It’s been a long time since De La Salle lost to an opponent from the North Coast Section.
The streak of not losing to a team north of Fresno since 1991 was ended by St. Francis, 31-28, in 2021 in Mountain View, and Folsom finally got in the win column against the Spartans in 2021 as well with a 28-27 victory in the state CIF Northern Regional 1-AA title game. Folsom won again last season, 24-20, in Concord before the Spartans ended that two-game skid with a 17-14 road win in the NorCal 1-AA championship.
Serra has recently supplanted De La Salle as the top team in Northern California with a 24-21 victory last year in Concord and a 28-0 drubbing earlier this season in San Mateo, but against teams from the NCS, the streak dating back to 1991 is intact and goes back to that year’s Division 3A title game when Pittsburg took the title with a 35-27 victory.
Every year the naysayers are writing their epitaph, and recently they have had some fodder, but De La Salle (4-2, ranked No. 11 in state, No. 2 in NorCal by Prep2Prep) has had to make some hard decisions. Whether or not San Ramon Valley (6-0) can do what no NCS team has done since 1991 remains to be seen. The Wolves will take their shot Friday night in Danville.
One of the things the brain trust in Sparta did was bring back longtime defensive coordinator Terry Eidson, the decades-long right hand man to legendary movie man and former De La Salle head coach Bob Ladouceur.
Since opening with a 35-14 loss to Cal-Hi Sports state No. 10 Lutheran-Orange and the previously mentioned shutout by Serra (ranked No. 5 in state, No. 1 in NorCal), the De La Salle defense has only allowed 34 combined points in four straight wins: 35-17 at St. Francis (NorCal No. 16), 24-10 versus visiting St. Mary’s-Stockton (No. 6), 14-7 at Folsom (No. 14 in state, No. 3 NorCal) and 21-0 over visiting McClymonds (NorCal No. 20).
The other tough decision was De La Salle knows that to beat top teams from Southern California they can’t rely solely on the vaunted veer and need to pass the ball. Unfortunately, the passing game just wasn’t clicking and they had to revert to what they do best, and that’s run the football with a smattering of passing in the mix. The bottom line is the coaching staff has gone back to the blueprint that paved the ways for past success.
“The way we looked the first couple of weeks, I understand that. This is De La Salle,” said head coach Justin Alumbaugh in response to the annual writing off of his Spartans. “You’re going to reap what you sow and we were not good at the beginning of the year, but it’s a young team.”
That youth is epitomized in the three-headed monster that executes the veer: junior quarterback Toa Faavae and junior running backs Dominic Kelley and Derrick Blanche. Heading into the San Ramon Valley game, Faavae has rushed for 312 yards and seven TDs, Kelley has 500 yards and five TDs and Blanche has 291 yards and two TDs on the ground. Add in sophomore Jaden Jefferson and the running back corps gets even younger.
The defense is youthful as well. Senior linebacker Andrew Cunningham leads the team with 41 tackles, but the sacks leader is junior linebacker Matthew Johnson with 2.5, and he’s also second on the team with 6.5 tackles for losses. Jefferson leads the team with two interceptions.
When Alumbaugh was asked what’s changed since the start of the season and what it will take to beat San Ramon Valley the answers were very similar.
“Effort, discipline and physicality,” were changes noted by Alumbaugh. “We’re practicing harder, they’re playing harder, they’re being more disciplined, they’re being more coachable and we’re more physical.
“That’s it. We’re not getting cute or anything like that,” continued Alumbaugh. “Yes, we’re running the ball more. We’re trying to rely on playing great defense, outstanding special teams and be physical offensively, and we were not that at the beginning of the year.”
Because De La Salle is a member of but unable to win the East Bay Athletic League-Mountain Division league championship, they don’t play all five of the other teams in the league each year, and last year they didn’t face San Ramon Valley. The last meeting was in Danville in 2021 with the Spartans claiming a 48-14 victory, but that was before current Wolves quarterback Luke Baker was the varsity signal caller. So the Spartans have never faced Baker and vice-versa.
Baker comes into the game having passed for 1,845 yards and 22 touchdowns with only two interceptions. That’s a top 25 reported mark in the state and No. 2 in the North Coast Section.
De La Salle has seen top-notch quarterbacks before, including earlier this season when in the Folsom win they held Bulldogs quarterback Ryder Lyons to 169 yards passing with one TD, an interception, and two sacks. Lyons has comparable numbers to Baker with 1,931 yards passing with 19 TDs and three interceptions in seven games.
One thing that could be a factor in the game is San Ramon Valley will be without its primary running back, senior John Pau Mendoza. He suffered a knee injury three weeks ago in a win over Liberty and after rushing for 221 yards and five TDs in four easy wins he’s out for the season. Without its top running back, San Ramon Valley may have a problem with De La Salle looking to put pressure on Baker.
“We have to own the line of scrimmage offensively and pick up consistent yards on the ground,” was one of Alumbaugh’s keys to winning. “The second thing is we’ve got to get to the quarterback.”
“The guy is outstanding. He’s an awesome quarterback,” said Alumbaugh about Baker. “The hope is we can get to him and make him uncomfortable. If we don’t and let him play a comfortable game then we’re in trouble and it will be a long night for us.”
One thing is for sure and that is De La Salle looked good at practice on Wednesday afternoon, and according to Faavae, the Spartans are ready.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or how good the team is we want every game real bad,” Faavae said. “The key to winning this game is everyone knowing what they’re doing, physicality, linemen blocking, D-line getting to their very talented quarterback, and the secondary doing their jobs.”
“I feel like I prepared myself by watching film and breaking down their defense and knowing what routes are going to be open and what runs are open,” Faavae continued.
Kickoff will be at 7pm in Danville and likely will be in front of a packed house.
