Corona Centennial’s Chacho Ulloa holds up plaque while Noah Anthony (left) and Cameron Jackson (right) look on amid other teammates. Photo: Mark Tennis.
In its second season in the CIF Southern Section’s Pac-5 Division, state No. 2 Corona Centennial captured its second consecutive championship with its second consecutive title game victory over St. John Bosco of Bellflower. In a wild offensive affair won by the Huskies 62-52, there was a total of 114 points and 1,193 yards combined by both teams. When CIF Section commissioners meet Sunday in Irvine, it will be an easy call to pit state No. 1 De La Salle vs. the No. 2 Huskies in the CIF Open Division state bowl game, the fifth meeting between the two programs in a CIF Bowl.
To see Part 3 of our video series done a few days ago that explains further the new CIF bowl system and how both the north and south games can be interconnected, CLICK HERE.
We hope you enjoy this free feature. It’s also a great time to sign up for our Gold Club to see all of our great content. Some of the all-state football teams will be Gold Club, including All-State Underclass. The yearly rate is going up possibly as early as next week. For details, CLICK HERE.
Once in a while, there is great buildup to a CIF section final football game because of the “three Rs”: records, rankings, and recruiting. The 2015 CIF Southern Section Pac-5 final between Corona Centennial and St. John Bosco played Saturday night at Angels Stadium had those ingredients because of talented rosters filled with FBS-bound players, record-setting offenses and team rankings put out by various publications.
Centennial, the defending Pac-5 champions, came into the game ranked No. 2 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports with St. John Bosco right behind them at No. 3. Of course, some rankings had this as a national No. 1 vs. No. 2 game to drum up interest, and it somewhat worked. A solid count of 13, 599 fans came out to see the offensive frenzy, and in the end, it was Centennial out-lasting the Braves 62-52 in the offensive onslaught to capture the CIFSS’ most coveted title. With the victory, the Huskies will now take on state No. 1 De La Salle in two weeks for the CIF Open Division state title.
Centennial defeated Bosco for the second consecutive season in the Pac-5 title game, downing the Huskies in last year’s final 48-41. Centennial fell to De La Salle in last year’s CIF Open Division state title game and coach Matt Logan and his 120-plus deep club will get another crack at the Spartans on December 19 at Sacramento State, assuming the CIF section commissioners go ahead and choose the two when they meet Sunday in Irvine.
It will be the third meeting between the two powerhouse programs in the CIF Open Division bowl game in four years and their fifth meeting overall in a CIF Bowl Game. Since its 21-16 win over De La Salle in the 2008 CIF Division I bowl game, Centennial is 0-2 versus the Spartans in the open division game, losing in 2014 and 2012.
“I’m very proud of our guys, they worked hard all year..all the credit goes to them,” said Logan, who captured his 10th CIF Southern Section title overall on Saturday night. “We weren’t tested early, and that was a concern, but we showed the last two weeks we could play a close game.”
Centennial running back J.J. Taylor didn’t play in last year’s title game versus St. John Bosco, but the 5-foot-6, 165-pound running back was the difference in Saturday night’s game. The Arizona-bound back scored five touchdowns — gaining 271 yards on 41 carries. He scored four touchdowns in the first half, and three in the second quarter, including a 65-yard run with 34 seconds remaining before intermission, to spark Centennial to a 55-31 halftime lead.
“J.J. is a heck of a player…he willed us to victory tonight,” Logan said.
For good measure, Taylor also recovered a St. John Bosco (13-1) onside kick attempt after the Braves completed a 99-yard drive via an 11-yard touchdown run by Washington-bound scatback Sean McGrew (24 carries, 196 yards, 3 TDs) with 3:38 remaining in the game to cut their deficit to 10 points. Centennial (14-0) only scored one touchdown in the second half, but did enough damage in the first half, scoring on seven of its eight offensive possessions, and got just enough defensive stops to defeat a team some were calling equal or perhaps even better than its vaunted 2013 unit that defeated Centennial (in the now defunct SoCal open regional game) and De La Salle on its way to the CIF Open Division championship.
“We just tried to play our game and not get caught up in the hype,” Taylor said. “Rankings are rankings and don’t mean much until the end. When we got out to a great start, we just took it from there.”
Against a no-huddle spread offense that is the model for other programs around the state, and perhaps the nation, Bosco’s highly regarded defense just didn’t tackle and cover well enough in the first half to overcome the lapses. Starting St. John Bosco quarterback Quentin Davis, who came into the game with 39 touchdowns and two interceptions, was also picked off twice by the Corona Centennial secondary, once each by cornerbacks Camryn Bynum and Kentrell Love. To make matters worse for St. John Bosco, Davis left the game near the end of the first quarter with a shoulder injury and didn’t return. Sophomore Re-Al Mitchell came in and did an admirable job (7-of-14 passing, 179 yards, 2 TDs), but Bynum got himself another pick and it was just too tall an order against a team that could move the ball at will.
Centennial senior QB Anthony Catalano completed 11-of-18 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns and added 56 yards rushing on 11 carries. Senior WR Cameron Jackson caught three passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns, including a 65-yarder on a lateral pass from senior WR Javon McKinley that gave Centennial a 48-24 lead with 2:45 remaining in the second quarter. McKinley, last year’s Cal-Hi Sports State Junior of the Year, was just too physical for Bosco to handle on the outside. Despite being banged up, he finished with seven receptions for 132 yards, including one touchdown of 37 yards, and a couple of big tackles on special teams.
“I’ve been playing with him (J.J.) since we were little,” said Catalano. “He’s been doing things like this all the time. Our offensive line did a great job. We were just doing the best we could and not worry about anything else.”
Centennial was not worried about rankings, as it always eyes De La Salle in its final game regardless. In fact, it is much more worried about the nagging injuries to Taylor, McKinley, and left guard Daniel Juarez. To put it in perspective, Centennial beat a team that had moved up to No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps.com to set up one of those made-for-TV national No. 1 vs. No. 2 affairs that have happened about five times since 2000. It was a 13-0 vs. 13-0 matchup, which made it different those most of the other national No. 1 vs. No. 2 games that happen earlier in the season, but a few key points were not highlighted in the buildup to this game.
Player of the game J.J.Taylor (21) gets a hug from teammate Miles Reed. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Bosco’s last loss was to a Corona Centennial program that has lost to De La Salle in its last two meetings at the end of the season. That holds weight in our eyes, especially since De La Salle lost early this season to Trinity of Texas. There’s also the key factor that California teams really haven’t fared well against national competition in recent seasons. Just last year, in fact, both Centennial and St. John Bosco lost to Bishop Gorman of Nevada, which finished No. 1 nationally last season, is currently ranked No. 1 by USA Today and hasn’t lost this season. Gaels fans who watched this game surely feel their team is even a stronger No. 1 now. It was an entertaining game, but there were miscues and in our long years of covering both the state and national scene, it just didn’t feel as if Bosco and Centennial were the nation’s two best teams on the field Saturday night.
“I honestly don’t pay attention to rankings,” said Logan, who won his 200th game earlier this season. “The only ones that matter are at the end. I’m just glad we got it done this night against this (Bosco) team. This was a highly ranked team from the get go, which has been different for us. It’s definitely one of the best teams we’ve had with a lot of committed guys (to colleges) before the season.”
Rankings and attendance aside, we just don’t know the true significance of this year’s CIFSS Pac-5 final because it’s not the final game of the season. In those other monster attendance games in CIFSS lore over the years that we detailed earlier this week, besides the ’94 Los Alamitos-Mater Dei semifinal, all the others were the final game of the season and involved a national No. 1 team. There are more results and common opponents to analyze over the next two weeks and when it’s all said in done, St. John Bosco might not even finish the season No. 3 in the state even though it came into this game No. 1 in the nation by some.
Current state No. 1 De La Salle won its 24th consecutive CIF North Coast Section title earlier Saturday evening. The expected December 19 showdown will be the first series of CIF Bowl games not played at the Home Depot Center in Southern California. Should De La Salle soundly defeat Centennial in the CIF Open Division state bowl game, this game would lose significance in the overall picture of the state’s biggest games over the years. Should it be a close game in De La Salle’ favor or if Centennial wins going away, it’s significance will be revisited.
It’s significance doesn’t matter to Logan and the rest of the Centennial program, however, because winning two consecutive CIFSS Pac-5 championships is a major accomplishment — and because the players still have to strap it up one more time this season.
Ronnie Flores is the managing editor of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at ronlocc1977@yahoo.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores
9 Comments
I think those other rankings don’t necessarily say these teams are better than De La Salle but their strength of schedule is higher. If De La Salle traveled up to be in the SJS D1 division for their CIF playoffs instead of a bye then 3 above average local public schools, they would be ranked #1. You can’t compare DLS cakewalk to final (and being well rested for bowl) to gauntlet that is Pac 5 or SJS for that matter.
DLS would cakewalk SJS D1 almost every year and this year would have cakewalked everybody in Pac-5 except the final two.
Yep, but that is the difference in the rankings. You are giving DLS benefit of doubt based on eye test and sound qualitative reasoning. They give Bosco and Centennial higher ranking because teams they played and beat have higher quantitative value (based on them). My point is if DLS played in one of those sections they would be #1 in every poll.
I wish DLS would join the Sierra Foothill League. They already play Granite Bay and Del Oro every year. I think it would add to their strength of schedule to have those two, plus an Oak Ridge, Folsom and Rocklin. Throw in a couple of games against some strong teams in southern California and DLS would get the respect from those other polls. DLS would of course steamroll all the teams in the SFL, but at least that would give them a little more competition during the regular season and playoffs The only exception would have been last year. I think the DLS/Folsom game would have been the game of the year.
So let’s see, they’re supposed to battle traffic through the 1-80 corridor to play Nevada Union, Woodcreek and others to “prove” themselves to pollsters such as USA Today or computers, which heading into state bowl games have always had DLS lower than the SoCal team. Why not just discredit those other pollsters for being wrong most of the time and stop paying attention to them? DLS vs. Folsom would have been great last year too, but Folsom only has themselves to blame for that for complaining so much after 2012 and 2013.
Mark,
I agree with you on those other polls being wrong most of the time. I do get a laugh on how from week to week there can be so much juggling on how they rank teams. I do argue with people here at work because they do rely on some of those other polls, which I lost faith in several years ago, but will still look at so I can argue. Folsom did shoot themselves in the foot by complaining and it did cost them last year. I think Coach Richardson’s team had a very good chance of beating DLS. I think it would have been a toss up. In 2012 & 2013, I knew Folsom was not ready, even though my son and his friends thought otherwise.
To say Bishop Gorman is a legit #1 last year is ridiculous, yes they beat centennial, but it was because centennial gave the game away. Gorman stopped centennial zero times. DLS is a great program that runs a unique offense by today’s standards because the veer is rarely seen. It works to their advantage is some regards.
I agree. Bishop Gorman beat a lot of good teams last year, but overall I do not think they were the overall #1. I think DLS, Folsom & Allen would have beat them. Centennial should have, but turnovers will kill you.
Negro is quietly getting a reputation that he cant beat elite teams unless he has a major talent advantage. Something to watch develop.