No. 5 Marin Catholic-Kentfield (10-3) at No. 2 Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland (11-2), Saturday, 7:00 pm
The North Coast Section Division II championship game was projected to be a matchup between top-seeded Rancho Cotate and second-seeded Bishop O’Dowd, and while O’Dowd more than took care of business in a convincing 35-14 semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Campolindo, the top seed had adversity it could not overcome.
As for O’Dowd they rolled after bolting out to a 14-0 first quarter lead that was 21-7 at the half and stretched to 35-7 in the early fourth quarter. Campolindo would close out the scoring with an offensive touchdown but prior to that the O’Dowd defense was vise-like and the Cougars only score came on a fumble recovery.
Stanford-bound running back Austin Jones never really broke any big runs but he still averaged 5-yards a carry and finished with 139 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Quarterback Moe Flynn passed for 214 yards and two touchdowns, both to Jelani Warren.
The Dragons defense got an interception from Malachi Ward and a sack from Colton Vardell but what they did was just flat out defend and they won the war in the trenches after only giving up 29 yards rushing. While Campo quarterback Grant Harper passed for 199 yards and a late meaningless touchdown, the O’Dowd defense caused him to only go 11 for 33 passing.
If Jones and company roll on offense and the O’Dowd defense plays like it did against a Campolindo team that handled Marin Catholic, 35-21 in both team’s season opener, they will be hard to beat.
“Overall as a team we played well against Campolindo,” O’Dowd Coach Napoleon Kaufman said. “But my defense played really well like they have been all season. Last week was a continuation of how well we’ve been playing.”
“Remember, on offense Austin is not our whole team,” Kaufman continued. “Stokes has been hurt most of the season and now he’s 100-percent and we’re incorporating him back into the offense.”
Stokes would be 6-4, 203-pound junior receiver/tight end Sterling Stokes, and if he’s healthy he’s a load to handle. Stokes had three receptions for 48 yards against Campolindo and one would think he will be seeing the ball more against Marin Catholic.
Without starting quarterback Jared Stocker it was apparent from the start Rancho Cotate was doomed as they gave way to fifth-seeded Marin Catholic in a 7-2 Wildcats victory that was not anywhere near a masterpiece.
Marin Catholic junior quarterback Gavin Cooke scored the game’s only touchdown on a 7-yard run that came on the first play after a bad snap on a punt attempt by Rancho Cotate midway through the first quarter.
From that point on it was an exercise in frustration for a Rancho Cotate team they used every possible type of running play without success, and a Marin Catholic team that could not really take control of the line of scrimmage on offense.
To beat Bishop O’Dowd, the offensive line, led by 6-4, 307-pound junior D1 recruit Jamar Sekona, and 5-11, 250-pound senior Ethan DiRienzo, is going to have to do a lot better than they did against Campolindo because it’s highly unlikely one touchdown will beat the Dragon.
At practice on Wednesday Marin Catholic Coach Mazi Moayed was working hard with his other coaches at putting the offensive line through its paces.
The offensive line is going to have to give the 6-1, 175-pound Cooke and sophomore running back Matteo Perez some holes to run through, and provide some pass protection as well.
When asked about whether his Wildcats will need to win in the trenches to win the game Moayed responded.
“Yes. We didn’t play great on the offensive line last week. We had a lot of errors and we have to have better execution from our front guys.”
And what about needing to score more points this week to beat O’Dowd? “Usually in a big game seven points doesn’t get you a victory,” Moayed said with a chuckle.
Last year Marin Catholic held Jones to 119 yards on 20 carries with one TD in a 25-20 NCS Division III semifinal victory at home as the top seed. Even so, Moayed knows stopping Jones is not necessarily the only key to winning.
“Jones is a great player but he’s not all they have,” Moayed remarked. “They have some good receivers, the quarterback has been doing a very nice job, the fullback is good, and the tight end is good. But everything still starts with the run, stopping the run, and things become easier after that.”
“For us the key is to execute all facets of the game and play solid football all around the board,” Kaufman said in conclusion. “They’ll be tough. We always have our hands full with them.”
The reason there’s even a D3 title game is because both Bishop O’Dowd and Marin Catholic, and in fact all four teams involved in the semifinals eschewed a coin flip, and agreed to forego sending a representative to the CIF Northern Regional Bowl games, instead opting to go for a section title. So for these two programs this is the culmination of a second straight fire-weary season in the North Coast Section.