The excitement and unpredictability of the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs gave way to a sense of inevitably in the semifinal round. But that didn’t mean there weren’t any good matchups in the CCS semifinals. In a pair of semifinals that ended up 21-17, Los Gatos turned to its stout defense to subdue a WCAL opponent for the second week in a row in a win over St. Ignatius in Division 1 while eighth-seeded Christopher rallied yet again to defeat Menlo to reach the Division 2 title game.
Serra 63, Wilcox 27
Wilcox coach Paul Rosa has always been known for scheduling very tough opposition and his teams have had enough success to play some pretty good teams in the postseason. But that didn’t stop Rosa from telling the Bay Area News Group that this Serra team is “the best team I’ve coached against” after the Padres dealt the Chargers a 63-27 defeat.
A 58-yard touchdown pass from Tyson Bonilla to Maulidi Saleh brought Wilcox to within 15-6 at the end of the first quarter, but the Padres hit the Chargers with a 34-point second-quarter barrage to put the game away. Maealiuki Smith threw two touchdown passes to Kyon Loud and ran for a third and Joseph Latu had a total of three rushing touchdowns for the Padres, who are expected to represent Northern California for the state Open Division title on Dec. 9.
Under the unique playoff format introduced this season, Wilcox’s season is not over. Instead, the Chargers (8-4) will take on familiar foe Los Gatos (10-2) for the CCS Division 1 title.
Los Gatos 21, St. Ignatius 17
Senior Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung continued his strong postseason play with a four-yard touchdown run to break a 14-14 tie midway through the third quarter and lead Los Gatos to a 21-17 win over St. Ignatius to advance to the Division 1 championship. Kopcsak-Yeung, who finished with 162 yards rushing, also caught a key 25-yard pass from Jaylen Thomas off a fake punt to help seal the victory late in the fourth quarter.
The win sets up a rematch with PAL-Bay rival Wilcox for the Division 1 title. When the two teams met in the regular season on October 27 for the league title, Los Gatos drove 80 yards in the final two minutes to edge Wilcox 24-21 with Kopcsak-Yeung – of course – closing out the drive on a 7-yard run. The game will take place Friday night at 7 pm at San Jose City College. St. Ignatius finishes its season 7-5.
Christopher 21, Menlo 17
Eighth-seeded Christopher, fresh off a dramatic win over No. 1 seed Archbishop Mitty, rallied from a 17-0 second-half deficit to defeat No. 5 seed Menlo 21-17 in the Division 3 semifinals. Menlo was coming off a 30-28 win over Live Oak, which handed Christopher its only loss of the season for the BVAL-Mount Hamilton championship on November 3.
As usual, the Cougars relied on their talented quarterback, junior Jaxen Robinson, threw two touchdown passes and galloped 35 yards for the winning score with just under five minutes remaining to complete the comeback.
Christopher (11-1) will take on Soquel (10-2) Saturday night (7 pm) at San Jose City College for the Division 2 title.
