Since the response to our new feature of recapping the NorCal Games of the Week was positive we’re continuing it for as long as the top NorCal games each week are featured. This past week we had a match-up in each of the North Coast, Central Coast and Sac-Joaquin Sections and one inter-section game featuring you know who. Two of the games resulted in a rout and two were very close.
De La Salle-Concord 35, Buchanan-Clovis 0
It was hard to gauge what Cal-Hi Sports previous No. 23 and Central Section No. 2 Buchanan was going to do against De La Salle last Friday night without 6-2, 208-pound Georgia-committed five star recruit and running back Kendall Milton, and the answer is not very much.
The Spartans were on their home turf and they began their march early and often and by the time the second quarter started it was already 28-0 De La Salle.
It got to the final score by halftime and from there De La Salle (4-1) coasted him in a game that went to a running clock for the entire second half.
Dorian Hale rushed for a 13-yard touchdown and then found Peter Mazoleski on a 45-yard touchdown pass. Shamar Garrett then blasted in on a 1-yard plunge and found pay dirt again on a 3-yard run for a score.
Then, early in the second quarter James Colby took it in from four yards out and everyone was out of there early.
The question for Buchanan (3-2) is when is Milton going to return from a quadriceps injury? Tri-River League action starts this week and without him against Cal-Hi Sports No. 14 and Central Section No. 1 and 5-0 Central-Fresno, the Bears could get mauled again.
De La Salle faces a reeling St. Mary’s-Stockton (1-3) after Coach Tony Franks and his Rams got blasted 56-28 by Cal-Hi Sports No. 12 and Prep2Prep CIF Central Coast Section No. 2 Serra two weeks ago, and then last week against Cal-Hi Sports No. 5 and CIF Southern Section No. 4 Mission Viejo they were down 63-0 at halftime of a 63-7 loss.
Coming off those two losses and having to host De La Salle is like a nightmare.
Liberty 17, Cardinal Newman 13
The last four weeks Liberty has been a bit slippery and on Saturday evening their home victory over Cardinal Newman at Freedom-Oakley lacked a little of the drama of the past three weeks, but the game wasn’t in the bag until Oregon-committed senior quarterback Jay Butterfield led a 12-play drive that ran out the final 7:54 of the fourth quarter.
For full game details and feature on the game click here.
Sacred Heart Prep 42, Hillsdale 6
We take one from an old cliché. What a difference a week makes.
After beating St. Ignatius 28-21 three weeks ago, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Gators were embarrassed in a 40-0 shellacking at Half Moon Bay two weeks ago, and then last week facing another 3-0 team from the Peninsula Athletic League – Ocean Division, Coach Mark Grieb and his boys put the hurt on Hillsdale.
This was the second straight year the Gators have routed the Fighting Knights after a 39-6 victory. In 2017 Hillsdale was a 34-10 winner and in 2016 they lost 16-13 so the win creates a split the last four years.
Quarterback Teddy Purcell rebounded from a poor performance against Half Moon Bay to pass for two touchdowns that staked Prep2Prep Central Coast Section No. 13 Sacred Heart Prep (3-1) to a 14-0 lead. The first TD strike was a 38-yarder to Everett Banks and the second one went for 6-yards to Beck Anderson.
From there the running game took over with 11 different ball carriers accounting for 216 yards and four TDs led by Tevita Moimoi with 57 yards and two touchdowns.
Sacred Heart Prep now hosts P2P CCS Also Considered Terra Nova in its PAL – Bay Division opener this Saturday afternoon. Terra Nova (3-1) is coming off a 59-25 victory at Piedmont Hills.
Folsom 36, Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills 33
A week after getting hammered by De La Salle the Cal-Hi Sports No. 6 ranked Bulldogs and top team from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section was on the ropes and in danger of a rare loss to a team from the CIFSJS, but rallied to keep their recent dominance of SJS section teams intact.
After falling behind 33-14 with 10 minutes left in the third quarter the visiting Bulldogs came roaring back with 22 unanswered points to pull out the victory.
The game winner came with just under four minutes to go when senior quarterback Jake Reithmeier found Elijah Badger on a 6-yard TD pass. From there the Bulldogs defense closed it out culminating with a sack by Dylan Richard on Oak Ridge quarterback Justin Lamson in the waning seconds on the Folsom 16-yard line ending the game.
With the victory by Folsom (3-1) over SJS No. 2 ranked Oak Ridge, the Bulldogs now maintain their dominance in the Sierra Foothill League heading into a non-league match-up at home this week with Prep2Prep Central Coast Section No. 4 ranked Menlo-Atherton.
Best of the Rest
If we had featured a second inter-section game from last week it would have been P2P CCS No. 3 Wilcox at P2P NCS No. 5 Pittsburg.
The Pittsburg coaches were at the Liberty game with Cardinal Newman on Saturday scouting their BVAL rivals, and we already knew that the Pirates faced a Wilcox team that was without star Paul Rosa, so we wondered is Wilcox that deep, or was the closeness of the final score as suspected having a lot to do with Pittsburg being real young on the line with only one returner. The coaches’ answer was “yes.”
On top of it Pittsburg (4-1) was down 31-14 with 11 minutes left to play but rallied for three fourth quarter TDs to pull out a 35-31 victory.
Trailing 31-28 with 2:52 left on the clock, senior quarterback Jerry Johnson orchestrated a 10-play, 70-yard drive to win the game. Along the way he completed seven straight passes to three different receivers, with the go-ahead touchdown coming on a 5-yard pass to Brian Andre Pierce Jr. with 25.8 seconds left.
Pittsburg goes into a BVAL opener at home against Deer Valley on a high note while Wilcox (2-2) will try to regroup for a De Anza League opener at 3-1 Palo Alto. The Vikings are coming off a 34-24 win over a decent Carlmont squad.
