What seems like a long time ago, the first weekend in December was the final one for high school football, as schools would celebrate section titles and move on to their winter sports, prepare for the next season, or start focusing solely on upcoming semester finals in the classroom.
Now, it is still a weekend of coronation for section champions, but a large number of these section champions now await their placement in the CIF bowl game series. There remain a few champions who completed their season this weekend – and all of them did so in spectacular fashion – but the large majority live to play another week. And the number of great stories are piling up rapidly.
We take a look at some of the top story-lines from this past weekend.
Central Coast Section Titletown
That is the moniker that the city of Gilroy can use for the next 12 months, as both Christopher and Gilroy captured their first-ever CCS crowns this weekend. As the champions in the Division IV and Division V brackets, respectively, neither moves on to the CIF round, but both programs have a lot to be proud of.
Gilroy had come close as the runner-up in 2007, but the Mustangs’ win over Menlo capped a perfect 13-0 season for head coach Jubenal Rodriguez and company. More compelling was the fact that this season did not come without its setbacks. Gilroy lost quarterback Jon Jon Castro to injury during the season, but Brandon Weiler stepped in. And that was just during the season.
Prior to the season, it was decided that running back Dylan Holler and linebacker Antonio Andrade – two leaders from the 2016 playoff team – would not be able to play due to injuries. Through it all, however, Gilroy persevered and came out on top.
Christopher, meanwhile, might be one of the top stories in the country. Two years ago, head coach Tim Pierleoni took a leave of absence as his wife battled, and ultimately passed from, her bout with cancer. Last year, as he returned to the sideline, the Cougars went 1-9 with a young team. Saturday night, they capped a remarkable turnaround for the program and the coach who started things at the school, beating Leland for the Division IV title.
Fortuna displays family first approach
Early in the day on Saturday, the Fortuna football team attended the memorial for the father of senior Brendon Harralson. Late that night, the Huskies capped a remarkable run to the NCS Division IV title with a 44-0 rout over Hercules.
For a season that started with senior Bailey Foley collapsing on the field at Cardinal Newman, the small tight-knit community off Highway 101 could not have asked for a better finish. Except that, for the first time in school history, the season is not over. Fortuna now advances to a state bowl game, with a chance to make even more history.
115 years in the making
Liberty High opened its doors in 1902, and Frank Vonder Ahe took the reins of a new football program in 1935, using money from the local Lions Club to buy the first set of team jerseys. On Saturday night, the Lions won their first-ever section title, defeating rival Freedom 37-0 to capture the NCS Division I title.
Liberty dominated on both sides of the ball, out-gaining the Falcons 427-39 in a crowning moment for the downtown Brentwood campus, in head coach Ryan Partridge’s first year at the helm.
Since Pittsburg gets the CIF berth as the NCS Division I representative, finishing as the runner-up to De La Salle in the Open Division, Liberty’s season is over. But for a program that had never won more than nine games, and never advanced past the section quarterfinals, it is over on a high note, with even higher aspirations for the future.
Monterey Bay League makes championship weekend statement
When Salinas lost back-to-back games to Terra Nova and Milpitas early in the season, the knee-jerk reaction was that if the Cowboys ended up as the class of the MBL-Gabilan, it was an indication of the league’s standing compared to leagues such as the PAL and SCVAL. Not so fast.
Salinas not only claimed one of the titles won by MBL schools over the weekend, but it knocked off Milpitas in the CCS Open I title game, avenging a 27-0 loss back in September. Salinas, Christopher, and Gilroy all won titles while representing the MBL, displaying the depth of the divisions. Since Salinas was the only school from the Gabilan Division, the ‘A’ league, the Cowboys are the only program moving on, but it was certainly an impressive display over the weekend for the entire league.
WCAL powers put on another memorable display
In the last three years, Serra and Saint Francis have met five times, four of those meetings in the last two years. Amazingly, three of the five games have been decided by a single point, including Saturday night’s CCS Open II championship game.
Last year, in the regular season, Serra coach Patrick Walsh decided to go for two points and the win in overtime, and the move paid off with a 41-40 victory. This Saturday night, Saint Francis coach Greg Calcagno made the same decision towards the end of regulation, but this time the Serra defense held up, preserving the 31-30 win for the Padres.
Both teams advance to the CIF bowl games.
Impressive streaks continue
De La Salle won its 26th straight section title in the NCS on Saturday night, but Pittsburg made the Spartans work for it, closing to within 10 points in the third quarter before De La Salle won 24-7. It was De La Salle’s closest margin of victory in the NCS playoffs since a 14-0 win over San Leandro in the 2005 title game.
Meanwhile, Campolindo won its fourth straight NCS title, with the last two coming in the Division II bracket. As a result, the Cougars will get their shot at the teams in Division I next season, despite being a Division III team in terms of enrollment.
Not to be upstaged, Half Moon Bay won its third straight CCS title, this time in the CCS Open III bracket, routing Terra Nova for the second time this year. Now, the Cougars head to the CIF bowl game series for the first time in school history.
NCS Division III lives up to the hype
All year, fans around the North Coast Section circled four teams in the Division III bracket, and eagerly waited for these teams to square off in the playoffs. They did not disappoint.
Beginning in the semifinals, Cardinal Newman and Marin Catholic won their games by a combined six points, each using touchdowns in the last minute and a half of their respective games to emerge victorious. On Saturday night, it appeared Cardinal Newman would complete another feel-good story in Northern California, as the team that rose from the ashes, literally.
It is still a feel-good story, the Cardinals’ level of success despite all setbacks in the middle of the year, but Marin Catholic rallied late, after trailing all night, and rode the right arm of Spencer Petras to a thrilling 59-56 victory for the Division III title. With the victory, the Wildcats not only move on to a CIF bowl game, but also get bumped up to Division II next season, along with the Bishop O’Dowd team they beat in the semifinals.
Bruins finish display of dominance
Playing their final game as a Division V program, NCS defending champion St. Patrick-St. Vincent blanked Middletown to repeat its title and advance once again to the state playoffs, where the Bruins will defend their state crown from last year.
SPSV is moving up to the Division IV bracket next season.