There are no earth shattering matchups this week in either of the three games featured in the NorCal Regional Games of the Week from the CIF North Coast, Central Coast and Sac-Joaquin Sections, but all three games have league standings and playoff implications and all three should be good competitive contests.
Monte Vista-Danville (4-2, 0-1) hosting Foothill-Pleasanton (5-1, 1-0), Friday, 7:00 pm
We go back to the East Bay Athletic League – Mountain Division for a second straight week for our CIF North Coast Section featured game in what could be a very interesting matchup.
Prep2Prep NCS No. 4 Monte Vista is a top five ranked team for a reason. The Mustangs have a 24-21 loss at No. 2 Liberty when a last second field goal hit the crossbar or it could have gone to overtime. The other loss was 49-14 at De La Salle last week and barring the biggest upset in decades a loss to the Spartans is something everyone that plays them in league will have, so a 0-1 EBAL record right now doesn’t mean much.
The Mustangs 27-22 win over Granite Bay to open the season is solid but not dazzling, the 20-0 blanking of San Leandro is a pretty good win, a 26-3 win over Livermore was expected and their 27-3 win at Bishop O’Dowd is also solid, but throw out the De La Salle game and Coach Matt Russi and his Mustangs have yet to find their place in the EBAL – Mountain pecking order, so in a lot of respects this Friday night’s game is somewhat of a statement game, although Russi doesn’t quite see it that way.
“It’s no more or less important than any other EBAL game,” Russi remarked. “They are disciplined, well coached and believe they can best us.”
Even looking at a De La Salle game where the indicator going in was how well Monte Vista might play against the Spartans, the score was only 14-7 at the end of the first quarter and a bright spot was Nate Ruchena, a 6-3, 205-pound senior with several major D1 offers, including solid interest from Cal, had both Monte Vista TDs on pass receptions and ended up with six catches for 66 yards.
Quarterback Jack Stewardson actually put up some solid numbers against De La Salle, even though some came long after the deal was sealed. The 6-2, 200-pound senior was 31-of-41 for 304 yards and the two TDs with one interception. His top target against was actually senior Jacob Oliphant. He had 13 receptions for 141 yards.
The Monte Vista running game didn’t do a lot against De La Salle and Foothill has been good at containing the run, but they haven’t seen anything like the Mustangs offense so far this season.
Foothill, which jumped from No. 20 all the way up to No. 12 in the P2P NCS rankings this week, comes off a huge 23-3 upset at previous NCS No. 9 and current No. 15 San Ramon Valley, but they do have an 28-20 home loss to the San Leandro team Monte Vista blanked, and the Falcons strength of schedule is not as strong as the Mustangs.
Even so, Foothill will be formidable. Their defense, led by linebackers Max Masajlo and Pete Montini, had eight sacks, eight quarterback hurries and forced two turnovers last week in the San Ramon Valley win. Montini, a 6-1, 230-pounder that also plays fullback and tight end, also rushed for a TD on offense.
Foothill quarterback Bryce Lombardi, a 6-0, 175-pound junior, was an efficient 9-for-17 for 180 yards and one TD on a pass to Justin Craven that closed out the scoring.
Still, the key for Foothill will be its defense coming up big once again, and when asked what the three keys would be to winning the game, third-year Coach Greg Haubner, who has the team off to its best start since 2015, did not mince words.
“Tough defense,” was the top of Haubner’s list. “Winning on third down and creating turnovers, opportunistic offensive scoring and minimizing turnovers, and winning on special teams by creating big plays. Punt block, punt or kickoff return.”
Monte Vista would seem to have the tools to handle Foothill but games are won on the gridiron and not on paper, and Russi knows his team has a game on its hands. His keys to winning were pretty simple. “Contain number one (Montini), limit turnovers and play to our ability.”
Palma-Salinas (2-2, 0-1)) hosting Carmel (3-2, 1-0), Friday, 7:30 pm
We could probably go to the West Catholic Athletic League or the De Anza League every week for the CIF Central Coast Section featured game for the NorCal Regional previews, but this week we venture to the Pacific Coast League – Gabilan Division for a game that doesn’t involve the league leaders but is important for both teams at this stage of the season.
Prep2Prep CIFCCS No. 8 Palma is coming off a heartbreaking 38-35 loss to cross-town rival Salinas in a game where they fell behind 14-0, tied it at 21-21 before trailing 24-21 at the half. The Chieftains took a 35-31 lead with four minutes to go in the game, but Salinas drove 77 yards and scored the game winner with a minute left. Palma got the ball back but after getting out to midfield they lost the ball on downs and Salinas ran out the clock.
The loss two weeks ago followed a bye that was preceded by an impressive 28-14 win on the road at Oakdale, but with that team losing to Manteca, it takes a little luster off the Palma victory over an Oakdale team that has a 21-19 victory at an Aptos team that last year upset Palma 49-6 when the Chieftains were the No. 1 seed in the old CIF Central Coast Section Open 3 Division playoffs.
What it all boils down to is this is an early season must-type game for Palma if they are going to stamp themselves as a contender in the newly re-aligned CIFCCs playoffs where the Chieftains are currently projected by P2P as the No. 6 seed. With two byes since win over Oakdale in mid-September, the Chieftains might be rested but maybe not totally sharp.
“The game is obviously an important game for league purposes but also because we are coming off a loss to Salinas,” said Palma Coach Jeff Carnazzo. “It has been two weeks since we played a game so for that reason it’s also important for us to get out there and find some rhythm.”
“The players are very excited for this game because we have played just one game in 23 days,” continued Carnazzo. “That is a lot of practice without a game.”
The ones hoping to give Palma a game is a Carmel team that was moved up to the Pacific Coast – Gabilan from the Pacific Coast – Mission League that unlike the “A” Gabilan is a “B” league in the CIFCCS pecking order. Carmel won the PCL – Mission last year before falling to The Kings Academy, 41-14 in the CCS D5 title game.
Carmel usually plays smaller public schools in the CCS during its non-league schedule and with the Padres and Chieftains in different leagues the two have not met since 2014 when Palma was a 30-7 winner.
Prep2Prep CIFCCS No. 17 Carmel has a win over Christopher-Gilroy in league and a 35-34 loss to the same Aptos team Oakdale edged, so if Carmel plays like they did against Aptos this could be a game.
What the visitors will have to do is silence the home crowd by stopping Anthony Villegas. In the Salinas loss two weeks ago the Chieftains senior running back has 33 carries for 235 yards and five touchdowns. In Palma’s other loss, a 47-31 defeat at the hands of P2P CCS No. 7 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose, Villegas had 282 yards and four TDs rushing on 31 carries.
One would have to think Carnazzo is going to call Villegas’ number around 30 times and see if Carmel can stop him. The rankings and the analysts say probably not, but don’t count Carmel out.
Placer-Auburn (4-2, 1-0) hosting Rio Linda (5-1, 1-0), Friday, 7:00 pm
In the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section we could feature the Sierra Foothill League every week since there is always a game with playoff implications, but instead we go the Foothill Valley League for our CIFSJS featured game in what is shaping up to be a doozy.
Based on the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section rankings done by veteran Sacramento Bee prep sports scribe Joe Davidson, defending CIFSJS Division IV and CIF state Division 5-AA Bowl Game champion Rio Linda at No. 15 in the rankings should be a slight favorite over No. 18 Placer, but the game is in Auburn and the third game this season on the new field the Hillmen christened in a heartbreaking 30-27 loss to P2P NCS No. 7 and Cal-Hi Sports Medium schools No. 7 Cardinal Newman.
Like other recent games involving Placer and Rio Linda it’s going to come down to who can stop the other team’s power running game. Last year Placer won 48-24 on the road in a game they led 34-7 at halftime.
In that game the host Knights had no answer for the Placer running game led by current 6-4, 230-pound senior bruising running back Hans Grassmann. Of the 555 yards and six TDs the Hillmen had on the ground Grassmann accounted for 239 yards and four of the scores.
A big key in the game was Placer held Rio Linda star running back Cameron Skattebo to his lowest numbers of the season. Of reported state No. 2 and CIFSJS leading 3,550 yards with 42 TDs, he only had 73 yards and did not find the end zone against Placer. This season Skattebo already has 1,037 yards and nine touchdowns, but last week while the Knights got 118 yards and one TD from him, it was senior Abraham Banks that was the workhorse with 298 yards rushing and four TDs in a 37-34 victory over Ponderosa-Shingle Springs. Banks had 48 yards rushing last year against Placer.
Placer will likely give the ball to Grassmann more than last week when he rushed for 93 yards on 21 carries with two TDs in a 28-14 in over Nevada Union-Grass Valley, and if he has the kind of game like he had against Sacramento Bee No. 19 Vista del Lago, where he had 30 carries for 275 yards and five TDs, it spell doom for Rio Linda.
Like was previously stated, the team that wins the battle on the ground and in the trenches will almost assuredly be the victor on Friday night.
Best of the Rest
New Prep2Prep CIF Central Coast Section No. 1 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 11 Serra-San Mateo (5-0, 2-0 WCAL) plays its one Friday night game under the portable lights and while P2P CCS No. 7 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose should be competitive, one only has to look at last week when they struggled in a 24-21 home victory over an Archbishop Riordan-San Francisco team Serra beat 41-0 in a game played at Jefferson-Daly City.
Prep2Prep CCS No. 18 Branham-San Jose (5-0, 2-0 BVAL – Santa Teresa) squares off with cross-town league rival and P2P CCS No. 23 and host Willow Glen for first place in league and bragging rights as the top San Jose public school in the Central Coast Section.
After coming off a minor upset of Clayton Valley-Concord maybe Prep2Prep NCS No. 5 California-San Ramon (6-0, 1-0 EBAL – Mountain) can make P2P NCS No. 1 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 3 De La Salle-Concord work, but more likely locals will be looking to see how the Grizzlies do against the Spartans relative to what Monte Vista did last week in a 49-14 loss in Concord.
After both teams suffered somewhat surprising losses last week both P2P NCS No. 6 Clayton Valley and No. 15 San Ramon Valley-Danville will be trying to pick themselves up off the gridiron and come out a winner in a very important EBAL – Mountain matchup for both teams.
Sacramento Bee CIFSJS No. 4 Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills (4-2, 1-2 SFL) will try to even its record in the Sierra Foothill League but it won’t be easy against visiting Bee CIFSJS No. 11 Del Oro-Loomis (4-2, 1-1) after that team will be loaded for bear after a heartbreaking 30-27 overtime loss two weeks ago to Whitney-Rocklin. Del Oro is coming off a bye last week while Oak Ridge was a 45-23 winner at Grant-Sacramento.
