Senior QB Toa Faavae leads the De La Salle players through the handshake line of Grant players following the team’s win over the Pacers on Friday. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
Big win for the Spartans in their first game Friday at home ended up being a prelude for a bigger one next week against Serra of San Mateo, but for someone who was clued in to both schools in the decade of the 2000s and even back to the 1990s it was a first-time matchup that had a lot of history attached to it. De La Salle junior Duece Jones-Drew also had a historical moment with a 64-yard TD run on just his second-ever carry and the Spartans never looked back.
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During the decade of the 2000s it was quite normal to go to two or three or sometime four football games each season to see the teams at De La Salle of Concord and Grant of Sacramento. DLS, of course, started the decade with the longest win streak in national history and didn’t suffer the streak being snapped until 2004. Grant had some of the most talent-laden teams in CIF Sac-Joaquin Section history, particularly in the later years of the decade when current Carolina Panthers’ linebacker Shaq Thompson was leading the way.
Almost every time in going to a Grant game in those years it seemed as if one of the school’s supporters offered frustration as to why the Pacers never had the opportunity to take on the Spartans.
