Can Monarchs still win a national title after being shutout? It's happened before.
St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) pulled off an upset last week with a 28-0 win over
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), the No. 1 team in the MaxPreps Top 25 high school football rankings. However, was it really that much of an upset?
Consider that Mater Dei's record against St. John Bosco since 2016 is 8-5. That's a winning mark, for certain. But when you consider that Mater Dei is 82-0 against the rest of the world, it would seem that the Braves are the kryptonite to the Monarchs' Superman.
The high stakes the two teams play for each year include the championship of the Trinity League (arguably the toughest league in the nation), the Southern Section championship and the national title, which they have combined to win four times since 2017.
St. John Bosco has bragging rights in high school football's hottest rivalry after blanking Mater Dei 28-0 last week. (Photo: Louis Lopez)
That type of pressure and competition, along with the high number of All-American candidates both teams field each year, make the Mater Dei-St. John Bosco the top rivalry in the nation. The two teams rank as the most viewed teams on MaxPreps with a half a million pageviews between them in the last week alone.
So which team can put together the greatest lineup of all-time alumni? We offer our two cents in with an all-time Mater Dei Monarchs squad this week and an all-time St. John Bosco lineup next week.
Here's the all-time Mater Dei squad:
OFFENSE
WR – Amon-Ra St. Brown, 2017Two-time MaxPreps All-American
WR – Thomas Duarte, 2012
Parade Magazine All-American Team
WR – Rod Perry, 1996
USA Today All-American
TE – David Knuff, 1991
CIF Southern Section Offensive Player of the Year
OL – Matt Motherway, 1994
Los Angeles Times All-County Lineman of the Year
OL – Tommy Brown, 2017
Two-time MaxPreps All-American
OL – Chris Ward, 2009
Parade Magazine All-American
OL – Larry Williams, 1980
Parade Magazine All-American
OL – Khaled Holmes, 2007
MaxPreps All-State Team
QB – Bryce Young, 2019
MaxPreps All-American, Heisman Trophy winner
QB – Matt Leinart, 2000
Heisman Trophy winner
RB – Mike McNair, 1996
USA Today All-American
RB – Shakobe Harper, 2018
Cal-Hi Sports All-State Team
RB – Steve Bodnar, 1994
All-CIF Southern Section
AP – Bru McCoy, 2018
MaxPreps National Player of the Year, All-CIF Offensive Player of the Year
K – Chase McGrath, 2016
All-Orange County Team
DEFENSE
DL – Lenny Vandermade, 1998
Student Sports All-American Team
DL – Brandon Nicolas, 2003All-CIF Defensive Player of the Year
DL – Brad Williams, 1995USA Today All-American
DL – Nathan Logoleo, 2017MaxPreps All-American
LB – Matt Grootegoed, 1999USA Today All-American, Parade All-American
LB – Curtis Robinson, 2015Cal-Hi Sports All-State Team
LB – Solomon Tuliaupupu, 2017All-CIF Defensive Player of the Year, MaxPreps All-American
LB – Steele Dubar, 2018All-CIF Defensive Player of the Year
DB – Eli Ricks, 2019MaxPreps All-American
DB – Quentin Lake, 2016Cal-Hi Sports All-State Team
DB – Jonathan Lockett, 2013Orange County Register Defensive Player of the Year
P – Ryan Stonehouse, 2016Cal-Hi Sports All-State TeamDid we miss anyone?
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Despite the loss to St. John Bosco, it's not out of the question for Mater Dei to eventually be crowned national champion. It's happened before, in fact it happened last year. St. John Bosco lost to Mater Dei during the regular season, but the Braves came back to win in the playoffs and were eventually named the unanimous national champion by seven different rating services.
But the question is, can a team be named national champion after suffering a shutout? The answer is yes...and no. Three teams have been recognized as national champions while suffering a shutout. However, none of them had a shutout loss on their record.
Everett (Mass.) took on
Central (Detroit, Mich.) in a game in 1915 that was recognized as a national championship game. Everett was 11-0 entering the game while Detroit Central was 10-0. The two teams tied 0-0 and were both dubbed national champions. The National Sports News Service later retroactively selected the two teams as co-national champions.
In 1939,
Pine Bluff (Ark.) defeated
Baton Rouge (La.) in a game that the Louisiana Sports Association National High School Championship deemed a national championship game. While the National Sports News Service retroactively selected
Washington (Massillon, Ohio) as the national champion for 1939, Pine Bluff is also recognized as having a claim to the national title.
