We may have more good intra-section games this week than any of the first three weeks, and part of the reason is De La Salle and Folsom mix it up as the headliners. The biggest battle between teams north of Fresno since the last time the teams met last season may grab the spotlight, but there are some other very good match-ups
Four other games pitting teams from different sections are featured and each one could just about qualify as a doozy.
De La Salle (2-1) at Folsom (3-0), Friday, 7:30 pm
These teams have met three times in the past and every time just prior to the kickoff there are some pundits, prognosticators and self-proclaimed experts, and even members of the mainstream media that are writing the epitaph of De La Salle.
There have been other challengers to the win streak of De La Salle against teams north of Fresno, but since 1992 all have fallen to the march of the Spartans.
Central Catholic was victim No. 300 two weeks ago in a De La Salle romp, and last week a St. Francis-Mountain View team that is one of the top teams in the CIF Central Coast Section became No. 301 after getting shellacked 48-0 as Sparta stomped past the Lancers.
Last year, when De La Salle advanced to the championship of CIF state Open Division Bowl Game and lost 35-21 to Mater Dei, and Folsom won the 1-AA title with a thrilling 21-14 victory over Cathedral Catholic-San Diego, the two teams met in a season-opener where the Spartans defense stifled the high-scoring Bulldogs in a 14-0 shutout.
Folsom went on to win its next 14 games and the only time they were under 40-points was in the state title game.
The first time the teams met was in 2012 at Sacramento State and the De La Salle offense rolled and the defense had seven sacks and two interceptions of then Bulldogs sophomore quarterback Jake Browning in a 49-14 victory in the CIF Northern Regional Open Division title game after Folsom came into the game at 14-0. It was almost identical in 2013 in the CIF NorCal Open Division championship. The difference in a 45-17 Spartans victory at Diablo Valley College was the defense only sacked Browning once but intercepted him three times.
Once again Folsom came into the game undefeated meaning in all three years the teams met, De La Salle was the only team to pin a loss on Folsom.
This year, for the first time, the game is at Folsom, and whether or not that will make a difference is yet to be determined.
Last week, in the blowout of St. Francis, the Spartans barely broke a sweat after leading 35-0 at halftime. De La Salle had 283 rushing yards on the ground as a team and junior quarterback Dorian Hale had 159 passing yards in only one half of action
With Kris Richardson leaving as head coach after last season to join his former Folsom co-coach Troy Taylor on Taylor’s staff at Sacramento State, Folsom has a new coach but not one unfamiliar with the system as Paul Doherty takes the reins after serving as an assistant last year and a previous stint as head coach at Sacramento High.
If the first two games are any indication it appears under Doherty nothing has changed so far after the Bulldogs walloped Jesuit-Carmichael and host Antelope, 52-12 and 49-13 respectively in their first two games.
Jake Reithmeier, a 6-1, 205-pound senior, is the new quarterback, and he’s had some big shoes to fill with the graduation of Kaiden Bennett. In his first two games Reithmeier has passed for 406 yards and seven TDs with no interceptions, and rushed for 85 yards and two more scores in limited action.
Whether leading rusher and 5-10, 190-pound senior Daniyel Ngata (120 yards rushing and three TDS) will play is a question. Social media was buzzing about Ngata, who has 25 D1 offers including Alabama and a lot of other top schools, nursing a sore knee.
One thing is sure, and that is the De La Salle defense likely will be ready for Folsom as they have been in the past. The home field could make a difference but De La Salle has already prepped for a nationally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida) team that managed only 24 points against the Spartans and that was buttressed by some questionable calls that led to scores.
So will De La Salle prepare for Folsom in a similar fashion to Aquinas?
“Every team has a bit of a different prep,” said De La Salle Coach Justin Alumbaugh. But yes, the focus and attention to detail is very similar to Aquinas.”
So if the prep is similar to Aquinas for Folsom, what will be two keys to winning the game?
“Very simple, our O-line and D-line,” answered Alumbaugh. “And tackling, tackling, tackling. We have to be physical.”
For Doherty, the biggest game of his high school coaching career comes in his third game at the Folsom helm.
The question for him was what’s different about preparing for De La Salle than other teams, and what does Folsom have to do to win?
“Hey, same process, always focused on us and executing our assignments,” Doherty responded. “We have to be consistent and sound in our execution. They won’t give up the big plays so we have to be disciplined on all fronts of the football game.”
We say this every time De La Salle faces the doubters and naysayers, and that is at some point they are going to lose to a team north of Fresno. The big question is will it be Friday night in Folsom?
One thing is pretty certain. The winner of this game almost assuredly will get the Northern California berth in the CIF state Open Division playoffs.
Serra (2-0) at St. Mary’s-Stockton (2-1), Friday, 7:00 pm
After attending a Wednesday practice we did a feature on Serra and talked about their match-up with St. Mary’s. The big question in this game is after the Padres ended a three-game skid against Pittsburg in their first game, and then demolished a state-ranked Menlo Atherton last week at Levi’s Stadium, is can they finally win against a St. Mary’s team that has handled them easily in two previous meetings?
Serra didn’t face the Rams last season, but two years ago they lost 41-13 to St. Mary’s on the road, and three years ago they were blasted in as 63-35 loss at home.
“We have had zero success versus St. Mary's,” Walsh remarked for the feature. “In fact they have embarrassed us at St. Mary's and at Serra through us being outplayed and me being out coached by Coach (Tony) Franks and his staff. We have nothing but respect for St. Mary's and what they have done in the past. Honestly our goal is to prove that we can give max effort and compete with a team that has humbled us in the past.”
For more in-depth details on the match-up click here for the Serra feature.
Campolindo-Moraga (3-0) at McClymonds-Oakland (2-0), Friday, 7:00 pm
Three-time defending CIF state Bowl Game champion McClymonds has looked very impressive in its first two games, a 19-7 road win against a solid Marin Catholic-Kentfield team that rebounded to blow out Archbishop Mitty-San Jose, and then a 28-7 win over an Encinal-Alameda team that was coming off two huge running score shutouts of Washington-Fremont and Analy-Sebastopol.
Campolindo opened with blowouts of Montgomery-Santa Rosa and Deer Valley-Antioch, 40-0 and 48-6 respectively, and then last week at the Honor Bowl at James Logan-Union City the Cougars were a 27-16 winner against a solid Amador Valley-Pleasanton team where they led 24-7 and never were really threatened by the Dons who were 2-0 coming into the game after wins over host Antioch and Milpitas.
Going into West Oakland to face McClymonds will be a different experience for the Campolindo players but not the coaching staff.
“We know it’s a whole new animal,” said Campolindo 6-2, 200-pound quarterback Grant Harper on playing at McClymonds. “We have to keep or heads on a swivel and play as a team and we’ll be okay.”
The coaching veteran Macy, who began his career in the Oakland Section over 20-years ago, is no stranger to the atmosphere at McClymonds.
“We’re going into an environment that will be different for our kids,” Macy remarked. “But I’m familiar with it and my staff is too from when I was the head coach at Oakland Tech. Our kids will grow from the experience.”
The big question in this very interesting match-up is will the defense of McClymonds, the top small school team in the state, led by defensive backs 6-1, 180-pound senior Edward Woods, who has 12 D1 offers including Arizona and Arizona State, and Montrell Smith, be able to snuff out Campolindo?
Palma-Salinas (1-1) at Oakdale (2-1), Friday, 7:30 pm
The Prep2Prep CIF Central Coast Section 12-ranked Chieftains invade The Corral where it is not easy to win, and for Palma it likely is going to be a tall task to round up the host Mustangs.
Oakdale is coming off a close 21-19 win on the road at a Prep2Prep CIF Central Coast Section No. 10 Aptos team that might be 0-2 but is expected to challenge in the playoffs this year and has improved its non-league schedule.
Against Aptos the Mustangs were leading 14-3 late in the third quarter but when Aptos closed to 14-11 they got what turned out to be a deal sealer when Leo Ayala scored with 1:56 before Aptos came right back and scored with 1:10 remaining, and then tried an onside kick Oakdale recovered and ran out the clock.
The game to look at is the Mustangs game against Prep2Prep CIF North Coast Section No. 2 Liberty-Brentwood. After opening the season by blasting Sonora, 41-7 on the road, Coach Trent Merzon and his boys had Liberty on the ropes but despite fans at The Corral getting load and raucous the hosts could not punch it in and Liberty was successful in a goal line stand at the end of the game that sent Oakdale to a 19-14 loss.
Palma opened the season with a 47-31 loss to Archbishop Mitty and that team went on to lose big to Marin Catholic last week, and that might not be a good sign since Oakdale is probably as good if not better than Marin Catholic, albeit a different style team with Oakdale’s Merzon primarily running the ball and doing it very effectively.
Last week the Chieftains dropped Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco to 0-2 after a 35-21 victory at Kezar Stadium but the Irish were coming off a 44-14 loss to a so-so Acalanes-Lafayette.
Senior running back Anthony Villegas has been the workhorse for Palma and rushed for 282 yards and four TDs against Mitty but it wasn’t enough. One has to wonder what he’ll do against an Oakdale defense that’s much tougher than Mitty.
Valley Christian-San Jose (2-0) versus Clovis West (2-1), Friday, 7:00 pm at Veterans Memorial Stadium
This is a classic CIF Central Coast Section versus Central Section match-up of two teams with traditionally strong programs. In fact, when the De La Salle winning streak of 301 games against teams from north of Fresno is mentioned instead of Northern California it’s because Clovis West beat De La Salle 30-12 in 2004 and 7-0 in 2005.
That was then and this is now. There’s a reason Coach Mike Machado and his Warriors are the top team in the Prep2Prep CCS rankings, the top team in the Cal-Hi
Sports rankings in the CCS at No. 15 and tops in the CCS in the Maxpreps rankings at No. 26.
In their first game the Warriors avenged a defeat last year to defending CIF state Division 3-A Bowl Game champions Wilcox-Santa Clara with a 23-13 victory, and last week they beat another defending state champion when they overwhelmed reigning 4-AA champion Pleasant Valley-Chico, 37-0.
Cory Taylor didn’t need to throw many passes, but the senior quarterback was 7-for-7 while passing for 152 yards with one touchdown. Nine running backs combined for 241 rushing yards, with Isaiah McElvane leading the way with 93 yards on 10 carries with one touchdown.
Clovis West was previously in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings after starting out 2-0, but last week the Golden Eagles were grounded in a 17-7 loss to visiting Liberty-Bakersfield, and that team went on to lose to Buchanan-Clovis on Thursday of this week.
Valley Christian will be favored but the Clovis West crowds can get loud and rowdy so the Warriors will need to bring their A game to Fresno.
Best of the rest
Benicia is off to a 2-0 start but their wins are against Pinole Valley and Maria Carrillo-Santa Rosa, so they haven’t see an opponent like the Sutter team they face Friday night. The boys from the shadows of the Sutter Buttes will be looking to make it two straight wins after 45-13 romp over Red Bluff was preceded by a season-opening 21-7 home loss to Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa.
Menlo-Atherton (1-1) will be looking to rebound from a 38-13 loss to Serra at Levi’s Stadium, but the Bears are in deep as they travel to Utah on Friday night to meet state No. 8 East-Salt Lake City. You may recall when East was the No. 1 team in Utah in 2016 they came into De La Salle and left with 23-21 victory.
Salinas (1-0) looked good enough in its first game to grab the No. 5 spot in the Prep2Prp CCS rankings, but the Clovis team they face on Friday night will be much different than the North Salinas team they blew out 71-7 last week. Clovis (2-1) will be a difficult opponent, particularly on the road.
An interesting match-up will be on Saturday afternoon in the Sunset District of San Francisco when St. Ignatius (1-1) hosts Gonzaga Prep-Spokane (Washington). Prep2Prep CCS No. 9 St. Ignatius opened with a solid win over Palo Alto but fell 28-21 last week to host and P2P CCS No. 8 Sacred Heart Prep. Gonzaga Prep (1-0) only has one game under its belt but it was an impressive 45-13 victory over perennial Idaho power Coeur d’Alene.
