Southern California sent its best team to Las Vegas and did not get it back the way it left.
St. John Bosco, the top team on the Southern California board, led nowhere for most of the night at Bishop Gorman, trailed 21-0 at the half, tied it 28-28 in the fourth on a DJ Tubbs punt return, and lost 38-28. Everything about that comeback was real. So was the scoreboard.
The rest of the region spent the weekend making a very different kind of noise.
| Result | The read |
|---|---|
| Bishop Gorman 38, No. 1 St. John Bosco 28 | The region's best team loses in Las Vegas |
| No. 2 Santa Margarita 27, Jones (Orlando) 0 | A shutout in Fletch Palmer's first start |
| No. 3 Centennial of Corona 41, No. 8 Servite 21 | Thursday, at Orange Coast College |
| No. 4 Mater Dei 31, American Fork 11 | The opener, over a Utah top-ten team |
| No. 5 Sierra Canyon 42, JSerra 21 | In San Juan Capistrano |
| No. 6 Mission Viejo 55, Chaparral of Temecula 17 | Chalk, by 38 |
| Miami Central 23, No. 7 Orange Lutheran 22 | A one-point loss to a Florida visitor |
| No. 10 San Clemente 17, Tustin 0 | A second regional shutout |
Fletch Palmer opened with a shutout at Santa Margarita
The name will follow the program all season and Friday it earned the attention. Fletch Palmer, son of Santa Margarita head coach Carson Palmer, made his first career start and threw two touchdown passes, one of them a 40-yarder in the second half, as the Eagles shut out Jones of Orlando 27-0, per MaxPreps.
That is the No. 2 team in Southern California blanking a Florida program in its opener, and it sets up the best game on the region's calendar for Friday.
Centennial of Corona had already handled the Thursday headliner, beating Servite 41-21 at Orange Coast College after scoring on its first three drives, and the full accounting of how Servite spent the rest of that night is already on the site. Mater Dei opened with a 31-11 win over American Fork of Utah. Sierra Canyon went to San Juan Capistrano and beat JSerra 42-21. Mission Viejo put 55 on Chaparral of Temecula. San Clemente shut out Tustin.
Santa Margarita might be the best team in America
Here is the uncomfortable version, said first. Santa Margarita shut out a Florida program in its opener behind a quarterback making the first start of his life, and the rest of the Trinity League went 2-4 on the same weekend.
Count it. Santa Margarita won. Mater Dei won. St. John Bosco lost in Las Vegas. Servite lost to Centennial of Corona. Orange Lutheran lost by a point to Miami Central. JSerra lost by three touchdowns to Sierra Canyon. Six schools, four losses, one weekend, in the league that has supplied most of the national title argument for a decade.
Two readings are available and only one of them can be right. Either the Trinity League is taking a step back, or Santa Margarita is going past it. We think it is the second, and we think Santa Margarita belongs in the conversation for the best team in the country.
The honest caution: Jones of Orlando will not get shut out again this season, and a 27-0 opener settles nothing on its own. Friday at Centennial of Corona settles a great deal more.
Orange Lutheran lost the game nobody in Florida had to win
The single hardest result to swallow in the region belongs to Orange Lutheran, which lost its opener 23-22 to Miami Central. One point, at home, to a team that flew across the country to play it.
There is no version of that loss that hurts the Lancers' season on its own. There is a version that matters here, because the board has Orange Lutheran seventh in Southern California and Miami Central sits well down the Top 50. Those two numbers just met and produced a one-point game. That is a data point in favor of the Florida team, not against it, and we will carry it that way.
The Southland stat sheets were absurd
Away from the ranked teams, Friday produced numbers that belong in November. Ceasar Reyes ran for 277 yards and five touchdowns for Garfield. Denzel Carter ran for 254 and four for La Salle and caught two more. Brady Edmunds threw for 441 yards and six touchdowns for Huntington Beach. Star Thomas threw for 439 and four and ran for 122 more for Orange. All four lines are from the Los Angeles Times' Saturday roundup of top performers.
Six touchdowns and 441 yards in an August opener is a season for some quarterbacks. Southern California produced two of those stat lines on the same night in different counties.
Santa Margarita goes to Corona and Roman Catholic comes west
Friday is the best night the region has had in a year. Santa Margarita at Centennial of Corona is No. 2 against No. 3, and it is the game that starts sorting the top of this board for real. St. John Bosco hosts Roman Catholic of Philadelphia in Bellflower with a loss already on its record. Orange Lutheran goes to San Diego to play No. 9 Cathedral Catholic. Servite travels to Murrieta Valley.
And on Saturday, Mater Dei goes to Utah to play Orem, a week after beating American Fork by 20 in the same state.
As for how the board read the weekend, it mostly held. Nine of the ten played and six of them won. Servite lost to the team ranked five spots above it, which is what a board is for. The two results that argue with us came from outside the region: St. John Bosco lost in Las Vegas and Orange Lutheran lost by a point to Miami. Neither reorders anything inside this ten. Friday starts doing that from the inside, and it starts at the top.
