Mater Dei improved to 5-3 in No. 1 vs No. 2 national rankings matchups since the first one that the Monarchs were in, which was in 2017 and also against Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas. They won that one, 35-21, and snapped Gorman’s 55-game winning streak. Photo/Image: @SCNext / X.com.
For this week, there wasn’t a game we could get to on Friday night so what we saw comes from hitting the internet for three hours looking for highlights from the very top-ranked teams. State and national No. 1 Mater Dei of Santa Ana and NorCal No. 1 De La Salle of Concord both won in showdown matchups. No. 4 Orange Lutheran also topped a nationally ranked opponent and heads to Las Vegas next week to face the Bishop Gorman team that just lost to Mater Dei.
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The very first matchup of teams that were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation came in 2001 before many of the media groups who currently do national rankings (like MaxPreps or Scorebook Live) were in existence.
It wasn’t hard to see it coming when the 2000 season had ended. De La Salle of Concord had been No. 1 in the nation according to the FOX FAB 50 and had won 113 straight games. Long Beach Poly of Long Beach had won the CIF Southern Section top divisional championship with a 14-0 record and was No. 2 in the state and near the top nationally. Both teams were returning top players. When the game was set up for early October of the following season, the FOX FAB 50 preseason national rankings (led by National High School Hall of Famer Doug Huff and yours truly) came out first and had DLS at No. 1 and Poly at No. 2. USA Today had the most reach on national rankings at the time and when its first rankings came out it had Long Beach Poly No. 1 and DLS at No. 2.
There had been a coaching change at Poly before that season began with new head coach Raul Lara taking over for previous head coach Jerry Jaso. Lara’s team in 2001 began as expected and headed into its matchup vs De La Salle with a perfect record. The Spartans, who were under the direction of head coach Bob Ladouceur from 1979 to 2012, seemed outmatched when the teams began to warmup and why not? The Jackrabbits had 28 future D1 players on the roster plus five eventual Parade Magazine All-Americans. But De La Salle’s coaches had not let anyone know of a certain player they were planning to unleash on Poly and that player, junior running back Maurice Drew (now known more famously as former NFL rushing leader Maurice Jones-Drew), had four touchdowns in a 29-15 victory at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.
The honorary captain for Mater Dei for its game vs Bishop Gorman was Major Billy C. Hall, believed to be the last living veteran who joined the military before World War II. He also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Photo: @MDFootball / X.com.
Lara is now in his first season as the new head coach at Mater Dei of Santa Ana, a team he battled for many years for CIFSS titles during his run at Poly through the 2013 season. And on Friday night at the Santa Ana Bowl, Lara had a much more enjoyable experience coaching in a matchup of teams that were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation. It was the first time he’d been in one of them since that night against De La Salle. The Monarchs, who as a team have been in No. 1 vs No. 2 national rankings matchups several times in recent years in their matchups with league rival St. John Bosco, posted a statement win by a 31-15 score over Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas. The Gaels also had a 27-game winning streak snapped.
Some rankings had Bishop Gorman No. 1 entering the game (since it was unbeaten last season and had key wins over Kahuku of Hawaii and Corona Centennial) while others had Mater Dei No. 1 (which probably was the better team at the end of last season despite a 23-0 loss earlier to St. John Bosco). Former Mater Dei head coach Frank McManus also added fuel to the fire with a postgame shout out after the Monarchs won the CIFSS D1 title over St. John Bosco. Coach McManus was clearly focused on wanting to play Bishop Gorman.
This year’s Monarchs only had one game under their belts entering the Friday game at home and in that game there was a lot of sloppiness despite a 42-25 triumph over Centennial of Corona. They still committed a bunch of penalties, but the offense was humming under quarterback Dash Beierly and running back Jordon Davison.
Beierly directed two early scoring drives that gave Mater Dei a 14-0 lead. Davison ended the first one on a 2-yard TD run. Beierly threw a 12-yard TD pass to Chris Henry Jr. on the second one on a contested catch along the sideline. According to the Orange County Register, Henry had his knee wrapped after the game.
The Gaels were only down 14-7 at halftime after outscoring the Monarchs 7-0 in the second quarter. To start the third quarter, though, Mater Dei reassumed command with a scoring drive that ended with a 23-yard TD run by Davison. After a stop, the next Monarchs’ drive chewed up clock and resulted in a 26-yard field goal by Dominic Zante. An interception by C.J. Lavender then got the ball back again and that followed by an 11-yard TD run by Trenton Dunn and that was it for Gorman.
Beierly, committed to Washington and a transfer from Chaparral of Temecula, ended 13 of 15 for 99 yards passing and he had 49 yards rushing.
The Monarchs have a tough upcoming week since they will have to insert a long trip to Hawaii into their plans. They will be facing the same Kahuku team next Saturday that beat St. John Bosco when it played there last season. Gorman will be back home and will play Orange Lutheran, another highly ranked team from the same Trinity League that Mater Dei and St. John Bosco play in.
MORE MAJOR SCORES FROM AROUND THE STATE ON FRIDAY NIGHT
(Note: State No. 2 St. John Bosco of Bellflower and No. 9 Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth played each other on Saturday night with SJB taking a 38-28 victory)
Lutheran (Orange) 15, St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Md.) 13
The visiting team from the East Coast has been ranked higher than the Lancers in national polls and like the Trinity League teams in California tends to collect numerous D1 players from a wide area of people. Despite the closeness of the score, it was an impressive win for OLu, which has been No. 4 in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings behind only Mater Dei, Bosco and Mission Viejo.
The Lancers’ defense, in fact, did not give up a touchdown. The St. Frances scores came on a blocked field goal return and an interception return. Despite giving up the pick six, QB T.J. Lateef had a good night for OLu. He went 16 of 22 passing for 171 yards, including a 5-yard TD pass to Tyler Hennessey. He also completed passes late in the game that picked up first down as St. Frances was looking to get the ball back for possible game-winning score.
Jayden Nicholas had a game-turning TD catch for De La Salle against Serra and also made plays on both sides of the ball in first game vs Grant (Sacramento). Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
De La Salle (Concord) 39, Serra (San Mateo) 10
The battle for the NorCal berth in the CIF Open Division state championship is far from over, but the Spartans are now clearly in the driver’s seat after their big win on Friday night at home over Serra, combined with Serra getting a 22-21 win last week over Folsom (still heavy favorite to win another CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title).
The game turned late in the second quarter. De La Salle, which lost to the Padres in San Mateo last season 28-0 as Serra was on its way to a third straight section title and third straight CIF Open Division state final appearance, was only ahead 7-3. The Padres had marched down the field with a power run game and were looking to score for a halftime lead. Instead, there was a fumble that DLS recovered at the 6-yard line.
Instead of taking a knee and going into halftime with the 7-3 lead, Derrick Blanche broke loose for 47-yard run out to midfield. Then with just 11 seconds left before halftime, Toa Faavae connected on a deep ball to the speedy Jayden Nicholas for a 46-yard touchdown. Just like that, it was a 14-3 contest.
The Spartans’ defense then got a stop to start the second half, which was followed by a touchdown from senior Dominic Kelley (who had two in the game). A 43-yard touchdown run later in the third quarter from another of the DLS track speedsters, junior Jaden Jefferson, put the game out of reach.
De La Salle (2-0) plays at home next week to 2-0 St. Francis of Mountain View. The Padres, meanwhile, will have their home opener against (gulp) St. John Bosco.
JSerra (SJ Capistrano) 35, Clovis North (Fresno) 6
In last year’s run-up to the CIF NorCal Open Division selection, Clovis North was a factor because it had gone 13-0 in winning the CIF Central Section D1 title that included an early season win over JSerra. That’s not going to happen again after the Lions won in the return match on Friday in Orange County.
JSerra, which moved up into the top five of the state rankings after a win in its first game over Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth (preseason No. 4 in the state), received a huge jolt against the Broncos on the opening kickoff when Logan Christensen brought it back for a 99-yard touchdown. Junior QB Ryan Hopkins also had another strong outing. He ended with three TD passes and one TD run.
JSerra now goes from playing the top-ranked team from a CIF section to playing perhaps the best from another one. That would be Lincoln of San Diego, which will be the Lions’ opponent next Friday at Southwest College (Lincoln’s home field).
Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 42, Liberty (Bakersfield) 3
The only loss for a team from the Trinity League so far this year is the Eagles’ falling to state No. 3 Mission Viejo in their first game (Mission’s second). They bounced back in a major way to handle Corona Centennial, which is why they moved up in last week’s state rankings to a spot behind only MD, Bosco, Mission Viejo, Orange Lutheran and JSerra.
Liberty came into the night at 2-0 after a solid 38-14 win in its second game over Clovis West of Fresno. The Lions got nothing going against Santa Margarita. The SM defense also came up with four interceptions, two by Luke Anderson. James Johnson led the Eagles on offense as he went 11 of 17 passing for 260 yards and five TDs. Both Trent Mosley and Jack Junker caught two TD passes.
Newbury Park 36, Pacifica (Oxnard) 3
The Panthers are still considered medium schools for our state rankings, but looked like a large school juggernaut with an impressive win over a Pacifica team that also was in last week’s State TOP 50 rankings. Newbury Park (3-0) scored on its second play on a 65-yard run by junior QB Brady Smigiel, who is more known as a pocket passer. The Panthers also scored on their second series on a 1-yard run by Kyon Booker and were off and running. The defense shut down Pacifica with three interceptions. Smigiel ended with three TD passes to go with his long TD run.
St. Bonaventure (Ventura) 43, Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) 34
This was a matchup in which one of the top ranked preseason teams from Northern California headed down to play a top 25 state-ranked team from SoCal. The Crusaders did their best to try to come back from a 28-7 deficit in the third quarter, but came up short and showed that their defense will have to figure out how to get stops against top opponents (especially one like league rival Serra of San Mateo). Koen Glover had another outstanding game for the Seraphs. According to stats posted on MaxPreps, he finished with 18 carries for 202 yards and four TDs.
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
2 Comments
Thank you for the recap—enjoyed reading it. No more State Top 25 Scoreboard?
Looks like it doesn’t matter who coaches at Mater Dei. You had Rollie. Then you had McManus. Now you have Lara.