The big game is in the Central Coast Section and there is a very interesting matchup in the North Coast Section. The Sac-Joaquin Section is a little light this week with two top games but not enough to warrant a Games of the Week feature that would feature five or six games.
CENTRAL COAST SECTION
No. 1 Valley Christian (6-1, 4-0 West Catholic Athletic League) at No. 2 Serra (5-2, 4-0), Saturday, 1:00 pm
The battle for what likely will be all the marbles in the West Catholic Athletic League takes place on Saturday afternoon in San Mateo and at this point it’s hard to figure out who is a clear cut favorite.
From a competitive equity standpoint the Central Coast Section is down in comparison to the Sac-Joaquin and North Coast sections but it doesn’t take any luster off what is the biggest game in the CCS this season.
Top dog Valley Christian has a loss to open the season to P2P SJS No. 11 Manteca and Serra has losses to P2P SJS No. 4 St. Mary’s-Stockton and NCS No. 3 Pittsburg in a close one so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why the CCS teams are being projected for lower CIF Bowl Games, but the bottom line on Saturday afternoon is all that doesn’t matter.
We’re not dissing the CCS and in reality what matters right now is this game because it likely has a huge bearing on the West Catholic Athletic League title and at this point of the season also has significant implications on the CCS Open Division seedings.
Both teams are on winning streaks with Valley Christian having won six straight since the loss to Manteca and Serra on a four-game streak since the loss to Pittsburg.
Valley Christian assumed the No. 1 spot when the Warriors beat St. Francis 28-21 at home and then they followed that up with easy wins over St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral before a 28-10 victory last week over Bellarmine at home.
Serra jumped CCS No. 3 St. Francis last week even though the Oct. 13 scheduled game with the Lancers was moved to the CCS extended week of Nov. 10 due to the air quality caused by the fires.
Part of the reasoning I moving them up was the game this week making it a No. 1 versus No. 2 but also looking at the Bellarmine game. Valley Christian was a reasonably easy winner at home but Serra went to Bellarmine and blanked them 48-0.
The patented running game of Valley Christian Coach Mike Machado didn’t really get rolling against Bellarmine and that could be cause for concern on the road against Serra. They only had 88 yards rushing on 27 carries with no scores spread out among six different ball carriers.
Quarterback Juan Turner only threw three passes but completed two and both went for touchdowns, a 71-yarder to Charlie Bostic and a 19-Yarder to Skylar Loving-Black. The defense and special teams got into the act as well with two scores. D’Von Lang had an interception return for a TD and D’Angelo McKenzie took a punt to pay dirt.
Serra has been a scoring machine since their 41-13 loss to St. Mary’s with their lowest output in the 35-28 loss to Pittsburg. Besides the blowout of Bellarmine the Padres posted a 64-21 victory over a No. 8 Archbishop Mitty team that lost 42-21 last week to St. Francis. After a 51-21 win over Sacred Heart Cathedral last week all told the Padres have outscored their four WCAL opponents 208-42 combined.
Serra quarterback Luke Bottari has had pinpoint accuracy since the start of league although Coach Patrick Walsh only likes to throw a maximum of around 15 times a game. Last week against Sacred Heart Cathedral was 14 of 15 for 281 yards and two touchdowns. Washington State-bound Patrick Nunn had six receptions for 89 yards and one TD and he also had a halfback option pass for a touchdown. Leading rusher Isiah Kendrick ran for two scores.
Valley Christian will have to do a better job running the ball and controlling the game so they keep the explosive Serra offense off the field. If not it could be a long afternoon in San Mateo for the Warriors and their faithful.
NORTH COAST SECTION
No. 3 Pittsburg (5-1, 2-0 Bay Valley Athletic League) at No. 9 Liberty (7-1, 3-0), Friday, 7:00 pm
The past is the past and the present is here, and the fact Liberty has not beaten Pittsburg since 2005 is not a factor, although despite being at home the Lions are going to be an underdog even though this is one of the best starts in school history, and that history goes back a long way since Liberty is one of the oldest high schools in the East Bay portion of the North Coast Section having opened in 1902.
After opening with a 52-42 loss to a visiting P2P Sac-Joaquin Section No. 13 Vacaville team that has one-point losses to state-ranked and P2P SJS No. 2 Oak Ridge and No. 6 Granite, Liberty has won seven straight games and that is the first time they have won that many games in a row since the 1965 team went 9-0.
For history buffs the 1965 team had all state guard Floyd Reese on the roster and he went on to star at UCLA and has since held several positions in the NFL including coaching and management with several teams including stints as the general manager of the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans.
The Lions don’t have anyone like Reese on the current roster but they have a ton of talent and first-year Coach Ryan Partridge has been using it to the maximum. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Partridge is having the kind of success he’s had since last year in his first and only season at Livermore he led that team to its best season since 1999.
Pittsburg has dominated the BVAL since Coach Vic Galli took the helm in 2002, although they were beaten in league last year and again in the playoffs by NCS No. 4 Freedom. Even so, since Galli took the reins the Pirates are 69-12 in league including avenging Last year’s losses with a 47-33 victory three weeks ago.
The Pirates run the ball about twice as many times as they pass but even so the career receiving yardage record was broken last week by A’jae Boyd. With 62 yards receiving in last week’s 42-6 win over Heritage, Boyd surpassed former standout Saleem Mahdi for career receiving yards, now with 1,555 yards for his three-year varsity career, counting regular season games only. Mahdi totaled 1,501 yards from 1993-1995. With two games remaining in the regular season, Boyd could possibly challenge Mahdi’s mark for career receptions. Mahdi had 101 career catches, while Boyd currently has 89 in his career.
The guy throwing him the ball, his cousin and junior dual-threat quarterback Justin Boyd, has settled in well since having to assume the signal-calling duties this season with the injury to Trey Turner. So far this season he’s passed for 854 yards and 13 TDs and he had his first interception of the season last week against Heritage. He hasn’t run the ball much unless needed like in the Serra and Vacaville games where he had 176 Yards rushing and two TDs combined.
The running back getting most of the work is junior Premier Murphy. Last week he had a season high with 174 yards rushing and a TD. Earlier this season he had 149 yards and three TDs in the win over Serra.
Liberty also runs more than it passes but they like to air it out a little more than Pittsburg. Wide receiver Zane Hinojosa is closing in on his own school receiving yardage record for a single season. Last year he had 795 yards receiving and he comes into the Pittsburg game with 722 receiving yards so far this season. Senior quarterback Ryan Dutt will run occasionally but the 6-5, 200-pound senior is mostly a pocket passer. So far this season he’s passed for 1,380 yards and 13 TDs but he does have seven interceptions.
With the offensive arsenal the Pirates have, and with the competitive equity of their resume looking very solid, Liberty will have to be firing on all cylinders to beat Pittsburg.
“It’s a big game for both teams and we can’t afford a second loss, Galli said. “They’re a good football team so the kids have to do what they’re coached to do and play mistake free football.”
SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION
No. 12 Rocklin (6-2, 3-1 Sierra Foothill League) at No. 1 Folsom (8-0, 4-0), Friday, 7:30 pm
There were really only two games that tickled our fancy and although the game between No. 8 Jesuit at No. 19 Monterey Trail now takes on more importance since Monterey Trail beat Elk Grove last week to put itself in the Delta League race picture, we went with No. 1 Folsom hosting Rocklin because maybe, just maybe Rocklin could have a chance to make some noise if the Thunder can play their best game of the season.
To beat Folsom someone is going to have to stop dual-threat quarterback Kaiden Bennett, and so far some teams have not really come that close. Now, with a week to rest and seeing limited action two weeks ago in a 42-0 blowout of Nevada Union, Bennett will be certainly be ready as will all the Bulldogs. If Bennett has the kind of game he had in 54-10 victory three weeks ago against visiting SJS No. 15 Del Oro or a 45-29 victory over No. 5 Oakdale, Rocklin could be in trouble. In the Oakdale game on the road he was 19 of 28 for 257 yards and four TDs and he rushed for 91 yards and a fifth score. All told he’s passed for
It’s not just Bennett opposing defenses have to stop. So far no one has been able to stop Bennett’s corps of receivers led by junior Joe Ngata and Elijhah Badger. Ngata, a 6-3, 205-pound junior has been a load. So far this season he has 34 catches for 772 yards. Badger, a 6-1, 185-pound sophomore, missed a game but still has 27 catches for 580 yards and seven touchdowns.
For Rocklin to win not only will they have to stop Bennett but they will have to put more points on the board than they did against No. 2 Oak Ridge in a 27-10 loss, or almost assuredly even more points they scored in a 22-12 win at Del Oro.
That means 6-2, 185-pound junior quarterback Cade Wyant and his mates like wide receivers Charlie McBride and Daniel Roberts, plus others will need to be on big time.
