Bay Area’s best: DLS. Serra
It wasn’t necessary for the California Interscholastic Federation to affirm that De La Salle and Serra are the Bay Area’s best teams this season. But it did. De La Salle once again was selected as Northern California’s representative in the Open Division state championship game — no regional in that bracket — and will play Southern Section Division I champion St. John Bosco on Dec. 14 at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Bosco, led by Clemson-bound quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and a slew of other big-time college prospects, rallied from a 28-5 deficit to topple two-time reigning state Open champion Mater Dei 39-34 on Saturday night. De La Salle coaches and some 30 players gathered at their Concord campus to watch the game and eat pizza. Naturally, they were impressed. “Our margin for error is small,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said Sunday. “There is no doubt about it. But we feel like we have a team this year that can compete with anybody. But we’re not looking to go down there and compete. If we’re going to win, we’re going to have to play really well.” Serra was the next Bay Area team taken off the board. But rather than land in the division directly beneath the Open, as some projected, the newly crowned Central Coast Section Division I champion was placed two divisions down from the Open, in Division I-A. Serra, which won the Division 2-AA state title two seasons ago, will be at home Saturday to play Central Section Division II champion San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno. Both will bring 12-1 records to the noon kickoff. Why Oak Ridge against Central-Fresno in Division I-AA and not Serra against Central? “The committee looked at Oak Ridge and Serra as literally 1 and 1-A,” said Brian Seymour, the CIF’s assistant executive director, noting that the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I champion (in most years Folsom, this year Oak Ridge) usually received the 1-AA spot. “We were splitting hairs, going back and forth,” Seymour added. “They all agreed that they liked the matchups. But you can easily have flipped those two.”
Clayton Valley affected by its schedule
When Clayton Valley Charter learned during a tumultuous off-season that it would be playing in the East Bay Athletic League, the players were thrilled. School officials, on the other hand, weren’t so pleased. That attitude had softened by Sunday when the Ugly Eagles (8-5) learned they would play host to Elk Grove (10-4) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in a Division 2-AA NorCal regional. Clayton Valley was picked for one of the premier brackets (Open through 2-A) because of its strength of schedule, beating Campolindo in the NCS Division II championship game and playing in the EBAL. “The beauty of the federation model is that each section gets to determine what works best for their member schools in playoffs,” Seymour said. “Then trying to get that model to fit into the regional, state, the square peg doesn’t always fit in the round hole as well as we would like. But the committee looked at Clayton Valley and said, ‘Hey, look, they played in this league, against these teams, and had to beat a pretty good Campolindo team to advance. They felt like they’re certainly a strong team.” CVC knew it was going to be moved from the Diablo Athletic League in the next realignment, scheduled for this off-season. But the public schools they played against in the DAL felt CVC was too big and too physical for public schools with enrollments under 2,000. “I totally get it,” Uglies coach Tim Murphy said Sunday. “We don’t want to go back to the DAL. It’s just the fact that we were forced to do something.” Murphy is a proponent of a tough schedule. The Eagles played Turlock and Liberty in non-league games this season. They have a rematch with Turlock next year. There also is the EBAL schedule that includes Monte Vista, San Ramon Valley, California and De La Salle. Amador Valley is switching to the tougher Mountain Division in 2020, replacing Foothill, which will go to the Valley Division. “I like playing De La Salle,” Murphy said. “It makes us a better team.”
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McClymonds movin’ on way up
McClymonds is a three-time defending CIF state champion, each time moving up one division to secure its trophy. In 2016, the Warriors won the Division 5-A title. The following season it was the 5-AA crown. Last year it was 4-A. On Sunday, the Warriors (10-0) jumped up four divisions to 2A, where they will welcome Manteca (11-2) on Saturday at 6 p.m. Although the Oakland Athletic League isn’t considered very strong, convincing non-league victories over NCS playoff finalists Marin Catholic, Encinal and Campolindo had a lot to do with Mack’s higher standing. A 55-6 walloping of Downey-Modesto (7-4) also helped. Seymour said the committee tries to be careful about moving teams up too fast for the sake of it, but, he added, “We have kind of learned on this process of competitive-based playoffs that it’s better to be a little bit cautious than it is to be, ‘Oh, they have to move up.’ But the more we placed them on the board against other teams — and then with some lower-seeded teams winning section titles — that kind of changed some matchup issues. It worked out to the point where they ended up being in that 2-A contest.” First impressions make it hard to know what kind of test Manteca will be for McClymonds. While Mack was edging Downey by seven touchdowns, Manteca lost to Downey 54-48 in overtime. Manteca should test Mack’s defense. The Buffaloes are averaging 48.4 points per game. McClymonds has given up 50 points in 10 games. Manteca will run about 60 percent of the time, and it might have to do more against Mack, which plays stifling pass defense.
A fun matchup in Santa Rosa
Los Gatos coach Mark Krail has many years of experience. But he hadn’t had a day in his career quite like Sunday. With his team fresh off winning the CCS Division II championship, which secured the program’s first regional berth, Krail spent the morning trying to figure out where the CIF might place his 12-1 team. About midday, he found out from athletic director Ken Perrotti that the Wildcats would travel to Santa Rosa for a Division 3-AA regional Friday night against North Coast Section Division IV champion Cardinal Newman, also 12-1. “We’re excited,” Krail said. “Obviously not very familiar with teams up that way. But we’ll sit down and take a look at some film and try to figure out how to go about it. It’s all new to us here, so that’s all part of the fun, I guess.” Los Gatos’ lone loss was to Wilcox. Cardinal Newman’s only defeat was to Liberty. How close did either come to landing in one of the divisions that will play state finals at Cerritos College (2-A through Open)? “Both teams were really close to getting into, as we refer to, the Cerritos bowl pattern,” Seymour said. “There were times during the last week where both teams were listed on mock drafts in our committee room as being up in the 2-A.” Cardinal Newman qualified Saturday night when Ethan Kollenborn kicked a 34-yard field goal as time expired to beat Marin Catholic 13-10.
Rounding out the field
For the first time since the CIF expanded its football championships in 2015, section runners-up were no longer allowed to participate. The CCS still put five teams on the board but all were champions from competitive-equity divisions. Santa Cruz won the lowest of those divisions (D-V) and was placed in Division 6-A for the regionals. The Cardinals will play host to NCS Division VII champion Salesian on Saturday night. Milpitas, the CCS Division IV champion, was placed in Division 5-A for the regionals two years after winning a state title in Division 4-A. The Trojans (7-6) will play at Caruthers (13-1) on Saturday night. CCS Division III champion The King’s Academy, led by a coach (Pete Lavorato) who reached a state final twice while at Sacred Heart Prep, will be at home Friday night to play Del Norte in Division 5-AA. Del Notre edged Encinal in the NCS Division V final Saturday night.
