What We Saw: SD Lincoln at Grant

Two schools that one coach called “mirror images” of each other met in a matchup on Friday in Sacramento of highly ranked teams within the CIF San Diego Section & CIF Sac-Joaquin Section. The visitors from Lincoln High of San Diego flexed their muscles with a 49-16 win over Grant. Both teams are to be commended not only for finding each other to play, but for the overall schedules that they set up this season.

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One way to watch many of the best teams in the state is to travel by plane, train or automobile more than 400 miles south from our Stockton home office to attend the biggest games when many of those top teams play each other. Another, much more cost effective way to do that is to see top teams when they travel to the north.

Entering this Friday’s matchups, we had already seen Long Beach Poly playing at Folsom and St. John Bosco of Bellflower playing at Serra of San Mateo. We can now check off Lincoln of San Diego playing at Grant of Sacramento.

The Hornets (3-2), ranked No. 15 overall in the Cal-Hi Sports State TOP 50 and No. 1 in the CIF San Diego Section, had too many playmakers and took advantage of four first-half turnovers by the Pacers to post a 49-19 victory. Grant, ranked No. 33 overall and No. 2 in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section, fell to 3-3 overall.

The game also marked the season debut of junior RB Junior Curtis, who played last season at Madison (San Diego) and went through a sit-out period to become eligible at Lincoln. He led the Hornets with eight carries for 130 yards and two TDs, according to stats from Lincoln statistician Brian Crusoe. Leading rusher Aden Jackson had 14 carries for 84 yards and two TDs while Oregon-bound QB Akili Smith Jr. didn’t need to throw that much but still ended 6 of 13 for 144 yards and one score.

“We are getting a little tired of the travel,” said Lincoln head coach David Dunn, whose team has played at Long Beach Poly and at Coronado of Las Vegas previously and will not play a San Diego Section team still until a game on Oct. 11 vs. Point Loma (next week vs Los Alamitos). “But we’ve been executing and that’s a testament to the type of program we want to become.”

Grant lost its third of the season, but its other two losses also were to top 25 teams in the state.

“We were dealing with the mystique of De La Salle, the precision of Clovis East and now it was all of the athletes that Lincoln has,” said Grant head coach Carl Reed. “They have all been different variations of adversity that we’ve had to face.”

The game began very well for Grant. On the fifth play of the game, QB Luke Alexander found sophomore WR Koby Shabazz across the middle, who broke one tackle and hit the end zone for a 59-yard touchdown. The Pacers weren’t able to break any more big plays in the game of more than 20 yards.

Lincoln tied the score at 7-7 on its second possession as Smith hit on a 39-yard TD pass to Isaiah Grant. The Hornets then took a 14-7 lead on the fourth play of Grant’s ensuing series as Cammeron Purnell grabbed an interception near the Grant sidelines and a found a convoy of blockers on the other sideline and raced for a 45-yard touchdown.

In the second quarter, a short punt by the Pacers and a fumble recovery by Dylon Dunn set up Lincoln for 40-yard and 43-yard scoring drives. Jackson scored on a 11-yard run and Curtis had a 2-yard run for those touchdowns.

Grant had a 25-yard field goal to end the second quarter by sophomore Jose Romero to make it a 28-10 score at halftime. The Pacers then had a chance to cut into the deficit again in the third quarter but a drive was stopped at the Lincoln 20-yard line on a fourth down incomplete pass. Lincoln then put the game away on a 90-yard drive that included a 90-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Grant that was called back. Curtis had runs of 20 and 14 yards and then took a carry for a 49-yard touchdown.

The lead was extended to 42-10 later in the third quarter after another Lincoln interception (its fourth of the game). Jackson got his second TD of the game on a 1-yard run after a 17-yard pass from Smith to Joshua Newbern set it up at the 3-yard line.

Grant scored twice in the fourth quarter to make the score look more respectable, the first of those on a 2-yard run by Leon Martin. The Pacers were able to make some plays and could pick up first downs in their run game vs the Hornet defense. The turnovers and double-digit penalties (Lincoln was in double-digits for penalties as well) just ruined the night.

Lincoln’s final touchdown came a 2-yard reception from back-up QB Jordan Roa to Ty Olsen. It was obvious the Hornets were trying to get a TD catch for Olsen, who played previously at Del Norte of San Diego where he had 39 TD catches in three varsity seasons. Olsen had the sixth of this season on Friday and moved into second place on the all-time section list at 45 but still needs 20 to reach record holder Mozes Mooney from Bishop’s of La Jolla set in 2017. Olsen also already has career totals for TD catches, yards and receptions that will put him on the all-time state lists. Mooney holds all three of those section records and the best chance for Ty to break one of them is going to be for yards. Mooney’s mark in that category is 3,954. Olsen went over 3,700 on Friday.

In seeing the matchup when it was first posted on the two teams’ X/Twitter feeds for this season on Sept. 27, the first thought was about how similar that Lincoln and Grant are in many ways within their local communities. It’s not just the demographics, either. Lincoln was formed in the 1950s, Grant is even older than that. Both have had great football success, including Lincoln with two Super Bowl MVPs in Marcus Allen and Terrell Davis and Grant with current NFL players Shaq Thompson and Carl Granderson and former NFL running back Devontae Booker. We saw Lincoln win a CIF state title in 2022 over De La Salle and we saw Grant win a CIF state title in 2008 over Long Beach Poly.

Unfortunately, the connection between the schools runs deeper than that. Both have lost football players to gun violence. In 2015, as many who follow Sacramento TV news remember, senior J.J. Clavo of the Pacers was shot and killed in a car after getting a pre-game meal and was just blocks from the school. J.J.’s mother, Nicole Clavo, happens to be from San Diego and is a Lincoln High alum.

“Grant has had to deal with a lot of the same stuff that we do,” Dunn said. “Both of our schools have a lot of common struggles and have been mirror images of each other.”

“We talked more than a year ago to try to make this happen and it almost did then, but it came down to when we had our forfeit with McClatchy,” Reed said. “They also have issues down there of finding games. We’re going to go down there next season and it’s good to see more games like this.”

Dunn was still perplexed by his team’s first loss to Arbor View of Las Vegas by one point and knows that a 28-19 loss to state No. 4 JSerra was nothing to be perplexed about (its win over Sierra Canyon was by an even greater margin). The Hornets may not be quite as good as their 2022 squad that won the CIF D1-AA state title, but they have room for improvement and certainly have enough firepower to win the CIF San Diego Section Open Division title.

Grant will now turn its attention to a new alignment of teams in their old Metro League. West Park of Roseville (6-0) could be a threat, but hasn’t played any opponent even close to De La Salle, Clovis East or Lincoln. The Pacers also this season will be up in the SJS D2 playoffs (compared to D3 last year) where St. Mary’s of Stockton, Rocklin, Manteca and others exist. St. Mary’s followed up its 38-35 loss last week to De La Salle with a 56-21 win on Friday over Bishop Amat of La Puente. We don’t know how computers and a seeding committee will do it, but we will likely have St. Mary’s highest ranked among those teams entering the playoffs.

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