Intersectional battles between North Coast Section and Central Coast Section teams take center stage this week, with a trio of marquee match-ups happening across the Bay Area. Also included in this week’s feature are a couple of key games against out-of-state teams.
Pittsburg (0-1) at Serra (1-1), Saturday, 2 pm
We could lead with the De La Salle game almost every week so this week we lead with the Pirates invading the Padres turf in year two of a home and home series between two teams that prior to last year had never played before.
A De La Salle twist however, is both coaches are Spartans alumni and of the disciples of legendary De La Salle coach and movie-man Bob Ladouceur they are Nos. 1 and 2 in coaching seniority.
Coach Vic Galli of P2P NCS No. 3 Pittsburg is a 1983 De La Salle graduate who has been at the Pirates helm since 2002. Despite not quite being as long of tooth as a 1993 De La Salle grad, Coach Patrick Walsh of Serra is the first of Lad’s protégés to land a head coaching job when he took the Padres helm in 2001. Despite it being a friendly game for the coaches with both having marched for Sparta under Lad, each team wants and needs a win.
Last year Pittsburg handled Serra 48-25 and that was in the third game of an 8-0 start. That can’t be the case this season since Galli and his boys are only in Week 2 after a bye last week that followed a 63-21 loss to nationally-ranked Centennial-Corona.
For Serra last year’s loss was in Game 3 of four straight losses to begin the season. This year the Padres opened with a 41-13 loss at St. Mary’s before winning 42-21 on the road last week at Elk Grove.
With Pittsburg quarterback Trey Turner lost for the season after injuring his knee in a scrimmage a week before the season started, 5-10, 155-pound junior Justin Boyd will get his second start under center. Two weeks ago Boyd passed for 193 yards and a touchdown and rushed for a second score but Centennial put a lot of pressure on him and once Pittsburg fell behind 28-0 after the first quarter the deal was sealed.
For the Pirates to be successful Boyd will have to find his cousin A’jae Boyd (nine receptions, 172 yards) like he did against Centennial and the running game will need to get untracked. Serra is nothing near Centennial in the trenches but Boyd will need to do better than 10 carries for minus-7 yards and the team as a whole only had 67 yards on 35 carries.
The offensive and defensive lines for Pittsburg both took a big blow with the news that junior standout Jacob Bandes will miss 2-4 weeks after suffering facial injuries.
Defending Central Coast Section Open Division 2 champion and P2P CCS No. 4 Serra was unable to get untracked against St. Mary’s and fell behind 31-0 before suffering a 41-13 loss. They did much better offensively and defensively against Elk Grove in a 42-21 road win but the Thundering Herd had already given up 52 points to an Inderkum team that made it all the way to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II title game last year before bowing out to Del Oro.
The running game of Serra got going against Elk Grove with senior Isiah Kendrick and juniors David Coker and Edmond Lahlouh combining for 267 yards and five touchdowns. Junior quarterback Luke Bottari fared much better as well after going 12 for 16 for 176 yards and one TD with an interception. Washington State-committed Patrick Nunn had six catches for 89 yards but one would have to think Walsh will want to see the ball in his big star’s hands more often if Serra is to reverse last year’s outcome
It’s hard to compare strength of schedules this early since you almost have to throw out the Centennial game and give Pittsburg a fresh start, but despite being on the road the Pirates come in as favorites.
“It will be tough on us. They are good,” Walsh said in a text message.
“We will need to get first downs to keep their big play threats off the field,” continued Walsh. “Our defense has been feast or famine this year. Great defense then huge plays and Pitt has the ability to take it to the house every play.”
Prep2Prep will be in the house at San Mateo on Saturday afternoon to see what should be an entertaining contest.
St. Francis (2-0) at De La Salle (2-0), Friday 7:30 pm
Bay Area News Group prep sports editor Darren Sabedra did a feature this week about a game in September 1989 when De La Salle ventured to Mountain View and the Lancers under then Coach Ron Calcagno came up with a big upset in an 18-16 victory.
The victory propelled St. Francis to a Central Coast Section title, one of 11 Ron won from 1972-95. Since then the two teams have met eight times with Sparta marching to victory each time with the last meeting in 2003.
The Lancers are not alone. Since Pittsburg beat De La Salle in the 1991 NCS big school title game no school north of Fresno has toppled the Spartans, however there were two blips on the radar screen in 2004 when both Palma and Clayton Valley tied De La Salle, 7-7 and 17-7 respectively.
Ron’s son Greg Calcagno is now at the Lancers helm, and Bob Ladouceur, the architect of the long winning streak that included a national record 151-games, gave way to his protégé Justin Alumbaugh to begin the 2103 season.
One thing has not changed since that eventful day of the Lancers upset almost 30-years ago, and that is both teams are at the top of their respective sections.
Five-time defending CIF Northern Regional Open Division champion De La Salle has been No. 1 in everyone’s rankings in Northern California and No. 1 in the Prep2Prep NCS rankings from the very beginning.
After opening with a romp at Amador Valley it was looking like De La Salle might lose to nationally-ranked Washington D.C. St. Johns after falling behind 31-14, but Alumbaugh and his charges marched hard down the stretch to come away with an impressive 35-31 victory.
Undoubtedly De La Salle will be wanting to control the game with is vaunted veer running game and that will mean a big dose of their running backs led by Kairee Robinson running behind their big line.
St. Francis started the season No. 1 in the P2P CCS rankings and after two very impressive performances has solidified its spot at the top.
The 35-0 blanking of Oak Grove was not unexpected but after Palma gave them fits last year before falling 8-7 the Lancers 40-6 shellacking of the Chieftains last week raised a few eyebrows in the CCS and buttressed the expectations of the St. Francis faithful going into the matchup with the Spartans.
Like De La Salle the running game is the bread and butter of the St. Francis offense. In fact all 11 touchdowns the Lancers have recorded have been on the ground. Junior Darrel Page leads the way with 288 yards rushing and five TDs including 183 yards and three scores against Palma.
The difference is Palma is not De La Salle and Page and company need to first get past 6-2, 315-pound USC-bound Tuli Letuligasenoa and if they make it the linebacking corps led by 6-2, 209-pound junior Henry To’oto’o and 5-8, 193-pound Brenden Riso.
Despite their great start St. Francis will be just as big if not a bigger underdog against a De La Salle team that is even tougher when playing at Owen Owens field.
The Lancers could be the team to stop the streak but it will undoubtedly take a Herculean effort.
Prep2Prep’s Brendan Ogburn will be covering the game, with Emma McLaughlin shooting photos.
Marin Catholic (1-0) at St. Ignatius (1-1), Saturday, 2 pm
This annual affair between Catholic schools from opposite sides of the Golden Gate Bridge but share the same mascots Wildcats namesake has become one of the Bay Area’s biggest rivalries.
Since 2004 St. Ignatius has a 7-5 advantage in the series but since 2010 Marin Catholic has won five of the seven meetings. St. Ignatius won in 2014 and also had a 31-28 victory last year as an underdog in a game they trailed 21-6 at the half and 21-9 in the third quarter.
The killer for Marin Catholic last year was when they eschewed a 20-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter that could have given them a 24-9 lead and then junior quarterback threw an ill-fated interception that completely turned the game around.
This year the game is in San Francisco, but Marin Catholic will once again be a favorite based on what they have showed so far this season. They are coming off an unwanted bye when the administration pulled the plug on their home game last week against Central Catholic based on a heat advisory warning from the Marin County Health Department.
As for the 6-5, 225-pound Petras, he’s got a scholarship to Oregon State in his pocket, he’s bigger, stronger and more mature. He and his teammates wanted to play Central Catholic real badly to reverse previous losses, but it wasn’t to be and now they have to focus on St. Ignatius.
“I just can’t wait to play these guys again,” said Petras in a direct message on Twitter.
If Petras and 6-2, 220-pound junior running back Cole Truex perform like they did in a 42-21 dismantling of a Campolindo team that bounced back to trounce St. Ignatius 47-28 last week, it could be a long afternoon for the Wildcats fans from the city’s Sunset District. Petras finished 16 of 23 for 235 yards and two touchdowns plus 53 yards rushing against Campolindo, and Truex carried tacklers for 138 yards rushing and two TDs on 20 carries.
The bottom line is St. Ignatius Coach John Regalia is going to have to come up with some defensive schemes that don’t allow Marin Catholic to score as many points as they did against Campolindo or Campolindo scored against them.
Clayton Valley (0-2) at Canyon Springs-North Las Vegas, Friday, 8 pm
It has been an ugly start for a young Ugly Eagles team that has put up some points this season, but has been porous on defense in 38-22 and 49-30 losses to Nevada Reed-Sparks and Hawaii Mililani.
Coach Tim Murphy and his boys now make a second trip to the Silver State to face the Pioneers who are coached by Gus McNair who played for Murphy at Ygnacio Valley and was a 1997 graduate.
“I was speaking at a coaches clinic in Las Vegas and Gus came up to me and asked me if we would be interested in a two-year home and home since he was trying to build the program,” Murphy said. “He’s a great guy so we agreed and it helped them have a great season last year.
Clayton Valley won 35-7 last year but Canyon Springs went on to an 8-2 season before losing in the Nevada 4A playoffs. This season they opened with a 51-12 loss at perennial San Diego Section power St. Augustine before going to cross-town Cheyenne last week and come home with an impressive 41-6 victory.
The biggest problem Murphy has is he has a young team that’s really still not reached its full stride.
“We have so many juniors and we changed the system, and they’re still learning it,” Murphy said just after landing in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon. “The good thing is no one’s in the tank and they’re getting better each week.”
Senior quarterback Kenny “KJ” Gardner Jr. may or may not get a chance to throw the ball more against Canyon Springs but the bottom line is the running game led by senior James Teofilo and junior Jamal Lavallier will likely be the bread and butter for Murphy on Friday night.
Gonzaga Prep-Spokane (0-1) vs Bellarmine Prep (2-0) at San Jose CC, Friday, 7 pm
This will be the first meeting between these two Catholic schools that are the top teams in their respective areas.
Bellarmine is the top team in San Jose and No. 2 behind St. Francis in the Prep2Prep CCS rankings. Gonzaga Prep is the top team in the Spokane area and ranked No. 13 in Washington by the Maxpreps computer rankings.
The Bells come into the game unblemished but neither a 21-16 win over a Menlo-Atherton team that then went on to lose 30-23 to Archbishop Mitty, or a 16-13 win over Clovis North, has been a walk in the park.
Bellarmine trailed Menlo-Atherton 16-7 before scoring twice in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory. Against Clovis North the Bells were down by 10 points before 6-2, 215-pound senior Austin Aijake caught a touchdown pass to get the Bells within three and then ran it in with just over three minutes left for the winning score.
Gonzaga Prep is coming off a heartbreaking 41-40 triple overtime loss to Maxpreps Washington No. 5 ranked Eastside Catholic-Sammamish.
Against Gonzaga Prep, head coach Mike Janda will be looking for better execution and a complete game because he and the Bells faithful can’t continue to rely on late scoring drives and the heroics of Aijake to continue pulling out come from behind victories.
Prep2Prep’s Charlie Logan will be covering the game.
Best of the Rest
Encinal (2-0) and Paradise (2-0) put on an instant classic last year, with the Bobcats defending their Northern Section turf, 36-33, staging a big comeback after Encinal quarterback Theori Oliver left with an injury. With both teams off to fast starts, this one promises to be another exciting match-up.
Liberty (1-1) shook off a tight season-opening loss to Vacaville by taking down San Leandro last week at home, and looks for good results on the road facing a Will C Wood (1-1) team which has a win over Concord and a loss to River Valley. The game will be played at Vacaville High, the second time in three weeks that the Lions will set foot on that field.
