Nation's No. 1 recruit Najee Harris and Antioch fall short at De La Salle

Video: Top recruit Najee Harris trucks two defenders on way to score.
Alabama commit from Antioch entered Friday's game with 942 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns.

CONCORD, Calif. - Every move that Antioch (Calif.) senior running back Najee Harris makes is under inspection. Every word he speaks is analyzed. Every action he takes is scrutinized. 

At 18-years-old, he's already a public figure: Adored. Fawned over. Idolized.

That's what happens, good or bad, when you're the No. 1 high school football recruit in the country. Everyone wants a gander, an interview, a piece of the game's most promising next superstar.

Seems a little nuts, especially for Harris, considering that he's still about 12 months from even making his first carry in college. He's committed to Alabama.



"He's got a lot on him," said Antioch coach John Lucido. "He carries a big load."

On Friday, he had one of the most storied high school football programs — one featured in a best-selling book and a Hollywood movie — all in his business. In front of a packed De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) home crowd and a national television audience no less.

In fact, the reasons fans arrived from all over Northern California and ESPN's crew traveled all the way across country and invested gobs of man hours and expense, was to see how the next big thing would match up against the destroyers of the region.

De La Salle entered Friday with an almost preposterous 273-game unbeaten streak against Northern California opponents. The last time the Spartans lost to a local team was seven years before Harris was even born in 1991. The last time De La Salle even played Antioch was 2006.

See full photo gallery of Najee Harris, Antioch and De La Salle

The score of that game was similar to how the Spartans have chewed up and spit out most locals: De La Salle 62, Antioch 0.



"I guess they wanted to see if they could stop me," Harris said.

De La Salle stopped Harris all right, holding him to 132 rushing yards — 75 below his low total of the season — and a single touchdown. Last season he had two lower rushing totals, games of 126 and 105, but in those lopsided wins he had a combined 12 carries. On Friday, he carried 32 times for a measly 4.1 yards per carry.

He started fast with 85 yards on his first 13 carries, but after the middle of the second quarter, De La Salle swarmed, gang-tackled and offered no open space. His final 19 carries netted 47 yards.

And the most important numbers of all: De La Salle 28, Antioch 21.

"It is what it is," Harris said. "We just needed a few more play-makers to keep the defense off me a little bit."

Harris wasn't bitter after the game, or pointing fingers. In fact, he called it Antioch's best game of the season. All the Panthers did, including the coaching staff.  Though they dropped to 3-2 — after an 11-1 campaign in 2015 — their effort and toughness was supreme. Few teams have held De La Salle scoreless for almost an entire half.



The Spartans scored with 16.3 seconds left in the first half, breaking a scoreless game. Three times in the second half, De La Salle took two-score cushions (14-0, 21-7, 28-14) and each time Antioch responded with touchdowns, two from Isaiah Dunn on a spectacular fourth-down 30-yard catch and a 95-yard kickoff return.

"We always play to compete," Harris said. "De La (Salle) is just a name. Antioch is just a name. On Friday night, it's who shows up."

Every Friday night, fans come out to see Harris, who was swarmed by fans and eventually media who peppered him with questions. Meanwhile, the game's ultimate star — De La Salle junior tailback Kairee Robinson, who rushed for 307 yards and a school record 34 carries and three touchdowns — jogged to the locker room without a journalist in pursuit.

Robinson, an Antioch native who opted for the famed private school 20 miles west of his hometown, scored on runs of 1, 3 and 57 yards, the latter putting De La Salle up 28-14 with 9:52 left.

He and Harris have worked out together a couple times and attended the same church.

"He's good," Harris said of Robinson. "He did his thing."



Robinson, who also plays cornerback, was later tracked down in the locker room. He wanted to talk defense more than his offense: "I feel like our defense really rallied to the ball and we gang tackled him. He's definitely a good runner. The key was flying to the ball and hitting him from all sides."

Was Robinson extra motivated to upstage the nation's top recruit? After all, the 5-9, 185-pounder is no slouch himself, often compared to another former De La Salle great Maurice Jones-Drew, who like Robinson, grew up in Antioch and played youth football there.

"Everyone coming in was talking about what our defense was going to do to stop Najee," Robinson said. "That just made me want to go out there and do my very best."

Harris tried his best — his only touchdown, a four-yard run with 6:15 left cut the lead to 28-21 — always looks his best.

Besides his already chiseled 6-2 1/2, 226-pound frame, Harris sported spanking new Adidas-manufactured "Yeezy" cleats, ones made famous by designer Kanye West and Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who was fined $6,000 by the NFL for wearing them.

Harris doesn't have a Twitter account but he previewed them earlier in the week by taking them out of the box on Snapchat. Pictures of the shoes filled Twitter accounts throughout Friday's game.



"I like 'em," Harris said. "They're cool man."

Being the nation's No. 1 recruit definitely has its perks.

The game also featured two teams fighting for a great cause. Each signed up for Touchdowns Against Cancer to raise funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with every touchdown scored. More than 500 gold TAC T-shirts were distributed to both schools this week. Click here for more information on how to get your program involved.