WR Chris Olave and team at Mission Hills of San Marcos impressed once again with 35-7 win against Carlsbad. Photo: Patrick Takkinen/SoCalSidelines.com.
No. 1 Mater Dei and No. 2 St. John Bosco cruise in Saturday night specials, but Mater Dei’s opponent more highly ranked. No. 4 De La Salle also plays on Saturday and dominated in desert by Las Vegas Bishop Gorman. On Friday, No. 5 Mission Viejo beat No. 6 Long Beach Poly in the biggest game of the night. We also had No. 3 Centennial of Corona blasting No. 8 Narbonne and a few teams having to scramble to avoid upsets.
Note: On Monday mornings each week, look for a brand new State Top 50 set of football rankings that won’t simply be a list. We’ll have insights and breakdowns based on more than 40 years of going to Friday night games with an overview of the state’s top teams and what’s coming up that just can’t be matched. Each new set of rankings will be for Gold Club members only. The late Friday/Weekend Scoreboards will be free posts and will provide snippets of info, comments and more for the Top 25 teams within the Top 50.
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(Rankings based on last week’s State Top 50 released last Monday)
(Through reported results of Saturday night, Sept. 16)
1. Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 4-0
Defeated Bergen Catholic (N.J.) 62-14 on Saturday night at Mission Viejo. Bergen was expected to be strong this season but lost in previous game 27-21 to Archbishop Wood (Warminster, Pa.). Amon-Ra Brown returned to lineup for MD and caught first of five TD passes thrown by J.T. Daniels.
2. St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 3-1
Defeated Dorsey (Los Angeles) 69-14 Saturday also at Mission Viejo. Dorsey was 0-2 so it went about as expected. Braves are in Washington DC next week to play St. John’s (team that lost 34-31 recently to De La Salle).
3. Centennial (Corona) 3-1
Defeated No. 8 Narbonne (Harbor City) 52-3. Huskies were back at full strength with Tanner McKee at QB. DB Chris Venable helped seal the deal with a pick six.
Ryan Kennedy helped Mission Viejo post road win Friday against Long Beach Poly. Photo: Dan Albano/Orange County Register.
4. De La Salle (Concord) 3-1
LOST 34-7 at Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) in Saturday battle of nationally ranked heavyweights. Gorman wasn’t going to lose three in a row and at home after 55-game win streak snapped by Mater Dei. Spartans scored first, but then turned it over twice to help the Gaels take control. Central (Fresno) playing DLS next Saturday. Central is 3-0 and rolling in CIF Central Section and remember CIF can pick a Central Section team to be in north so this one will have CIF Open implications.
5. Mission Viejo 4-0
Defeated No. 6 Long Beach Poly 12-7 at Veterans Stadium. We thought it was a good time to run feature on Olaijah Griffin we did for SportStars Magazine on the site on Thursday. He ended up stealing the show with a go-ahead 57-yard interception return TD.
6. Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 2-1
LOST to No. 5 Mission Viejo 12-7. Matt Corral tossed three interceptions that derailed several promising drives. Poly was ranked in the top 10 in at least one national ranking.
7. Folsom 4-0
Defeated Sacramento 28-19 at venerable Hughes Stadium. Bulldogs may have one of the state’s top sophs as WR Elijah Badger looked great on two TD receptions from junior QB Kaiden Bennett. They avenged an upset loss to Dragons from last season.
8. Narbonne (Harbor City) 2-1
LOST to No. 3 Centennial (Corona) 52-3. Still may take many weeks to see how much better big three of SoCal are compared to everyone else, but this loss should at least drop Gauchos behind all six of the Trinity League squads.
9. (9) Rancho Cucamonga 2-0
Defeated Bishop Amat (La Puente) 31-7. Yes, we did pick Amat in our upset special for this game. Wrong move and congrats to Cougars for impressive win. Amat may have fallen to 0-4, but this was bigger loss than Lancers had to JSerra or Loyola Academy of Illinois (a state finalist there last season).
10. Calabasas 3-0
Defeated Pacifica (Oxnard) 48-29. The schedule still doesn’t get tough for the Coyotes for two weeks when they have to play Valencia.
11. Chaminade (West Hills) 3-1
Defeated Bakersfield 43-14. Michael Wilson had three TDs for the Eagles. We commented in last week’s rankings that Calabasas was higher-ranked locally, but didn’t see that Eagles actually were still higher and didn’t drop after loss to St. John Bosco. We’ll flip that back in this week’s upcoming rankings.
12. Lutheran (Orange) 4-0
Defeated Norco 41-28. Another interesting game coming up for Lancers next week against another Inland Empire squad: 4-0 Heritage.
Players from Valencia celebrate after big win against Newbury Park. Photo: @VHSVikingsFball/Twitter.com.
13. Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 4-0
Defeated Mayfair (Lakewood) 49-3 in game played Thursday. Chad Magyar churned our 195 yards on 18 carries and scored three times. Up next is a showdown with Mission Viejo, which probably will necessitate a decent jump in next rankings.
14. JSerra (San Juan Capistrano) 4-0
Defeated Vista Murrieta (Murrieta) 26-9. Lions host Los Alamitos next week.
15. Servite (Anaheim) 4-0
Defeated Villa Park 47-14. The Spartans were 2-0 and this was one of Orange County’s featured games.
16. Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills) 4-0
Defeated Reed (Sparks, Nev.) 24-21. This avenged a loss that the Trojans suffered last year to recent Nevada largest class state finalist.
17. San Clemente 4-0
Defeated Murrieta Valley (Murrieta) 62-27. Brendan Costello completed 14 of 17 passes for 213 yards and four TDs. This was a rematch of 2016 CIFSS D2 final and it wasn’t that close.
18. Valencia 2-0
Defeated Newbury Park 48-7. This was a team not in the Top 25 but in the Top 50. Our friend Evan Barnes of L.A. Daily News had Moises Haynes with 145 rushing yards and three TDs and Connor Downs with 206 passing yards and four scores.
19. Serra (Gardena) 1-2
Did not play. Cavaliers are on a bye.
20. St. Francis (Mountain View) 2-1
Did not play. Lancers are on a bye. Start West Catholic Athletic League play next week at Valley Christian.
21. Mission Hills (San Marcos) 4-0
Defeated Carlsbad 35-7. TD connections are continuing for Jack Tuttle and Chris Olave. Grizzlies handled team that was 3-0 and had recent win vs. St. Augustine.
22. San Ramon Valley (Danville) 3-0
Defeated Dougherty Valley (San Ramon) 56-0. Tough game coming up next week at 3-0 California (San Ramon).
23. Granite Bay 4-0
Defeated Vacaville 21-20. Blake Peterson’s TD run with 9:30 left gave Grizzlies a 21-20 lead and they held on when Vacaville missed field goal with 10 seconds left. Vacaville also lost a one-point game earlier this season to state-ranked Oak Ridge.
24. Central (Fresno) 4-0
Defeated Ridgeview (Bakersfield) 56-3. What is it with all these Grizzlies? Central is another one. The team’s next game is Sept. 23 at De La Salle.
25. Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 3-1
Defeated Alemany (Mission Hills) 30-24. The Warriors got it down to the Oaks 38-yard line in the closing seconds, but were stopped by the Lions.
TEAMS ON THE BUBBLE
Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 3-0
Defeated St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 56-7.
Central Catholic (Modesto) 2-0
Bye. Did not play.
Citrus Hill (Perris) 4-0
Defeated Rancho Verde (Moreno Valley) 21-13.
Edison (Huntington Beach) 3-1
Defeated San Juan Hills (SJ Capistrano) 28-0.
Freedom (Oakley) 4-0
Defeated San Leandro 40-28.
Helix (La Mesa) 2-1
Defeated Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 39-0.
Heritage (Menifee) 4-0
Defeated Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 50-29.
Lompoc 4-0
Defeated Santa Barbara 56-0 on Saturday.
Madison (San Diego) 4-0
Defeated Dixie (St. George, Utah) 24-14.
Manteca 3-0
Bye. Did not play.
Milpitas 3-0*
Defeated Salinas 27-0.
Paraclete (Lancaster)
Defeated Burroughs (Ridgecrest) 56-28.
Pittsburg 2-1
Defeated Berkeley 62-20.
St. Mary’s (Stockton) 3-1
Defeated Cosumnes Oaks (Elk Grove) 42-21 Saturday.
Upland 4-0
Defeated La Mirada 49-7.
Valley Christian (San Jose) 2-1
Bye. Did not play.
Westlake (Westlake Village)
Defeated Birmingham (Lake Balboa) 40-21
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