State FB Team Records Ready To Go

All state football team records are now updated in all categories prior to the start of the 2024 season. In one of them, Folsom has moved in front of Concord De La Salle, which are not playing this season but could be the top two teams from the north in line for the CIF Open Division state final. The Spartans of course still have several ongoing state records. Long Beach Poly also moves in front of Bakersfield in one category plus we go over several new entries for Woodland Christian after its 15-0 season from 2023.

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The Northern California football rivalry between De La Salle of Concord and Folsom started in the early 2010s when the Spartans were in the midst of winning four straight CIF Open Division state titles. The Bulldogs had record-breaking quarterback Jake Browning, but couldn’t get past De La Salle in two CIF NorCal Open Division contests in 2012 and 2013.

The two schools didn’t play in 2014 when Folsom probably had the best team it ever has had since the NorCal Open game was discontinued. De La Salle, which was in the second year under the direction of head coach Justin Alumbaugh after all-time winningest head coach Bob Ladouceur had retired, won the CIF Open Division state title that season over Corona Centennial and ended 15-0 while the Bulldogs won it in D1 with a rout of Oceanside and ended 16-0. At the time, ranking any NorCal team ahead of De La Salle just couldn’t be done so the two teams were No. 1 and No. 2 in the final state rankings.

It looked like the Bulldogs would have a great chance to beat DLS to start out the 2018 season with a number of key returning players off of their 2017 squad that finished 16-0 and won the CIF D1-AA state crown. That 2017 season was the second year of the current run of dominance atop the state by Mater Dei of Santa Ana and St. John Bosco of Bellflower and was the year that the Monarchs capped a perfect season with an easy win over the Spartans in the top state game. In the 2018 season opener, though, the DLS defense played lights out, especially in the red zone, and posted a 14-0 win over Folsom. Both teams then again went to the CIF state finals where the Spartans fell to the Monarchs again in the Open while the Bulldogs got past Cathedral Catholic of San Diego in overtime in D1-AA. After that game, Folsom head coach Kris Richardson left for a position at Sacramento State. Paul Doherty was then elevated to head coach.

The two schools played again in 2019 and De La Salle posted a 42-27 victory. That was the year, though, when the Bulldogs didn’t get to a state game due to an upset loss to Monterey Trail of Elk Grove in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 playoffs.

After the pandemic, the DLS-Folsom regular season games resumed and the Spartans didn’t have much trouble winning in 2021 by a 31-10 margin. That was a season, however, in which neither one was on top of Northern California as DLS had a loss to St. Francis of Mountain View and then Serra of San Mateo was able to avenge an earlier loss to the Lancers in the CCS championships and therefore took the NorCal Open Division bid. That meant a DLS-Folsom rematch for the CIF NorCal D1-AA championship and in that game the Bulldogs finally broke through to get their first win over the Spartans, 28-27, stopping what would have been a game-winning two-point conversion in the final seconds. Folsom then lost in the D1-AA state final to Cathedral Catholic of San Diego.

Serra beat both De La Salle and Folsom in the 2022 and 2023 seasons and went to the CIF Open Division final both times. In 2022, the Bulldogs won their second straight over the Spartans with a 24-20 win in Concord in the regular season. DLS later avenged that loss with a 17-14 win to take the NorCal D1-AA title. Last season, DLS notched a 14-7 win in the regular season, but there was no NorCal matchup since there was an unbeaten team from the CIF Central Section to consider (Clovis North of Fresno). The Spartans then faced the Broncos in the D1-AA regionals while the Bulldogs faced another unbeaten team (Pittsburg) in the D1-A regionals. Both teams won but had different state final outcomes as De La Salle fell to Mission Viejo but Folsom rallied to beat St. Bonaventure of Ventura.

With their final records of 11-3 for De La Salle and 13-2 for Folsom last season, despite the head-to-head result, the Bulldogs have now moved ahead of the Spartans in one state record category that has just been updated: Best Records Since 2010. Neither Mater Dei or Bosco was all that great to start the 2010s, so Folsom’s mark of 177-20 has now surpassed De La Salle’s of 166-20. Mater Dei now has the state’s best record since 2020 at 42-2. Since 2000, the Spartans are still easily on top at 278-30-1 and they still are a staggering 403-31-1 since 1990. No school in the country at any level in any state can come close.

This now brings us to the start of the 2024 season. Both teams return outstanding players, led by junior QB Ryder Lyons at Folsom and senior QB Toa Faavae at De La Salle. They are not playing each other during the regular season, however. They are both playing Serra again and both have interesting openers — the Bulldogs on Aug. 23 at home vs Long Beach Poly and the Spartans on Aug. 30 at home vs Grant of Sacramento. Folsom also has added high-profile transfers, especially at running back with Carter Jackson coming in from Granite Bay.

Some preseason rankings have Folsom higher to start and we may agree, but what happens if both teams go unbeaten and win their section titles? Which one goes to the Open final to likely get clobbered while which one goes to D1-AA? The CIF will have to consider De La Salle’s 7-2 all-time record head-to-head vs Folsom, including wins in the last two games. Other teams could emerge like Serra once again or Pittsburg, but the ranking between Folsom and De La Salle all season up north could go back-and-forth.

FOR THE UPDATED ALL-TIME STATE RECORDS FOR TEAM DECADE LEADERS (GOLD CLUB LIST), CLICK HERE.

More De La Salle Team State Records

The legendary program continues to have several other ongoing state records. For consecutive league wins and consecutive league titles, it’s 111 in a row and 26 in a row. The Spartans have not lost a league game since believe it or not 1982. They came close last year in an overtime matchup with San Ramon Valley of Danville. There are many years, though, in which the team was not playing any league games. That would be from 1998 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2017.

DLS also has now surpassed Bakersfield for having the most CIF section titles in history. The Drillers, who’ve been playing since the 1890s, have been stuck on 37 since 2016. DLS won its 38th in the CIF North Coast Section last season. The team also should move past La Mirada after this season in the state record category of most consecutive playoff appearances at 42. La Mirada had its streak of playoff appearances end in 2021 at 41.

FOR THE UPDATED ALL-TIME STATE RECORDS FOR LEAGUE & SECTION TITLES (GOLD CLUB LIST), CLICK HERE.

Long Beach Poly Updates

Watching Jackrabbit alum Snoop Dog at the Olympics for NBC has been a lot of fun and when it’s over it will be time to watch the school’s alums playing in the NFL. The list will include veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis, who needs to appear in just four games to have the most appearances by a tight end in NFL history.

Poly’s 10-2 record from last season pushed the school even more wins in front of Bakersfield on the all-time list of schools with the most reported wins at 818 since 1904. The Drillers did have a better 2023 than 2022, but at 6-6 are now six behind the Jackrabbits at 812.

Those season records also pushed Poly in front of Bakersfield for having the best record of any school that has been playing football since 1930. For the Jackrabbits, they have gone 687-264-31 in those years. The Drillers actually now have the same number of losses since 1930 at 264 and are at 681-264-23.

What Can Woodland Christian Do
For An Encore?

Last season’s only 15-0 team in the state was CIF D5-A state champion Woodland Christian, which earned its first-ever state crown with a 23-13 win over Wilmington Banning, a much, much larger school from the CIF L.A. City Section.

The Cardinals, along with 14-0 Colusa, were the only unbeaten teams to get added to our all-time honor roll list of every unbeaten team (at least 5-0) in state history. We do separate NorCal and SoCal lists for those categories and the funny part about Woodland Christian is that the list is alphabetical and that the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section teams are at the bottom. The Cardinals therefore are now the final school and team on that list.

Head coach Michael Paschke’s team also has been added in two other state record categories. One is for most points scored in a season with 633. The other is for highest score differential in a season with 533 since the defense only allowed 100 points in its 15 games.

The Cardinals have several key returnees from last season and will not be hurt by competitive equity in the SJS. They have a good shot at winning another section title, although the very first game with Bradshaw Christian of Sacramento will be tough. The Pride ended up giving Woodland Christian its toughest game all season in last season’s opener (15-14). Junior Noah Hinkle was arguably the Cardinals’ top all-around player as a sophomore. He had 578 yards and 10 TDs rushing, 35 catches for 737 yards and 10 TDs receiving plus five interceptions on defense. QB Gabe Sanchez has graduated, but junior Isaiah Hunt played a lot as a sophomore so that part of the team’s make-up shouldn’t be a problem.

FOR THE UPDATED ALL-TIME STATE RECORDS FOR TEAM SCORING (GOLD CLUB LIST), CLICK HERE.

More State Team Record Updates

*Norco had its streak of making the CIF Southern Section playoffs snapped at 35 consecutive seasons in 2023. The Cougars had been in the playoffs every year since 1987.

*La Serna of Whittier’s CIF D2-A state champions scored 674 points during the season and has gone on to the all-time list in that category. The team that the Lancers just went in front of at 673 happens to be Grant of Sacramento with from its 2010 season. The Pacers are the team that La Serna beat to win its first-ever CIF state crown. Grant, by the way, still had a higher scoring team for last season despite the loss at 681 points.

*Congrats to Los Gatos and Ferndale for moving up on the all-time state list for schools with the most CIF section titles. Both named the Wildcats, the two schools both won their 15th section crowns last season. That is tied for sixth all-time for the state. Los Gatos also is now tied for first among schools in the CIF Central Coast Section with St. Francis of Mountain View. Ferndale is second behind De La Salle in the CIF North Coast Section.

*We also keep track of the highest score for any team in any game for every season. This year, the most reported points came from eventual CIF L.A. City Section Open champ Birmingham of Lake Balboa for its 83-6 win over Taft of Woodland Hills. Sacramento Grant had two 82-point games, but we didn’t see another one higher than 83 (doesn’t mean that there wasn’t one we didn’t see). The bizarre aspect of Taft losing 83-6 to Birmingham is that Taft also had a 78-41 win last season over Grant of Van Nuys and that was the game that QB Devon Conroy passed for nine touchdowns and WR Lior Lesham had seven TD catches plus a kickoff return touchdown.

FOR THE UPDATED ALL-TIME STATE RECORDS FOR BEST SEASONS & HIGHEST SCORES (GOLD CLUB LIST),.
CLICK HERE
FOR THE UPDATED ALL-TIME STATE SINGLE SEASON TOUCHDOWN PASS LEADERS ENTERING THE SEASON (GOLD CLUB LIST), CLICK HERE.

FOR THE LIST OF ALL-TIME UNBEATEN TEAMS FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA (GOLD CLUB), CLICK HERE.

FOR THE LIST OF ALL-TIME UNBEATEN TEAMS FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (GOLD CLUB), CLICK HERE.

FOR THE INDEX PAGE WITH LINKS TO ALL ALL-TIME STATE RECORD LISTS, CLICK HERE.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports