It’s go time in the North Coast Section, and while there are a lot of high-profile game intersectional games to be profiled in Harold Abend’s NorCal Games of the Week, there are also plenty of intriguing match-ups within the section, ones which will have an impact on playoff seeding at the end of the season when committee members look for head-to-head and common opponent match-ups.
Hopefully, all of the games listed here are much more competitive than the section’s first two games of the season on Thursday night, a 38-0 Cardinal Newman victory over Fortuna and a 54-0 Las Lomas win over Kennedy-Fremont.
St. Patrick-St. Vincent at St. Helena, Friday
This one will fly under the radar for a lot of people, but could be an important game at the end of the year for seeding purposes in the Division 6 and Division 7 playoff brackets, not to mention serving as an early measuring stick for both programs.
St. Helena returns the majority of its skill position players which led to a four-win improvement last season and a strong showing in the playoffs. SPSV, meanwhile, is looking to reload and not rebuild under coach Lane Hawkins, who has witnessed his teams reach high levels of success in recent years.
These teams met five years ago in the Division 5 playoffs, a 30-18 victory for St. Helena which helped trigger a run to the title game that year for the Saints.
Amador Valley at Antioch, Friday
Both teams enter the season ranked in the top 15 of the preseason Prep2Prep NCS rankings, with strong senior classes returning for both squads. Both, however, also welcome new quarterbacks, though Amador Valley senior Kannon Dote had the potential to start as a junior before injury derailed his season.
Watch for both offenses to use explosive running games to get on track in this opener, with Jaysn Wade carrying the load for the host Panthers while junior Da’jhae Wiltshire can go the distance at any time for Amador Valley. Antioch coach John Lucido also mentioned linemen Gaston Dorsey and Kwamayne Sims as players who stood out in last week’s scrimmage, a good omen for a team which would like to assert its run game.
These teams last squared off in the post-season, back in 2015 when Antioch beat Amador Valley 58-21 behind a 422-yard team performance on the ground, led by current Alabama starter Najee Harris.
Del Norte at Moreau Catholic, Friday
It was in last year’s NCS Division 4 title game when Moreau Catholic finally lost its first game of the season, to a physical squad from the HDN. While that loss was to Fortuna, Del Norte promises to be one of the more physical teams this year, and will certainly be fired to make its long road trip worth it in the first weekend of the season, after traveling from Crescent City.
Moreau Catholic, however, has a boatload of returning talent, including quarterback Bowen Dickstein and running back Fresh Ison. Still, head coach Rob Gatrell believes this game will come down to mindset and execution.
“We need to be physical. The first game usually comes down to limiting mistakes and penalties, and taking care of the football,” Gatrell commented. “Del Norte is going to try and pound it against us, and they’ve got good size up front.”
This is the first meeting between these Division 5 opponents who are separated by over seven hours and nearly 400 miles.
Stellar Prep at Kennedy-Richmond, Friday
Both teams will be among the eventual favorites in their respective playoff classifications, with Stellar Prep in Division 7 after falling to Salesian in last year’s Division 5 semifinals, while Kennedy is one of the top teams in Division 6. The Eagles could also make a push for the TCAL-Rock title this year.
Junior tight end Jermaine Terry of Kennedy is the top recruit on the field during this one, though San Jose State commit Elijah Lawson anchors the Stellar Prep defense. That being said, the player who will most likely have the largest impact on the outcome is Kennedy dual-threat quarterback Camron Young.
This is the first ever meeting between these programs.
El Cerrito at Marin Catholic, Saturday
It has been six years since these programs met on the field, and it was El Cerrito which walked away victorious the last time, defeating Marin Catholic 54-38 in the 2013 NCS Division 3 championship game, avenging a three-point playoff loss to the Wildcats in the previous season.
Marin Catholic, however, enters this one as the favorite, though it will be an early test for sophomore quarterback Michael Ingrassia, against a Gauchos’ secondary which is always among the best in the section. One of Ingrassia’s top targets will be senior Gaven Cooke, who started at quarterback last year and shined at both receiver and defensive back in the Wildcats’ scrimmage against Cardinal Newman last week. Offensive linemen Matt Dierking and Tim Clifford are among those tasked with making life easier for Ingrassia in his first start.
“Michael made a lot of great decisions last week, but everyone is somewhat blind in the first game with a limited scrimmage to scout,” said Marin Catholic coach Mazi Moayed. “El Cerrito has traditionally been a successful program with a number of playmakers who can impact a game. We need to limit the big play and play well fundamentally in all three phases of the game.
Linebackers Giovanni Ghilotti and Ryan Dolan will be tasked with slowing down El Cerrito after looking solid last week.
Best of the Rest
Former NBL rivals Windsor and Casa Grande square off in a non-league opener, having split their last six meetings in a rivalry that used to be one-sided in favor of Casa Grande. Windsor rallied from a halftime deficit to win 30-22 last season.
A total of six points have separated Hayward and Pinole Valley over the last two seasons, and it promises to be another physical game when they meet this Friday night. Last season, Pinole Valley spoiled Hayward’s opener on its new field, so the Farmers are looking for a slightly different twist on pay back, after the Spartans opened their new school campus this year.
It is a rare season-opening league game in Emeryville on Saturday afternoon, as Alameda and Oakland Military Institute square off at Emery High. The Hornets are coming off a season in which they shared the WACC-Shoreline title, while OMI is playing its first full varsity season, as a new member of the Shoreline Division.
