Welcome back to the Bay Area News Group’s high school football roundup.
Here, you’ll find all the details from the weekend’s action in this news organization’s coverage area, which encompasses teams that play in leagues based primarily in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
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On to the roundup …
CCS Open Division championship
No. 1 Serra 63, No. 7 Wilcox 27
Serra built a 49-13 halftime at San Jose City College and a running clock was in use the entire second half as the Padres won their fourth consecutive title in the Central Coast Section’s top division, earning a likely spot in the CIF Open Division championship game on Dec. 9 in Southern California. Wilcox will play Los Gatos for the CCS’s Division I title and a regional spot next week. Glenn Reeves has the game story here.
NCS Open Division championship
No. 1 De La Salle 17, No. 2 San Ramon Valley 7
Quarterback Toa Faavae scored on two keepers in the fourth quarter as De La Salle overcame what had been a four-point deficit to edge San Ramon Valley in the North Coast Section Open Division title game at Dublin High. On a night in which middle linebacker Marco Jones dominated for SRV, DLS celebrated its 31st consecutive section championship. Darren Sabedra has all the details here.
CCS Division I semifinal
No. 4 Los Gatos 21, No. 3 St. Ignatius 17
Los Gatos converted two pivotal fourth-down plays in the second half against host St. Ignatius, including Jaylen Thomas‘ 25-yard pass to Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung on a fake punt from the Los Gatos 32 with 5:11 to play, and returned to the South Bay with a ticket to the CCS Division I final next week against league rival Wilcox. Phill Jensen was in San Francisco and has the recap here.
NCS Division I semifinal
No. 3 Pittsburg 35, No. 5 California 14
Elijah Bow and Jamar Searcy combined for 349 rushing yards and four touchdowns to lead Pittsburg to a victory at home over California in an NCS Division I semifinal. The Pirates will play Open Division runner-up San Ramon Valley for the D-I title next Friday at Dublin High. Joseph Dycus has the story from Pittsburg here.
NCS Division II semifinal
No. 1 El Cerrito 55, No. 5 Heritage 17
Gauchos quarterback Michael Vanhook threw four touchdown passes, three of them to Washington State-bound Kamani Jackson. Heritage (5-7) hung with El Cerrito (11-1) until the third period, but the Gauchos reeled off the last 20 points of the game. In addition to his three touchdown catches, Jackson had a 72-yard pick-six. Gary Youngblood caught a 20-yard touchdown pass and Ziare Eastman had a 10-yard run for six points. El Cerrito will play Windsor (10-1-1) next Friday night at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill for the D-II title. Heritage scored one of its touchdowns on an option pass from running back Ilias Muhammad to quarterback Phillip Babbitt. Chia Nomeh connected on a 35-yard field goal for three more points. It was his second field goal of the season. – Mike Lefkow
CCS Division III semifinal
No. 4 Palma 28, No. 1 Menlo-Atherton 21
The top-seeded Bears led 14-0 in the second quarter, but Palma scored four unanswered touchdowns en route to victory. The game was tied 14-14 at the half, and Palma led 21-14 heading into the fourth quarter. Menlo-Atherton finishes the season at 5-7 while Palma takes an identical but misleading 5-7 record into next week’s title showdown against Alisal or Scott’s Valley, who were playing on Saturday. Although Palma is officially two games under .500, that mark comes about because it had to forfeit three wins for using an ineligible player earlier this season. Palma’s on-field record is 8-4, so the come-from-behind win over Menlo-Atherton hardly qualifies as an upset. Jordan Masuisui scored all three touchdowns for the Bears. The first TD completed a 99-yard drive and put M-A up 7-0. Masuisui also scored on a short run after an Angelo Marin interception. Shortly after Masuisui’s third TD narrowed Palma’s lead to 28-21, the Bears got the ball back with under a minute remaining. But they failed to move the ball and Palma held on for the win. – Mike Lefkow
NCS Division III semifinal
No. 3 Cardinal Newman 54, No. 2 Las Lomas 28
The visiting Cardinals outscored Las Lomas 45-7 over the final two and a half periods after Las Lomas had gone ahead 21-19 on the second touchdown of the game by Sava Pouridis. Zach Homan led Cardinal Newman with four TDs and over 300 yards rushing. This figured to be a tough game for No. 2 seed Las Lomas (10-2). The Knights were a young, inexperienced team coming into the season, and not much was expected. But Las Lomas won its first eight regular season games and wound up losing only once while finishing in a three-way tie for first in the Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division. On Friday night, the lead seesawed back and forth until Homan put Cardinal Newman (11-1) ahead to stay at 27-21 with a touchdown with 2:36 left in the first half. Cardinal Newman built that lead to 47-21 by the end of the third quarter. Las Lomas did score the game’s first points on a touchdown pass from Dylan Thomas to Roman Mercado. – Mike Lefkow
CCS Division IV semifinals
No. 1 Palo Alto 45, No. 5 Leigh 14
Declan Packer threw a touchdown pass and rushed for another and running backs Jeremiah Madrigal and Isaiah Phillips added a touchdown each as Palo Alto advanced to the Division IV title game with a victory at home over Leigh. Nathan Canilao has the game story here.
No. 2 Mountain View 38, No. 3 Branham 34
Arturo Hernandez had a huge game, carrying 23 times for 271 yards and scoring four touchdowns to lead the Spartans into the CCS Division IV championship game. Hernandez had scoring runs of 62, 51 and 60 yards. “He was special,” Mountain View coach Tim Lugo said. “He sets up his blocks, makes people miss.” Mountain View scored 28 points in the second quarter to take a 31-14 lead at halftime and extended it to 38-14 in the third quarter before Branham rallied. In addition to Hernandez’s heroics, Lex Silver caught a touchdown pass from Kevin Conway and Viliami Sekona returned an interception for a touchdown for the Spartans. Gabriel Morgan scored three touchdowns and two two-point conversions for Branham. Elias Antillion scored on a 54-yard run and Jack Lewis connected with Miles Scott on a 23-yard touchdown pass for the Bruins, and Michael Murphy, Dylan Rodriguez and Joel Ruiz-Pineda recovered fumbles. MLB Alex Bucchieri stood out defensively for Mountain View, which will play Palo Alto for the D-IV title. “It will be like an old school SCVAL battle,” Lugo said. “It will be good for the community.” – Glenn Reeves
NCS Division IV semifinal
No. 2 Acalanes 56, No. 3 Vallejo 20
Jack Miller rushed for three touchdowns and Sulli Bailey threw a pair of TD passes for the Dons, who will play for their first NCS football title under coach Floyd Burnsed. Acalanes (8-4) will play San Marin (12-0) next Friday or Saturday at a site that had not been announced as of late Saturday morning. Miller, despite being the Dons’ leading rusher, had only scored one touchdown all season prior to his TD runs of 4, 7 and 2 yards. Bailey threw touchdown passes of 18 yards to Trevor Rogers and 47 yards to Paul Kuhner. Rogers, who will play at Cal in 2024, went over 1,000 yards in receptions for the season Friday night. Acalanes scored the game’s first three touchdowns before Vallejo QB Jasier Smith connected with Sedrick Vaughn on a 56-yard touchdown to make it 21-7. The Dons scored the next 35 points. That included running touchdowns by Niko White, Jack Giorgianni and Deonte Littlejohn. The NCS title game will be the second meeting of the season for Acalanes and San Marin. San Marin beat the Dons 27-20 in what was the season-opener for both schools. Burnsed, who is in his eighth season at Acalanes, will be seeking his sixth NCS championship. He won five titles while coaching at Miramonte in the 1980’s and 90’s. – Mike Lefkow
NCS Division V semifinal
No. 1 Miramonte 34, No. 4 Alhambra 17
Miramonte advanced to the championship game thanks in large part to a stellar game from receiver Jack Quinnild, who had not played on offense for a month because of a sprained thumb. He caught three touchdowns and Andrew Bjornson chipped in a 70-yard touchdown run to give Miramonte a 24-14 lead midway through the third quarter. Alhambra had led 14-7. Miramonte coach Jack Schram said starting running back/linebacker Gabe Roman had to leave the game in the first quarter after getting “a bad cut” on his hand but added that Charlie Hwang and Gabe Savala filled his role well. Rhys Hire made a 31-yard field goal for Miramonte (8-3), which will play the winner of St. Bernard’s and Analy for the title. Alhambra finished 8-3. – Joseph Dycus
CCS Division V semifinal
No. 4 Santa Teresa 27, No. 1 Woodside 20
Quarterback Brenton Gaches scored on a short run in the final minute to break a tie and give Santa Teresa the win. Woodside had rallied from a 20-7 deficit to tie the score 20-20 on an Evan Usher run with about a minute left. But Santa Teresa blocked the extra point, leaving the score tied. The Saints then very quickly drove for the winning score, which was set up by Joseph Tapia’s 65-yard run on a reverse. Tapia also scored on a pick-six and on a 45-yard reception on a pass from Gaches. “He’s our everything,” Santa Teresa coach Steve Papin said of Tapia. Santa Teresa led 14-7 at halftime and extended the lead to 20-7 on Tapia’s interception return. Otherwise, Woodside controlled time of possession in the second half with its single wing offense. Santa Teresa had only two second-half possessions. “They ground-and-pounded us,” Papin said. “Smoke and mirrors, we didn’t know who had the ball. Our defense was on the field so much they got tired.” Usher gained 97 yards on 26 carries. Mason Furtado, employed as the single-wing tailback, rushed for 57 yards and was 2 of 2 passing with a touchdown throw to fullback Jordy Pena, who also had a rushing score. “We went to the single wing to counter the speed they had on defense,” Woodside coach Justin Andrews said. Woodside, which moved up to the PAL El Camino after winning the PAL Lake in 2022, finished 7-5. Santa Teresa (6-6) will play South San Francisco for the CCS Division V title.
No. 3 South San Francisco 11, No. 7 Leland 9
Elijah Fields scored on a 1-yard run on fourth down with around 10 seconds left in the game to give South City the win in an incredible finish. Leland led 9-0 at halftime on the strength of a 27-yard Luke Whitson field goal and a 1-yard run on a quarterback sneak by Jacob Gibson. South San Francisco kicked a field goal in the third quarter to make it 9-3. SSF drove to the Leland 1 in the fourth quarter but was unable to punch it in. Leland took over at that point but three plays later was faced with a fourth down from its own goal line. Having lost both its punter and long snapper earlier in the game, Leland elected to take a safety and be able to free kick from the 20. South City took over on its own side of midfield and drove for the winning score. Sophomore QB Anthony Howell connected with Darren Miller on four pass plays, Marcus Mercurio ran for four yards and Fields for six to the 2 where Howell spiked the ball, setting up the winning TD. Fields finished with 109 yards rushing on 23 carries. Miller had 59 receiving yards. Cornerback Cisco Latu stood out on defense for South City. Chayse Swenson, Diego Vasquez, Brady Hernandez, Carson Defilippis and Jordan Visperas were singled out for praise by Leland coach Kelly King Jr. PAL Lake champion South San Francisco (11-1), two years removed from having no varsity football team, advanced to the CCS championship game against Santa Teresa. Leland finishes 4-8.
NCS Division VI semifinal
No. 3 Salesian 26, No. 2 Moreau Catholic 15
Marcus Burke threw two touchdown passes, one to Carlton Perrilliat and the other to Marco Turqueza, as Salesian won on the road over Moreau Catholic to advance to the Division VI championship game next week against No. 1 seed St. Vincent de Paul or No. 4 Fortuna. The Pride also got touchdown runs by Carnatic Blakely and Luis DeJesus as it ended Moreau’s season for the second consecutive year in the playoffs. Moreau had beaten Salesian 23-21 in September. Joe Tarin had an interception for Salesian, which improved to 10-2. Moreau finished 6-6. — Darren Sabedra
Source: www.mercurynews.com