later." Amen.

On the good side: Serra showed a potent running attack, featuring Anterio Bateman and quarterback, Jalen Green. Bateman had a spectacular 60-plus run down the east sideline to put Serra ahead 10-6 at 9:45 in the second quarter. Serra scored two field goals for the first time in memory off the toe of Eddie Garcia. So the kicking game looks good.

It's difficult to know how good the defensive line and linebackers will be. Muhammad was so fast he could have the corner nine plays out of ten. Against a merely fast back, the run defense looked pretty good.

The bad news: Gone, so it seems, are those fifty-yard ballistic rainbows to a blazing wide receiver that Serra could launch from anywhere at any time during the Woods-Farmer dynasty. Serra managed only eight yards passing. Mostly it was a matter of off target passes and covered receivers. And the obverse was also true: Serra's pass defense looked dubious.

Notre Dame's quarterback, Kelly Hilinski, completed half-a-dozen passes, most of them putting life back into a faltering drive. From the stands it looked like his receivers were having no trouble getting open. The Serra secondary often seemed unsure of its assignments and discombobulated. This had to be part of Altenberg's concern when he summed up the game saying "We've got to do better on defense."

There's no getting around the fact: Notre Dame had the better athlete and played a near-perfect game, but the play chart shows that Serra was within a touchdown through the end of the third quarter. And twice at least, failed drove inside the ten but failed to cross the goal line. Reverse four or five plays, and Serra might have extended its regular season winning streak to 37.

Next week it's down to Redondo Beach to play the dangerous Sea Hawks on their turf. Redondo lost to North (Torrance) in overtime. Hard to guess how the match up will look, but as of 6:59:59 on Friday, Redondo was the last team to beat Serra in the regular season.