Capuchino (pictured) and Woodside had rosters of roughly 30 players on Friday. | John Murphy/Prep2Prep |
It’s still August but some Central Coast Section football teams already appear to be in mid-season form, others not so much. Here is what we learned after the first weekend of the 2016 season:
Yep, participation is down: The Mercury News wrote an exhaustive, front-page story on how concussion fears and other factors are curbing participation in high school football (seven percent drop over the past decade, according to the paper). There may be something to that. I saw three prep games last weekend and four of the teams had rosters topping off at about 30 players. Menlo coach Mark Newton was talking about this problem as far back as two years ago.
WCAL looks like three-team race: Valley Christian, St. Francis and Bellarmine College Prep all opened with impressive wins. Valley Christian defeated a highly touted Campolindo team 21-7. St. Francis, led by two-way star Bennett Williams, defeated defending section champ Oak Grove 24-7 and Bellarmine College Prep got big rushing nights from Brandon Manigo and Austin Ajiake to defeat PAL power Menlo-Atherton 34-20.
Stranger things have happened, but it does not appear any of the San Francisco WCAL schools nor Serra and Archbishop Mitty have the goods to challenge the Warriors, Lancers or Bells for the title.
Mountain View is not a mirage: The Spartans opened their season with a 56-15 pounding of Monterey, rushing for 330 yards. This isn’t a case of Monterey being horrible. Mountain View looked formidable in pre-season scrimmages against Mission-San Francisco and Half Moon Bay and will not be a pushover when SCVAL-De Anza play begins.
Saratoga is also formidable: Another SCVAL-De Anza team that opened impressively was Saratoga which led defending section champ Half Moon Bay by 13 points at halftime. The Cougars made some good adjustments at the break and rallied for a 27-26 win, but the Falcons’ passing combo of Will Liddle to Kian Ghelichkhani is no joke.
“They’re a really good team,” Half Moon Bay coach Keith Holden said of the Falcons. “This is a huge win for us.”
New San Benito coach Bryan Smith knows how to make a splash: Smith not only won his debut game, he won it against a Sacred Heart Prep program that has won four consecutive section titles and has appeared in two state playoff bowl titles in the past four years.
“It means a lot, but I hope to be here for a while and I hope the first game doesn’t dictate who I am as a coach,” Smith told prep2prep’s Ryan Silapan.
Girl just wants to have fun: Placekicker Claire Dworsky, a junior, became the first girl to play and score points in the history of St. Ignatius College Prep football on Saturday, going 3-for-3 on extra points in a 56-20 SI victory against Clovis East.
"This is awesome!" said SI grad Sean O'Reilly via social media after viewing video of the feat.
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