One Central Coast Section team figuratively lifted itself off the canvas and one further established itself as a major player in CIF-State Northern California Regional football games played Saturday night.
St. Francis rebounded from its CCS Open Division II title game loss to Oak Grove with a 29-7 win against Pleasant Valley-Chico in the Division II-A NorCal championship game.
The Lancers will now advance to their first state playoff bowl title game, playing host Citrus Hill-Perris for the II-A playoff bowl title. The game is at 6 p.m. at Citrus Hill, a school that is three miles southwest of the city of Riverside.
The Hawks are coached by Eric Zomalt, a former Cal standout who played three seasons in the NFL. Zomalt has been the coach at the Inland Empire school since 2010.
The Lancers (12-2) were led against Pleasant Valley by Darius Thomas, who caught three touchdown passes from quarterback Kamali’i Akina.
Bennett Williams had two interceptions for the WCAL co-titlist Lancers and Lutoviko Ahoia had a 3-yard touchdown run.
Meantime, Sacred Heart Prep, which started the season 1-2 including a blowout loss to Archbishop Riordan, routed McClymonds 56-20 at Independence High to win the NorCal Division III-A title. The Gators (11-3) will now meet host Rancho Bernardo at 6 p.m. Saturday in the III-A title game.
The Gators scored on their first six drives to remove any suspense this game might have had.
Sacred Heart Prep tallied on a 2-yard run by Isoa Moimoi (165 yards rushing), a pair of short TD runs by Lapitu Mahoni (more than 90 yards rushing), a scoring pass of more than 50 yards from Mason Randall to Andrew Daschbach, a Randall-to-Nick O’Donnell 50-yard aerial and an 8-yard scoring connection from Randall to Daschbach to give the Gators a 42-14 lead at the half.
Daschbach had four catches for a total of more than 100 yards and Randall threw for more than 200 yards.
There was no coming back for over-matched Mack (12-1).
Just to make sure, SHP added a 17-yard Mahoni TD run and an 11-yard scoring run by Oliver Weiss.
SHP has made one state playoff bowl title game in its history, losing to Corona del Mar in 2013, 27-15. The Gators went 14-0 last season and won the prestigious CCS Open Division, but weren’t invited to the dance.
