CONCORD, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 2: Serra’s Seamus Gilmartin (85) and Ryan Silver (68) wave goodbye to the De La Salle student section after kicking the game winning field goal during the fourth quarter of their game at De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. Serra defeated De La Salle 24-21. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
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Serra is NorCal’s top team. Is that a good thing?
The game certainly lived up to the hype.
The Bay Area’s top two high school football teams battled one another for nearly three hours on national television Friday night, the outcome decided in the final seconds on a short field goal after a turnover.
After 10 losses, Serra coach Patrick Walsh had finally defeated his alma mater.
But now what?
Serra has beaten De La Salle after having knocked off Folsom the previous week. Two games into the season, the San Mateo powerhouse is clearly No. 1 in Northern California.
And given that St. Francis – the Bay Area’s top team last season until it lost to Serra in a section final – was routed by three touchdowns at home Friday to an opponent De La Salle beat on the road a week earlier, Serra is the clear favorite to represent NorCal in the Open Division state championship game for the second year in a row.
If you’re a Serra fan, maybe that’s a good thing.
Or maybe it isn’t.
Since Southern California heavyweights Mater Dei-Santa Ana and St. John Bosco-Bellflower went from elite to outrageously elite after the 2015 season, Northern California has lost by double digits to one of those schools in the past five Open games.
Average score: SoCal 47, NorCal 22.
The trend isn’t expected to reverse this season or probably anytime soon.
At the state’s highest level, even teams as strong as Serra and De La Salle have little chance against programs whose rosters are filled with major-college talent year after year.
But because the California Interscholastic Federation format requires NorCal’s top team to play SoCal’s top team in the highest division, Serra’s chance to capture a state championship this season probably diminished while De La Salle’s and Folsom’s improved after the results the past two weeks.
If Serra wins the Central Coast Section Division I title to qualify for state, it’s pretty much a lock that the Padres will be chosen to play in the state’s top division.
There is no regional for the state Open. The CIF picks the teams.
And it’s possible that De La Salle or Folsom, assuming they also claim section titles, will emerge from a regional as a state finalist in the division right below the Open.
That division hasn’t been so bad for the North, as Folsom can attest. The Sac-Joaquin Section powerhouse has won two state titles in that division since Bosco and Mater Dei started dominating the Open six years ago.
The format is out of the coaches’ control.
But scheduling is not.
To that end, the coaches at NorCal’s highest level should be commended for having their teams play one another even though they all knew the outcomes would determine which team is the best and which team would probably be selected to play Mater Dei or Bosco at the end of the season.
There isn’t a whole lot that separates Serra from De La Salle and Folsom. Both games were intense, tight and went down to the wire.
But the scoreboard says Serra is No. 1.
We’ll see if that’ll still be the case on Nov. 27, the day the state matchups are announced.
The chances are pretty good that it will be.
— Darren Sabedra
Serra-DLS: By the numbers
— Serra’s Maealiuaki Smith completed 20 of 30 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
— De La Salle has lost consecutive home games — Folsom to end 2021, Serra on Friday — for the first time since a four-game skid in 1978, the year before legendary coach Bob Ladouceur took over the program, according to DLS analyst/historian Damin Esper.
— Serra held DLS to 235 yards in 50 plays. Serra finished with 316 yards in 55 plays.
— Charles Greer ran for 132 yards and a TD in 23 carries for DLS.
— Serra’s top rushers — Jabari Mann and Smith — finished with 17 yards apiece.
— Darren Sabedra
Lad’s thoughts on Serra-DLS
As we noted in last week’s Monday Morning Lights, De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh and Serra coach Patrick Walsh are longtime friends, both having won a lot of games as DLS players under Bob Ladouceur.
Sunday night, Ladouceur took to Twitter to say a couple of things about the game.
Here is what he said:
“I attended the De La Salle vs. Serra football game Friday. Both Coaches Alumbaugh and Walsh played for me in the 80’s and 90’s; two of the best student-athletes I ever had. I couldn’t be more proud of them for not dodging each other. It says everything about them and their teams.
“What’s best is they are close friends and have the best interest of their student athletes at heart. I can’t say enough about them…I love them both.”
— Darren Sabedra
St. Francis-DLS: QB’s historic but not storybook finish
The final play of Matthew Dougherty’s 2021 season was a touchdown last September that ended De La Salle’s 30-year unbeaten streak against regional teams.
The 16-yard pass down the seam to Nicolas Andrighetto with 16.7 seconds left sent the St. Francis home crowd into a historic frenzy and forever etched Dougherty’s name into the history books.
Had it been a championship game, that would have been a storybook ending to his junior year.
But it wasn’t a storybook finish for Dougherty.
After the De La Salle game, the 6-6 quarterback spent the rest of the season on the sideline and watched Joshua Perry guide the Lancers to a West Catholic Athletic League championship and a runner-up finish in the CCS playoffs.
Dougherty had begun experiencing pain in his back after the De La Salle game, noting in an interview last month that the defenders got some “big hits” on him.
“I tried to practice on that next Tuesday, and I started to feel something in my back, and then on Wednesday I shut it down for a few weeks,” Dougherty said. “For the Valley Christian game, the trainers cleared me to throw, but then I got the results back from the doctor and the doctor told me I was done for the season.”
After the season, Dougherty was still unable to participate in many of the team’s customary drills and offseason workouts. Instead, he put all of his energy into physical therapy and being cleared to join his teammates.
“Physical therapy was a lot of core work, a lot of hip-strengthening and stuff like that,” Dougherty said. “I worked through that, and I was finally able to get cleared to throw the ball and get back on the field.”
Friday, Dougherty will be back on the field against De La Salle, this time in Concord, this time with both teams coming off tough losses.
St. Francis at home to Monterey Trail-Elk Grove 28-7 on Friday.
— Joseph Dycus
Pittsburg’s successful trip to San Diego
Pittsburg hasn’t had much fun on the field during recent trips South from the Bay Area, including last year’s season-ending loss to Liberty-Bakersfield in a CIF regional.
But that changed Saturday.
The Pirates’ trip to the Honor Bowl in San Diego couldn’t have unfolded much better. From the team’s visit to Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton to staying at UC San Diego, Pittsburg was already feeling pretty good when it arrived at Cathedral Catholic High to play Nevada powerhouse Liberty.
The good vibes continued after kickoff as Pittsburg dominated defensively and Jaden Rashada threw three touchdown passes in a 30-2 rout as the Pirates improved to 2-0.
Sure, it was blazing hot and humid for the noontime start. But the outcome made it worth it.
“UC San Diego was awesome,” coach Victor Galli said. “They were great to us. It was nice to do one of these long trips and finally get a win. This is really the first faraway trip like this that we were able to come back with a pretty impressive (win) against a really good football team.”
— Darren Sabedra
How soccer helped Wilcox’s new football star
Wilcox’s Maulidi Saleh ran about 70 yards on a punt return and another 54 yards on a spectacular touchdown reception against Hollister last week. And the lifelong soccer player made every single one of those steps look effortless as he slalomed past defenders on a run into the final third of the field.
The breakout junior receiver/DB says his background in futbol has made him a better player in football.
“I’ve been a good runner ever since I was young, and playing soccer helped me work on my stamina,” Saleh said. “The only difference between running in soccer and football is running with shoulder pads.”
Running long distances isn’t the only place where soccer has prepared Saleh for torching gridiron defenders. Wilcox’s most explosive player honed his quick moves and decisive cuts playing a sport where breaks are few and far between.
“Since I was playing soccer all the time growing up, I got my stamina up,” Saleh said. “That helps me be better with my feet, and cutting faster and stuff. That carries on to the football field.”
— Joseph Dycus
Sobrato coach eager for a home win
Sobrato coach Joel Rueda has an opportunity to do something that was never possible for him as a player at the Morgan Hill school in the late-2000s. Come Saturday against Rancho San Juan, Rueda will try to get his first win at a Sobrato football field.
“I played all of my games at Live Oak as a player, because for one reason or another, we weren’t able to have home games,“ Rueda said. “Even now, we’re playing only day games at home, because Sobrato is still one of the only fields with grass and no lights.”
— Joseph Dycus
Originally published at Darren Sabedra, Joseph Dycus