De La Salle "struggles" can be traced to practice field, Foothill has championship look, Jim Harbaugh is coming to Palo Alto and Live Oak-Gilroy game features more than 1,200 yards.
Deer Valley senior quarterback Nsimba Webster leads his team into Pleasant Hill to take on College Park in one of the Bay Area Games of the Week. See who senior writer and national columnist Mitch Stephens to win the game.
File photo by Ernie Abrea
After another 8-2 week, we're 16-4 on the season. Here are the Top 10 Games of the Bay Area for Sept. 13-14 and one reporter's predictions.
#11 Deer Valley (Antioch) (1-0) vs. College Park (Pleasant Hill) (1-0-1) at Diablo Valley College, 7 p.m. Friday — Always a tough game for Deer Valley because College Park's system is superb. In the end, Deer Valley's athletes tend to make more plays down the stretch.
Prediction: Deer Valley 35, College Park 31#20 McClymonds (Oakland) (2-0) at Central Catholic (Modesto) (1-1), 7 p.m. Friday — Rematch of Central Catholic's decisive 42-12 Northern California small school title victory in December.
Central Catholic 28, McClymonds 21 #12 Pittsburg (1-1) at Monte Vista (Danville) (1-1), 7 p.m. Friday — Which Monte Vista defense will show up against one of Northern California's top running backs
Harris Ross?
Pittsburg 24, Monte Vista 21
San Mateo (1-0) at Berkeley (1-1), 7 p.m. Friday — This may be the first matchup between these two teams. San Mateo rushed for 333 yards, including 181 from talented junior
Line Latu in a 43-6 win over Gunn-Palo Alto.
Berkeley 26, San Mateo 24
Marcus De La Pena leads San Ramon Valley
into Union City to face James Logan.
File photo by Dennis Lee
SRV had week to rest up for Logan, which has struggled offensively the first two weeks.
San Ramon Valley 31, Logan 17#1 De La Salle (Concord) (2-0) at St. Mary's (Stockton) (2-0), 7:15 p.m. Friday — The Spartans' 238-game unbeaten streak against Northern California opponents is in serious jeopardy against a balanced, athletic and well-coached St. Mary's squad.
De La Salle 35, St. Mary's 21
Palma (Salinas) (0-1) at #16 St. Francis (Mountain View) (1-0), 7:30 p.m. Friday — Palma lost a 20-10 game to Carmel last week, while St. Francis was impressive in a 28-0 win over Oak Grove-San Jose in Greg Calcagno's coaching debut.
St. Francis 21, Palma 14Heritage (Brentwood) (0-2) at #2 Marin Catholic (Kentfield) (2-0), 2 p.m. Saturday — This is trap game for Marin Catholic, which better not look at Heritage's record. Heritage lost to two ranked squads Campolindo and Casa Grande and were in both games until the final minute.
Marin Catholic 28, Heritage 21#24 Terra Nova (Pacifica) (1-0) at #10 St. Ignatius (San Francisco) (0-1), 1 p.m. Saturday — No lead too big against Terra Nova.
Terra Nova 28, St. Ignatius 27
#5 El Cerrito (1-1) at #14 Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) (2-0), 7 p.m. Saturday — Cal-bound
Jalen Harvey will be back and should make a big difference for El Cerrito in this showdown of state D3 powers.
El Cerrito 28, Cardinal Newman 2410 notes/takes1. De La Salle clearly hasn't look like its dominating self in two wins and has dropped all the way to No. 24 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25. It started the season at No. 1.
"We're playing like we're practicing," first-year head coach Justin Alumbaugh said. "And that isn't very good."
Take: This isn't a product of Bob Ladouceur stepping down. In fact, as longtime defensive coordinator Terry Eidson told Prep2Prep reporter Patrick O'Rourke, with Ladouceur now coach running backs and focusing solely on coaching, "our coaching staff may be better." De La Salle often struggles in September, but come December it should be back bowling. Though a likely season-ending injury to top receiver and linebacker
Adam Mayer, along with dislocated elbow to top running back
Dasmond Tautalatasi (out several weeks), won't help.
2. Great scheme and execution by
Foothill (Pleasanton) to hold the state's top recruit, Freedom running back Joe Mixon, to 66 rushing yards and no touchdowns in a 32-6 road win last week.
Take: Foothill coach Matt Sweeney is one of the five best coaches in the Bay Area.
Harris Ross is emerging as one of the
Bay Area's most dynamic and entertaining
running backs.
File photo by Dennis Lee
Rich Cotruvo's small-school power
Justin-Siena (Napa) is at it again. It has outscored two opponents 102-7.
Take: Cotruvo, at a small school playing in a much larger league (Marin County Athletic League), might be the most under-rated coach in the Bay Area.
4. Pittsburg's Ross rushed for 233 yards and four TDs in 35-33 rebound win over then-No. 8 California-San Ramon.
Take: Ross might give Mixon a run for his money as the region's top running back.
5. Team of the week goes to Terra Nova, which piled up more than 500 yards – in a surprising 45-7 win over Bishop O'Dowd.
Take: Terra Nova coach Bill Gray is one of the region's most respected coaches and along with a young staff has developed one of the region's most prolific offenses. Junior
Anthony Gordon (6-2, 185) looks in the mold of five other prolific quarterbacks after throwing for 354 yards and three touchdowns.
6. Menlo (Atherton) ventured to Texas to face San Angelo Central last week. Good news for the visitors: They scored 49. Bad news: Home team scored 84, including 50 - that's right 50 - in the first quarter. Central piled up 607 yards.
Take: Menlo took the trip only because another CCS team had to back out. Credit Menlo coach Mark Newton for taking on the large challenge — he told San Jose Mercury News reporter Glenn Reeves San Angelo has at least four Division I college lineman and superb skill players — and his Knights for battling back, outscoring their Texas foes 36-34 the final three quarters.
Jack Heneghan, a tremendous senior quarterback, threw for 411 yards.
Palo Alto quarterback Keller Chryst is
just one of numerous ties to the San
Francisco 49ers.
File photo by Brad Kupper
San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh will be a part of
Palo Alto's ceremonial stadium renovation opening Friday in the team's opener against San Benito. Harbaugh is a 1982 Palo Alto graduated and played for current coach Earl Hansen.
Take: Considering the 49ers play in Week 2's biggest NFL game, at Seattle on Sunday, Harbaugh must have had a very good experience at Palo Alto to make such a commitment. Palo Alto has numerous ties to the 49ers. Hansen's son Peter is on the 49ers staff and Palo Alto's star quarterback, Stanford-bound
Keller Chryst is the son of SF quarterback coach Jeep Chryst. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 7:10 p.m. and kickoff is at 7:30.
8. Live Oak (Morgan Hill) senior running back
Trevor Bearden rushed 26 times for 401 yards and four touchdowns in a wild 52-41 win over
Gilroy last week. He also caught one pass that went for a 64-yard TD. Live Oak gained 694 yards in the game. Gilroy's
Brandon Boyd wasn't far behind Bearden with 333 yards rushing and five scores. Gilroy piled up 517 yards, which means 1,211 total yards in the game.
Take: Don't imagine the reporters made deadline for the three-hour plus contest.
9. Liberty (Brentwood), off to its best start since 1998 with a 2-0 record, had to forfeit both wins for using an academically ineligible player, the Contra Costa Times reported. Since first-year head coach Jeff Walters reported the oversight himself, and that the ineligible player is off the team, the Lions (now 0-2) will resume the season without penalty.
Take: Coaches have more and more responsibility and it's sometimes difficult to keep up with all the details.
10. Returning two punts for touchdowns in a single game is one of the rarest statistical occurrences I know, because I can't recall writing it except for last week when Liberty's
Alex Hull accomplished the feat against Concord. So what are the chances of doing it two weeks in a row? Hull did just that in a 48-7 win over West-Tracy. The junior safety and wide receiver has taken back seven punts this season for 348 yards, an average of 49.7 yards per return. Crazy.
Take: This one is easy. If you're playing Liberty, punt the ball sideways.
