With no problems at the top of the order and teams setting up showdown games for league titles, there was plenty of difficulty toward the bottom. Three new teams broke into the first 25 with two of them – Cosumnes Oaks and Tracy – going in for the first time all season.
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It will be No. 2 Folsom and No. 4 Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills meeting this Friday for the Sierra Foothill League title and No. 8 Pitman of Turlock facing No. 9 Turlock for the Central California Conference title in showdown games coming up in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.
Folsom has a loss to Sacramento this season, but since then has been looking like a team ready to defend four straight Division I section titles, including last Friday’s 47-14 win against Rocklin. Oak Ridge kept pace by beating Nevada Union of Grass Valley 35-14 and still has lost only to Reed of Sparks, Nev. Reed also is 8-1 with its loss to California state-ranked Clayton Valley of Concord.
Tracy soph RB Mason Sarsfield was one of the top three performers last February at the NorCal Elite Training Academy All-Star Sports Combine. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Pitman has had close games, such as 7-6 over Napa and 29-26 over Lincoln of Stockton, but hasn’t lost and has crept up in the rankings in recent weeks. Turlock enters at 7-2, but one of its losses (41-6) came in the first week to a Freedom of Oakley team that is unbeaten and now in the top 15 in the state with its other loss in overtime to a Clovis team that at the time was No. 1-ranked in the CIF Central Section.
While those league finales were being set up nicely, resulting in few changes in the top 15 of this week’s section rankings, there was reshuffling in the next positions.
New No. 21 Cosumnes Oaks improved to 6-3 with a 39-20 win over previous No. 25 Whitney of Rocklin. After this week’s results, the Wolfpack also can say their losses are all to higher ranked opponents – St. Mary’s of Stockton, Antelope and Roseville.
Even at 4-5, Tracy also had to go in after the Bulldogs trounced previous No. 20 Lincoln of Stockton 49-20. Tracy also has a loss to state-ranked Freedom of Oakley and two other losses to CIF North Coast Section teams (San Ramon Valley and Liberty of Brentwood), but its two other losses are to higher-ranked St. Mary’s and Turlock.
While this is the first team all season that Cosumnes Oaks and Tracy have been in the top 25 for the section, new No. 24 American Canyon is returning. The Wolves dropped out after a 24-21 loss to Vanden, but Vanden then lost to a Benicia team that they beat 63-21 earlier in the season. American Canyon also still has quality wins over Vintage of Napa and Inderkum of Sacramento.
(After games of Saturday, Oct. 29)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
1. (1) St. Mary’s (Stockton) 8-1
2. (2) Folsom 8-1
3. (3) Sacramento 8-1
4. (4) Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills) 8-1
5. (5) Elk Grove 8-1
6. (6) Central Catholic (Modesto) 7-2
7. (7) Del Oro (Loomis) 7-2
8. (8) Pitman (Turlock) 9-0
9. (9) Turlock 8-2
10. (10) Manteca 8-1
11. (13) Antelope 9-0
12. (11) Sonora 9-0
13. (14) Napa 6-3
14. (16) Sheldon (Sacramento) 7-2
15. (17) Grant (Sacramento) 7-2
16. (18) Vacaville 6-3
17. (21) Roseville 8-1
18. (23) Jesuit (Carmichael) 6-3
19. (12) Oakdale 7-2
20. (15) Davis 4-6
21. (NR) Cosumnes Oaks (Elk Grove) 6-3
22. (NR) Tracy 4-5
23. (19) Monterey Trail (Elk Grove) 5-4
24. (NR) American Canyon 8-1
25. (24) Rocklin 4-6
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 20 Lincoln (Stockton); No. 22 Woodcreek (Roseville); No. 25 Whitney (Rocklin).
8 Comments
Final regular season ranking has Folsom v Oak Ridge winner number 1 in section. SM drops to number 2 & seeded behind that team. My future thought. IJS LoL Can’t wait til playoffs to watch the Rams!
Only way that happens is if Folsom wins 40-0 and Lincoln gives St. Mary’s a scare. What do you think the odds of that happening are?
Hahaha great point Mr. Tennis. In all due respect for the opposition, that IS NOT going to happen. Do you think the SJS could benefit from a “Open” playoff bracket?
They already have it in a sense by moving up the D2 league champion teams into D1. The SJS teams and everyone else in NorCal just needs DLS to finally lose so the historical fact of having not lost to a NorCal team north of Fresno for 25 years can’t be made anymore.
SM will drop 70 on Lincoln…. Lincoln may score 14-21 on the 3rd string D.. and thats a maybe…
Everyone that has watched SM blow through league understands that SM coaching staff has let off the gas before haltime, against Central Catholic, West, Tracy, Lodi and Tokay… could have easily put up 70+ BUT CHOSE NOT TO.
that wont happen this week!!!
The only 3 teams to score on First D were
Serra
Cardinal newman
Bosco.. all FORMIDABLE OPPONENTS and great programs
Cosumnes scored 20 points on 3rd string D
Tokay scored 8
West and Lodi got shut out..Tracy scored 21 on St Marys 2nd-3rd string… not a single point on first string D
and Tracy beat the >> blankety blank blank out of Lincoln…
wont happen this week. GO RAMS!!!
Mind boggling. Folsom lost a head to head game against Sacramento on their home field, yet are ranked ahead of them despite Sac not losing since first game of the season.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Can you please explain the logic behind that? Not that the rankings matter, but are you ranking based on history? I thought head to head trumps all in situations like this. Please explain.
There are situations where head-to-head results in our rankings are trumped by other factors. Folsom, for one, has beaten a number of other ranked teams since then, including Del Oro, while Sac has played no one. Second, Sac’s win over Folsom was controversial to say the least. Not like it was a blowout. Third, in our rankings, Sac still has to be behind JSerra of SoCal. That was a 35-7 blowout. And JSerra isn’t even going to win a game in the Trinity League down there. It’s just much easier right now to rank Folsom higher (and in the the State Top 25), especially if it beats Oak Ridge too. At some point, we would bring Sac in and go against its head-to-head loss to JSerra. And if both Sac and Folsom win section titles (D2 and D1) then at that point the Dragons would be higher on the CIF bowl board and also would be higher in the rankings based on the head-to-head.