Since each of the four Division I quarterfinal games in the CIF Central Coast Section is worthy of a write-up we are going to include a Division I Playoff Preview by including all four for this week’s feature. For our North Coast Section and Sac-Joaquin Section games we have an upstart in one of the games and a matchup in the other game that could be anyone’s guess.
Central Coast Section Division I Preview
Serra-San Mateo (9-1) hosting Half Moon Bay (10-0), Saturday, 1:00 pm
We are not going to spend a lot of time ragging on the CIF Central Coast Section point system that when first added up last Sunday had Half Moon Bay as the top seed in Division II, but after calling Cougars Coach Keith Holden to give him what was good news, the CCS brass had to call him back and tell him the points were miscalculated and Los Gatos was the top seed in D2 and his boys were going to be facing Serra as the D1 No. 8 seed.
Talk about a punch to the stomach. “The kids didn’t know, so no problem there,” was Holden’s response to not having time to inform the team before the second call
We’ll save all the reasons why Half Moon Bay should not be in D1 for another time since they are and that’s what this preview is about and that is exactly how Holden and the team are approaching the task at hand.
That assignment will be facing a Serra team smarting from a 14-13 loss at St. Ignatius after the Padres and Coach Patrick Walsh went for a deuce and was denied the conversion.
The loss meant no first time ever 10-0 record for Serra and an outright West Catholic Athletic League title, but they retained the top spot in the Prep2Prep Central Coast rankings and more importantly the D1 No. 1 seed. Now, they have to shake it off and in no way can they look past Half Moon Bay.
“Pain instructs,” Walsh remarked. “We learned a lot about ourselves last Saturday and are grateful that opportunity to grow as a family. We are in playoff time and our season could be over on Saturday. That alone is a motivating factor.”
The Padres offense could not score in the first half against St. Ignatius and if that happens again against the visitors from the coast, it could spell trouble.
Sophomore quarterback Dominique Lampkin has tasted defeat and now has two games under his belt against P2P No. Valley Christian and No. 3 St. Ignatius so he should be ready and will need to be. Senior running backs Nate Sanchez and Jackson Lataimua, junior Vince Poni, and sophomore Hassam Mahasin, will likely so a lot of work as Walsh is probably going to try and make Half Moon bay stop the run.
The Padres defense led by senior Nusi Malani will have to stop the running game of Half Moon Bay, and so far this season no one really has, but Holden and his boys have not faced anyone close to being as good as Serra.
The bottom line, however, is Serra will have to come to play against a Half Moon Bay team that is in a situation where they have nothing to lose and everything to prove, and when asked if that was the case Holden’s answer was “absolutely.”
The running game led by junior running back Tristan Hofmann and running sophomore quarterback William Moffitt will likely be the bread and butter if Half Moon Bay is to pull off the upset.
“We believe we have something to prove to everyone and that we were put in Division 1 for a reason,” Hofmann said.
“We have been preparing all week and coming up with a good game plan,” continued the three-year varsity player. “We need to play fast, physical, smart and together. I am just going to stick to my jobs and play as hard as I can.”
Holden echoes the sentiments of his underclass star.
“I’m getting a ton of sympathy from people and I don’t want it,” Holden remarked. “Our season is not over. We have an opportunity to do what Half Moon Bay has always done, overachieve. We’ll just be on a bigger stage on Saturday.”
Walsh knows exactly what his counterpart is saying.
“Our team has the utmost respect for Half Moon Bay and understand they will not be intimidated or have any doubt that their objective and belief system is that they will beat Serra,” Walsh said.
Holden kept is simple when asked what it will take to beat Serra. “Take care of the ball when we have it and defensively just do your job.”
For Walsh he feels re-focusing from last week is one of the keys.
“Our focus, which is helped now that we don’t have the obligation of being a perfect 10-0, that weighed heavy on us and I didn’t do a good job of managing it,” replied Walsh on where the team can improve from last week. “Keeping us focused on technique and fundamentals, and that is a hundred percent on me.”
“Now, since everyone is 0-0 we can go back to being focused on being a touch organization that plays with great fundamentals and technique. That’s all we can do now,” Walsh concluded.
A lot of focus this Saturday afternoon will be on San Mateo where we shall see how David does against Goliath.
St. Ignatius-San Francisco (8-2) hosting Archbishop Mitty-San Jose (6-4), Saturday, 1pm
This is a re-match of a game on November 1 at Foothill College where No. 3 seed and Prep2Prep CCS No. 3 St. Ignatius got the job done in a 21-7 victory.
The last two weeks the St. Ignatius defense has been the key after they followed up giving up one TD to Mitty with a game against Serra in which they held the Padres scoreless for two quarters before stopping a two-point conversion to prevail in a 14-13 victory that got the Wildcats a share of the West Catholic Athletic League title with Serra and Valley Christian.
If St. Ignatius duplicates the defensive effort this Saturday at home in the Sunset District of San Francisco it could be a long day for Mitty. On offense, highly-regarded senior quarterback and linebacker Teddye Buchanan and senior wide receiver Danny Ryan had both scores last week as Buchanan found Ryan twice on TD passes in the first half.
If Buchanan, who is looking like the top two-way player in the WCAL, is on, St. Ignatius will be hard to beat.
For P2P CCS No. 10 and sixth-seeded Mitty to have a chance, since running the ball on St. Ignatius has not been easy most of the season, it will start with dual-threat senior quarterback Shamir Bey and his primary wide receiver and junior Reymello Murphy.
St. Ignatius only lost 17-7 to a Valley Christian team that beat Mitty 28-0 last week so SI will be a significant favorite.
Valley Christian-San Jose (9-1) hosting St. Francis-Mountain View (4-6), Friday, 7pm
The second WCAL re-match is between a P2P CCS No. 2 and second-seeded Valley Christian and a P2P CCS No. 11 and seventh-seeded St. Francis. In the league game the Warriors were a 28-7 winner at home and this game will once again be played on the top of the hill in south San Jose.
St. Francis has not been as good this year as last year when they beat Valley Christian 7-3 in league but then lost 31-30 in double overtime in the old CCS Open Division 2 title game.
Valley Christian has been controlling the trenches at the line of scrimmage in every game except Serra and part of their 17-7 win over St. Ignatius and there is no doubt Coach Mike Machado will be looking to the line on defense and offense to control things along with the running game led by senior D1 recruit Isaiah McElvane and junior Chase Laubach. McElvane was bottled up by Serra but exploded for 201 yards and three TDs rushing last week in a 28-0 rout of Archbishop Mitty where the Warriors rushed for 442 yards and all four TDs and only gave up 48 yards on 17 carries.
St. Francis Coach Greg Calcagno is another proponent of running the ball and junior running back Camilo Arquette will need to have a bigger game than the 41 yards on 17 carries against the Warriors in the league loss.
St. Francis lost 32-21 to the Mitty team Valley Christian beat by three TDs so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out Machado and his boys will be big favorites.
Menlo-Atherton-Atherton (7-3*) hosting Wilcox-Santa Clara (8-2), Friday, 7pm
This Friday night match-up at P2P CCS No. 5 and No. 4 seed Menlo-Atherton and CCS No. 4 and No. 5 seed Wilcox is inverted from our human rankings and based on the CCS point system that includes a higher computer power ranking, but nonetheless this could be one of the best games in all of Northern California this weekend.
Both teams have prepped for this very moment with a tough non-league schedule coupled with each team winning its respective league.
Host and Peninsula Athletic League – Bay Division Menlo-Atherton lost three straight games they were expected to, 38-13 to Serra at Levi’s Stadium, 49-20 to host and Utah No. 4 East-Salt Lake City, and 49-0 to NorCal No. 2 in every rankings and host Folsom. Other than getting a good game in a 26-20 win over P2P CCS No. 15 and D2 No. 4 seed Sacred Heart Prep, the Bears pretty much mauled the rest of their PAL – Bay opponents with Aragon-San Mateo taking a forfeit loss rather than play Menlo-Atherton.
Wilcox will be on the road and that is a disadvantage, and while the Chargers didn’t play a Folsom, they were respectable in a 23-13 loss to host Valley Christian and just as good in a 35-31 loss at P2P North Coast Section No. 2 Pittsburg whose only loss is 58-21 at Serra.
Menlo-Atherton has sophomore Matt Macleod at quarterback and he has done a good job. The running game is led by senior Francisco Sanchez and sophomore Thomas Taufui, and they are going to have to establish the run against Wilcox.
A big question in this game would seem to be can Menlo-Atherton stop the Wilcox running game led by seniors Paul M. Rosa and Isaiah Flores. Rosa, who missed two games with a groin injury, was rested in his second game back last week with only one carry in a 44-0 rout of Fremont-Sunnyvale, so he should be more than ready to go and could be the difference maker in this game.
The two teams met last year in the CCS Open Division 1 title game at a neutral site and Menlo-Atherton came away with a 33-28 victory en route to a CIF state Division 3-AA Bowl Game championship. Wilcox rebounded from the loss and went on to win the CIF state Division 3-A Bowl Game title.
*includes a forfeit win
Sac-Joaquin Section Game of the Week
Inderkum-Sacramento (10-0) hosting Davis (10-1), Friday, 7pm
The old expression “the third time is a charm” is exactly the position of Inderkum as the Tigers move on to the second round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Division I playoffs undefeated for the third straight season.
The difference is Inderkum was 11-0 and coming off a first round win the past two years in Division II before losing in the second round. This year Coach Terry Stark and his boys moved up to Division I and had a bye in the first round as the No. 3 seed. The Tigers now meet No. 6 seed and an upstart Davis team coming off a 41-7 shellacking of Gregori-Modesto in the first round last week.
“It’s big for us,” said Inderkum multi-purpose star Aaron Espero. “We’ve been working for three years and have come up short the past two years, but this class of seniors is hungrier than ever.”
Two-way senior star Espero is part of an Inderkum running game that has rushed for over 3,000 yards with 43 touchdowns. Senior quarterback Jamijah Ray can throw the ball if needed, and he has over 1,000 yards passing with 16 TDs, but the key to success for Inderkum is the ground game that can break some big plays and is averaging a whopping 8.9 yards per carry as a team.
Not surprisingly Espero is a defensive leader as well and has six interceptions from his free safety position.
“We are very well prepared for the game and we’ll have to execute of both sides of the ball, play physical and play or game all four quarters to get the W,” Espero remarked.
“Our coaches have told us they have nothing to lose but just to get us more motivated and to work even harder during our week of practice,” continued Espero. “We realize Davis will be giving it their all but we haven’t really focused on anything else except for what we have to do to win the game.”
Giving it their all for Davis seems to start at the top with second-year head coach Steve Smyte. The coaching veteran, that has college and professional experience after starting as an assistant at UC Davis and also assisting at Boise State and the Canadian Football League, inherited a team that was 0-10 and he has completely turned it around to a point where the Blue Devils are having their best season since 1988 when they won their only Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
Last season Davis went 6-5 and 3-3 in the Delta League and they made the playoffs. This season they won the Delta League at 5-1, and the Delta League is a tougher league than the Capital Valley Conference League Inderkum won.
“Last year we called it a season of redemption,” Smyte remarked. “This year we called it a season of ascension.”
If the Blue Devils are to ascend to the semifinals next week one of the things they’ll need to do is what they’ve been doing and that’s score points. They had a close game against perennial power Jesuit-Carmichael, but even in the game they lost to CIFSJS D2 No. 6 seed Elk Grove, it was a 42-35 final.
Davis passes a little more than Inderkum but the run is still their staple. Senior running back Taylor Vaughn rushed for three TDs in a 27-14 victory two weeks ago over Cosumnes Oaks-Elk Grove that secured the league championship. Vaughn and junior Aaron Turner have each rushed for over 900 yards and have 14 and 13 TDs, respectively.
Asked for three keys to Davis continuing their playoff run Smyte had this to say. “Key number one is the team that wins the turnover battle will win this game. Turnovers are critical in high school. Key number two is discipline. At this time of the year more games are lost than won. The third key is play assignment football and stick to the game plan on offense.”
One thing is for sure and that is either Inderkum will get past the second round after failing the last two years, or Cinderella-like Davis will continue to dance.
“I’m really excited for the kids, particularly five seniors that were sophomores on the 0-10 team, Smyte said. “When we came in two years ago we asked them to trust us and we’re not done yet.”
North Coast Section Game of the Week
Tamalpais-Mill Valley (7-3) hosting Piner-Santa Rosa (9-1), Saturday, 1pm
There were not a lot of real exciting first round games in the CIF North Coast Section so we decided on a game that could be anyone’s guess as to the outcome and that is the Division 4 match-up between host and No. 4 seed Tamalpais and No. 5 seed Piner-Santa Rosa.
What it seems to boil down to is whether the Marin County Athletic League, which includes a Marin Catholic-Kentfield team that is in the league but can’t win the title, is stronger and has Tam better prepared than the North Bay League – Redwood Division Piner plays in.
The Red-Tailed Hawks lost to P2P NCS No. 5 and D4 No. 2 seed Marin Catholic and NCS No. 25 and D2 No. 7 seed Redwood-Larkspur, but their most impressive win is 21-18 at San Marin-Novato, and that could be an indicator.
Since he took the reins three years ago Tamalpais Coach Matthew LemMon has improved the team’s record from 4-5 in 2017 to 6-5 and a spot in the playoffs last year, to a home game in the playoffs this year.
A key combination to look for is senior quarterback Aidan Newell to senior wide receiver Ben Reade. Newell has over 2,000 yards passing and Reade has over 1,000 yards receiving. The primary running back is Crewe Hutson.
Piner is coming off a 31-27 upset loss of sorts to Santa Rosa that cost them the league title and also the home field advantage for this game since there was no way they would go ahead of No. 3 seed Acalanes-Lafayette even had they won last week.
The reason we say upset of sorts is it’s hard to gauge just how good Piner really is since the Santa Rosa team that beat them has a losing record but still made the playoffs as the D3 No. 8 seed.
Early on the Prospectors were rolling up scores under first-year Coach Terrence Bell mostly because the opposition was not very good. They did have a blowout win over Division V No. 6 seed Miramonte, but other than Santa Rosa that’s the only team they played that made the playoffs.
The story all season has been senior quarterback Yonaton Isaac. At one point he was on a record pace for TD passes but still comes into the game with 48 TD passes and that ties him with TJ Campbell of St. Bernard’s-Eureka (2017) on the Cal-Hi Sports list for Most Regular Season TD passes ever in the NCS. Isaac has 2,885 yards passing but last week he was held to 7 of 13 for 117 yards and one TD with two interceptions.
Senior Adrian Torres has rushed for almost 1,000 yards but somehow it would seem Isaac to his favorite receiver, Isaac Torres, who has over 1,000 yards receiving and 21 TDs, will have to click for Piner to win on Friday night in Mill Valley.
Best of the Rest will return next week
