NorCal Top 10: De La Salle First, Central East Fifth, and All Ten Open Friday

De La Salle Is First, and the Last Thing It Did Was Lose by 34

Ranking De La Salle first in Northern California is obvious right up until you look at the last game it played.

The Spartans went 12-1 and won a 33rd straight North Coast Section title, beating Pittsburg 24-17 in the Open Division final on Nov. 21. Twenty-two days later they went to Saddleback College and lost the state Open Division final to Santa Margarita 47-13. They were outgained 377-180 and held to 70 yards on 34 plays in a first half that ended 35-7.

Nobody in the north has been better since, because nobody in the north has played. Duece Jones-Drew is back for a senior year after committing to UCLA in May, where his father Maurice was an All-American. Jaden Jefferson is not. The sprinter who scored both De La Salle touchdowns in that final, and who ran 10.01 to break the California 100 meter record, is a freshman at North Carolina now.

The schedule is the interesting part. De La Salle opens Friday at Serra of San Mateo, third on this board. Cardinal Newman comes to Concord on Sept. 4 and St. Mary's of Stockton hosts on Sept. 18. On Sept. 26 the Spartans play Corona Centennial at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley at two in the afternoon, in a doubleheader De La Salle is calling the 151 Football Showcase after the win streak.

Folsom Is Second and Has the Best Argument Against That

Folsom went 14-1 and won the state Division 1-AA championship, beating Cathedral Catholic 42-28 at Saddleback on the Friday night before De La Salle lost on the same field. It was Folsom's sixth state title in seven trips to a state final, and the only loss in that set came to this same Cathedral Catholic program in 2021. Brody Rudnicki accounted for all six touchdowns in the final, four of them running, and the quarterback is back for a senior year with a Cal commitment in hand.

The Bulldogs also own the two results that shaped the bottom half of this board. They beat Grant 51-13 on ESPN to open last August, and they beat Archbishop Riordan 42-38 in the Northern California Division 1-AA final in December, which is the game that gave Riordan its only loss.

De La Salle and Folsom do not play this year. Both are on our national board, De La Salle 37th and Folsom 44th, and the only place that argument can be settled on grass is December.

Serra at Three Is the Number We Have to Answer For

Serra went 8-6.

It gets worse before it gets better. Two of the teams below Serra on this board beat Serra last fall, and one of them did it twice. Archbishop Riordan, fourth here, won in the West Catholic Athletic League 42-35 and then took the Central Coast Section Open Division final 33-13 on Nov. 21. St. Mary's of Stockton, ninth here, beat Serra 31-24 in the Northern California Division 2-AA final on Dec. 5. Serra's own trophy from the fall is the Central Coast Division 1 title, a tier below Riordan's, won 28-21 over Los Gatos a week after the Open loss.

That is the case against, all of it, and we are not going to pretend it is smaller than it is.

The case for is the roster. Serra started six juniors last fall who are seniors now: Caleb Bandel at quarterback, Jeovanni Henley at running back, Jace Cannon at tight end, Charlie Walsh at receiver, Malakai Taufoou at safety and Dylan Modena at linebacker. Patrick Walsh has coached all six into a third varsity season. Riordan is going the other way. Mike Mitchell Jr. is a freshman quarterback at Stanford, and there is no version of the Crusaders that does not feel that.

We think the team that returns is better than the team that beat it. Friday is the fastest possible test, because De La Salle comes to San Mateo.

Riordan at Four Goes to Salt Lake City

Riordan went 12-1 and won the Central Coast Section Open Division for the first time in school history. The one loss is Folsom, 42-38, in a regional final in December. The Crusaders also went and beat Pittsburg 42-35 in September, which is the seventh team here. Adonyae Brown is back at running back.

The Crusaders open Friday at West of Salt Lake City, which is fifth on our Utah board and has outscored two opponents 80-14, a 20-14 win over Arbor View and a 60-0 shutout of East. It is the only game this week that puts two SPIN regional boards on the same field.

Central East at Five Plays Two Teams From This Board Inside Eight Days

Central East went 14-1 and won its second state championship, beating an unbeaten Pacifica of Oxnard 42-28 in the Division 1-A final. On the way there the Bengals beat Pittsburg 55-36 in the Northern California final, and Pittsburg is seventh here.

Jelani Dippel is back at quarterback after throwing for 4,583 yards and 58 touchdowns as a junior, the most of any returning junior in California. Bayon Harris is back after 1,768 receiving yards and has committed to Fresno State. Kyle Biggs has 15 starters back and added a running back who went for 1,732 yards and 24 touchdowns at Roosevelt in Ehis Idoni, a Fresno State receiver commit in Relando Jefferson out of Clovis West, and a defensive back in Cameron Smith from San Joaquin Memorial. Biggs told the Fresno Bee in July that the title means the Bengals have a bigger bull's-eye on their back.

Fifth is not a safe number. Central East hosts Grant on Friday and goes to Oak Ridge on Sept. 4, and both are on this board, at eighth and sixth. We have ranked a team above two opponents it plays inside eight days. There is nowhere to hide in that.

The honest part cuts against us. Central East's only loss last year was 42-26 at Grant in the second week, and the Pacers had been beaten 51-13 by Folsom on ESPN six days earlier. Grant led 28-0 early in the second quarter and was never caught. Nearly all of that Grant team is back. Home field has flipped and Fresno hosts this time.

One thing to settle before somebody sends it to us. Central East is 0-0. The Bengals were at Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon in Nevada on Aug. 14 and the game was called in the first half for lightning with Sloan Canyon ahead 14-7. It does not count, no matter what the recap that is still sitting on the internet says.

Oak Ridge at Six Beat Three Teams From This Board and Lost to the Same One Twice

Oak Ridge went 9-4 and won nothing, and that undersells it badly. The Trojans beat Central Catholic 14-13 in the Sac-Joaquin Division 1 quarterfinal, Grant 9-7 in the semifinal, and St. Mary's of Stockton 56-35 back in September. Those are the tenth, eighth and ninth teams on this board.

Then they lost the section final to Folsom 21-14, which was the second time Folsom beat them last fall. Folsom has now won 25 straight in that series across 19 seasons, and that streak is the only thing standing between Oak Ridge and a much bigger number here.

Oak Ridge opens Friday in Argyle, Texas, then hosts Central East on Sept. 4.

Pittsburg at Seven Is the Other Number We Have to Defend

Moving Central East up meant moving somebody down, and it was Pittsburg.

The Pirates are 57-13 over five years. Last fall they lost the North Coast Section Open Division final to De La Salle 24-17, dropped into the Division 1 bracket and beat Cardinal Newman 42-17 for that title, then lost the Northern California Division 1-A final to Central East 55-36.

Both teams that beat Pittsburg are ranked above Pittsburg here. That is the whole argument for seven, and it is a full season old. Monterey Trail comes to Pittsburg on Friday.

Cardinal Newman Is Not on This Board and Plays Our Top Two in Eight Days

Cardinal Newman is not in our ten and we do not have a tidy argument for that.

What we have instead is a schedule. The Cardinals open Friday at Folsom and then go to De La Salle on Sept. 4. They play the two teams at the top of this board inside eight days, with a staff that has been together since April. Frank McManus stepped down after one season and Kenny McMillan took over in Santa Rosa, with Sean Embree as associate head coach.

If Cardinal Newman belongs on this board, we will know by Sept. 5, and they will be on it before October.

The Rest, and Why the Whole Board Plays Friday

Grant is eighth and went 7-5 with nearly all of it back, 17 or 18 starters depending on who is counting. It is at Central East on Friday. De La Salle beat the Pacers 47-20 last September.

St. Mary's of Stockton is ninth and went 13-2, winning the Division 2-AA state title 27-24 over Bakersfield Christian, the first state championship in school history after two losing trips to the final. Tony Franks takes the Rams to Bishop Manogue of Reno on Friday. Manogue is 0-2 and came off our Nevada board this week. De La Salle comes to Stockton on Sept. 18, a year after beating St. Mary's 36-7 in Concord.

Central Catholic of Modesto is tenth and opens in Homedale, Idaho.

Northern California does not start in waves. All ten of these teams are 0-0 and all ten play Friday. Four of them leave the state to do it, one of those into Utah against a team we also rank, and two of the games are teams from this board against each other. The whole thing gets priced in a single night.

Serra at three, Central East at five and Pittsburg at seven are the three we will hear about. All three start getting answered Friday.