High school football: No. 1 Mater Dei wraps up undefeated season with California Open Division championship

No. 1 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) survived a second-half surge from No. 21 De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) to win California's Open Division championship 37-15 on Saturday night at Saddleback College.

It's the fifth state championship since 2017 for the Monarchs, who likely will earn their third MaxPreps National Championship.

The victory wraps up a 13-0 season with nine wins against MaxPreps Top 25 opponents, including No. 5 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.), No. 8 St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Md.) and twice against No. 7 St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.).

Mater Dei led 23-0 at the half as its defense allowed two yards of offense in the first quarter. But De La Salle ripped off two touchdowns by senior Toa Faavae in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 23-15. Mater Dei then scored on a lengthy drive to go up 30-15 after Oregon signee Jordon Davison scored his 50th career touchdown with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter. Davison got the scoring started early for Mater Dei by scoring a 3-yard touchdown in the first quarter. He went over 3,500 career rushing yards on his first carry of the game and finished his high school career with a 50-2 record.



Fellow Oregon signee Nasir Wyatt has been with Davison through those 50 wins. He deflected a pass against De La Salle that was intercepted by junior Shaun Scott. Wyatt and Scott later combined for a safety in the second quarter.

Monarchs senior quarterback Dash Beierly threw for three touchdowns and  finished with 26 scoring tosses. In the first half, the Washington signee found sophomore Gavin Honore for a 90-yard touchdown in the first quarter, before connecting with junior Kayden Dixon-Wyatt for a 21-yard score to take a 23-0 lead into halftime.

De La Salle came out firing in the second half as the Spartans drove down the field on strong runs from Derrick Blanche and Dominic Kelley before Faavae finished the drive with a touchdown.

The De La Salle defense led by senior Oregon signee Matthew Johnson and sophomore Duece Jones-Drew got a stop to get the ball back into the hands of the offense.

On the Mater Dei 41, Faavae took the snap and bolted through the middle for his 14th touchdown run of the season to make the score 23-15 with 4:20 left in the third quarter.

Once again, the De La Salle defense came up with big plays. But the Mater Dei offense converted multiple third and fourth downs on big catches from Dixon-Wyatt and senior Marcus Harris. It was an eight- minute drive that ended in a Davison touchdown.

The Spartans offense was pushed backward on the ensuing possession and the Monarchs got the ball back.

Mater Dei needed just two plays as Beierly hit five-star sophomore tight end Mark Bowman for his eighth touchdown of the season to take a 37-15 lead with 5:11 to play.

The Monarchs defense had two interceptions in the final four minutes by Alabama signee Abduall Sanders and Ace Leutele.

This was the first time since 2021 that the Northern California representative put points on the scoreboard.