De La Salle has spent two years looking like the team we thought it was. On Saturday at Cal, it proved it.
No. 18 De La Salle beat No. 20 Centennial of Corona 35-32 at California Memorial Stadium, and it did it on the legs of Duece Jones-Drew. The UCLA commit, son of former NFL rusher Maurice Jones-Drew, carried 28 times for 211 yards and three touchdowns. The Spartans led 28-25 at halftime and pushed it to 35-25 in the second half. Centennial got within three when Jaden Jefferson found Quentin Hale for a long touchdown, and then the Spartans' defense closed it with a fourth-down stop after Centennial got the ball back late.
Centennial has now lost three games this season, all of them to teams in our top twenty, by a combined five points. That is how close the Huskies are, and it is how good De La Salle had to be.
This was a statement game, and the statement was about more than one team.
Northern California is having a year
Put De La Salle's win next to the rest of the NorCal card and the region looks as good as it has in a while.
Folsom beat Mission Viejo, 39th on our board, 35-21 in early September. On Friday it nearly lost the unbeaten record. Rocklin led 16-13 late until Abhi Ghimire's 26-yard field goal with 58 seconds left tied it. The teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime. In the second, Brody Rudnicki ran it in and EJ Coleman intercepted Rocklin's answer. Folsom 29, Rocklin 23, and the Bulldogs are still unbeaten.
Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills opened the season by winning 27-26 at Argyle, a top 15 team in Texas, on the night Argyle opened its new stadium, and that result is aging well. On Friday the Trojans handed Del Oro of Loomis its first loss, 26-20, which will not surprise anybody who knows NorCal football. Oak Ridge's one loss is a six-point game against Central East of Fresno.
For De La Salle, the question now is the run. Win Northern California, reach the Open Division, and see what happens when it gets there. Santa Margarita, second on our board, is the likely wall, and we suspect De La Salle would want that game.
Skyridge took the flag
We said the flag was Corner Canyon's until somebody took it. No. 70 Skyridge took it on Friday in Lehi, 37-27 over No. 25 Corner Canyon, and it took it with its defense.
The Falcons intercepted Corner Canyon five times. Two of them went back for touchdowns in the first quarter, one of them an 83-yard return by Ethan Schriever, and Skyridge led 27-0 before Corner Canyon scored. Sa Tanuvasa, a senior linebacker, had two picks. Beckham Bennett ran for two touchdowns. Corner Canyon won the second half, but Skyridge stopped it on fourth down three times and never gave the lead back. This is not the Corner Canyon that has owned the state, and Skyridge played like a team that knows it.
Brother Rice and the freshman
The biggest upset of the week came from a freshman.
This was the defending Class 8A champion against the defending 7A champion, two Chicago Catholic League rivals, and only one of them is on our board. No. 44 Mount Carmel led 17-7 late in the first half. Then Sam Holcomb went to work. He hit senior Anthony Cartolano for a 20-yard touchdown with under 30 seconds left in the half to make it 17-14, and ran in from two yards out early in the third to give Brother Rice its first lead.
Mount Carmel took it back at 24-21 on a Thomas Elliott touchdown run. Holcomb answered with a 33-yard touchdown pass to Kameron McGee, a defensive end playing receiver, and Brother Rice never trailed again. Early in the fourth the Crusaders stopped Mount Carmel on downs at their own 11. Holcomb's touchdown run with 3:44 left made it 35-24.
He finished with four touchdowns, two passing and two rushing, on 8-of-15 throwing. "Kids like him come around every 15 years," Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch told the Chicago Sun-Times. Brother Rice coach Casey Quedenfeld went further, telling On3, "He's the best quarterback in the country."
Both teams are 4-2 and 1-1 in the Chicago Catholic League Blue.
Around the country
St. Xavier 31, No. 76 Elder 29. A Greater Catholic League rivalry game went to the last snap. Elder rallied in the fourth quarter to take a 29-28 lead, and St. Xavier won it on Owen Davidson's field goal as time ran out. It was coach Steve Specht's 200th win.
No. 30 Thomas County Central 49, No. 27 Lee County 26. Our National Game of the Week was billed as close, and it belonged to one player. Aidan McPherson, a senior Duke commit, accounted for all seven Thomas County Central touchdowns, six on the ground and one through the air. The defending state champions went to Leesburg, won by 23, pushed their winning streak to 20 and looked every bit the part. The Region 2-6A race now runs through Thomasville.
No. 42 St. Edward 22, No. 48 St. John's College 21. A week after losing by two at Massillon, St. Edward won by one. St. John's came to Ohio after climbing 34 spots for a one-point win in Florida and left with its first loss.
Nelson 36, West Linn 35. West Linn of Oregon, on our Out West board, was a two-point stop from winning. Nelson's Braylon Gaines hit Amir Burton for 53 yards to set up Kevin Cohen's 2-yard touchdown with seven seconds left, and Nelson went for two instead of the tie. Gaines ran it in himself.
Close calls worth noting: No. 80 Millard South beat Omaha North 49-47 behind seven touchdowns from Nebraska commit Trae Taylor, four passing and three running, and needed every one. No. 82 Blessed Trinity won 17-14 at Marist, and Folsom needed two overtimes.
How the Power 100 fared
Seventy-seven of the hundred played this week. Seventy won and seven lost, and 23 did not play. Here is every team on the board.
Region by region
Fifty teams sit on our five regional boards. Thirty-nine of them played this week, and three lost for the first time: Herriman, Del Oro and Mater Academy East. Here is the footprint, one region at a time, with how every ranked team fared.
Utah
Skyridge's win over Corner Canyon moved the top of the state, and the rest of the week kept it moving.
Herriman lost for the first time, 22-20 to Lehi, a team that is not on our board. Lehi intercepted Herriman three times and took one back for a touchdown. Mountain Ridge, meanwhile, looks every bit the best team in Utah. Jaxon Hunt threw seven touchdown passes, all of them in the first half, in a 56-7 win over Riverton, and the Sentinels are 7-0.
On Thursday, American Fork beat Lone Peak 28-24 in one of the wildest finishes of the season. Lone Peak went ahead 24-21 in the final minutes. Sophomore Jake Matsen drove American Fork right back and hit Cash Taiese for a 25-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left, Taiese's third of the night. Then Lone Peak's last throw found Jaxon Cloward, who was ruled short of the goal line as time ran out. We saw that play, and we thought it should have gone the other way.
Davis beat Syracuse 49-35 in a Region 1 shootout, and Bode Sparrow, a senior Oklahoma commit, scored three times. Orem got past Timpview 17-14, and Tanner Lewis threw both Orem touchdown passes to Brooks Ross. West beat Taylorsville 71-7 and Ridgeline beat Sky View 41-3, and both are 7-0.
Northern California
De La Salle, Folsom and Oak Ridge are above. Oak Ridge handed Del Oro of Loomis its first loss, 26-20. Serra of San Mateo won 45-13 at Bellarmine, Central Catholic of Modesto won 56-0 at Mountain House, and Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa flew to Honolulu and beat Punahou 22-21 on Saturday morning. Central East, Pittsburg and Clovis did not play.
Southern California
The Trinity League was off, so six of the ten teams on our SoCal board did not play. The one SoCal board team to lose was Centennial of Corona, at Cal, and it lost to a top-twenty team for the third time by three points or fewer. Sierra Canyon beat Pacifica of Oxnard 42-10 and is 5-0. San Clemente won 42-13 at Murrieta Valley and is 5-0. The Trinity League comes back on Friday, October 2, and Mater Dei goes to Santa Margarita that night.
Nevada
Mater Academy East of Las Vegas lost for the first time, 35-28 at Grant in Sacramento. Bishop Gorman beat Faith Lutheran 45-3 on homecoming night. Churchill County won 47-24 at Spring Creek and Palo Verde beat Silverado 22-6, and both are 6-0.
Coronado beat Foothill 34-27 in a game between two Henderson schools on our board. Freshman quarterback Beau Ventling and running back Matthias Rantissi led the Cougars. Liberty of Henderson, Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon, Legacy of North Las Vegas and Damonte Ranch all won by 25 points or more.
Arizona
Chandler beat Brophy College Prep 28-13 on Thursday in a game between two Arizona board teams. Brophy led 13-7, and Chandler scored the last 21 points. Hamilton won 42-14 at Williams Field and is 5-0. Liberty of Peoria beat ALA Queen Creek 43-14. Centennial of Peoria beat Casteel 34-17 and is still unbeaten.
Pinnacle did not play. Its game with Saguaro was canceled after Saguaro said it could not play. Desert Edge of Goodyear lost 34-27 at Mountain Pointe. Basha, ALA Gilbert North and Desert Mountain all won big.
Around the rest of the footprint
Mililani held off Campbell 35-30 on Saturday night in Hawaii's biggest game of the week and is 7-0. Cherry Creek won 37-21 at Cherokee Trail on Thursday. Puyallup beat Curtis 72-6.
Seven weeks in, the teams that were supposed to be settled are not. A freshman beat the state champions in Chicago, a Utah program that has owned the state threw five interceptions, and De La Salle looks like De La Salle again. That is the best part of September.
