The high school football season kicked off in Northern California last weekend but not for every section under the umbrella of the California Interscholastic Federation.
The Sac-Joaquin Section, the second largest of the 10 sections in the state, had opening games, as did the Central Section that includes Fresno and Bakersfield programs.
Other sections, including the Central Coast, North Coast and the Northern, that stretches to the Oregon border, start this week.
Some news and notes to digest:
Folsom vs. GrantThis was as big of a Sacramento-area opener since, well,
Folsom hosted
Grant (Sacramento) to kick off the 2010 season. That game was on ESPN, and last Saturday night's game in Del Paso Heights between the section's top two teams was also aired on ESPN.
Folsom rolled 51-13 as five-star quarterback
Ryder Lyons dazzled in completing 31 of 37 passes for 408 yards and four touchdowns. The BYU commit also ran for a score.
Wide receiver
Rob Larson had 171 yards receiving and two scores in showing why he is a fast-rising recruit. Ole Miss commit
Jameson Powell opened the scoring with a 98-yard punt return that he initially bobbled, and the Folsom defense dominated.
Ryder Lyons was on point in his senior debut for Folsom. (PHOTO: Anthony Brunsman)
in the heart of the valley has produced strong teams over the decades and this edition lit up the scoreboard in a wild game against
Vacaville of Solano County.
Trailing 22-0 in a flash, the Falcons roared back to win 65-64 in overtime as
A.J. Banks tossed a school-record eight touchdowns.
Chew on these stats for a while as we can feel for the defensive coordinators who had no answers: The game produced 1,278 yards of total offense, according to Jahson Nahal, who covered the game for the Vacaville Reporter. There were 18 touchdowns and exhaustion everywhere.
Bengals snarlCentral East (Fresno) is the top-ranked team in the Central Section, a program steeped in tradition with section and state pedigree.
In preparing to take on Grant on Friday in Sacramento, Central East beat
Inglewood 41-12 as
Jelani Dippel completed 15 of 20 passes for 291 yards and three touchdown strikes. Other stars included receivers
E.J. Morgan, headed to Cal, and Arizona commit
Brandon Smith.
Clovis cloutClovis rolled
Central Valley Christian (Visalia, Calif.) 48-0 as
Syrus Mendes scored twice and Christian Young had two interceptions. The roster includes Miami-committed tight end
Israel Briggs.
Ram toughOne of the top non-league rivalries brewing over the years is
Casa Roble (Orangevale) and
Placer (Auburn) in Placer County.
The home team has won every meeting since the series started in 2017, including this time around as the host Rams topped Placer 46-30.
Aidan Lopez passed for two touchdowns, including a 73-yarder to
Jared Alexander, and he credited his linemen.
On defense,
Zander Freitag and
Dunedin Tupou combined for 30 tackles.
Eagles soarVista del Lago (Folsom) doesn't like to be referred to as the "other school in Folsom" given Folsom's run of success, and that's OK.
Vista del Lago has fared well in football with a string of playoff teams since opening in 2007. Quarterback play has long been a tradition and that run continues.
Sophomore
Jacoby More - as in More, please - passed for 263 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-22 victory over Laguna Creek.
He had no interceptions and scoring strikes to
Kyle Cromwell and
Jackson Cromwell,
Anthony Righini Jr. and
Dylan Davis.
NorCal Top 201.
Folsom, 1-0
2.
De La Salle (Concord), 0-0
3.
Central East (Fresno), 1-0
4.
Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco), 0-0
5.
Grant (Sacramento), 0-1
6.
Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills), 1-0
7.
Pittsburg, 0-0
8.
Clovis, 1-0 (1-0)
9.
Rocklin, 1-0 (1-0)
11.
Clovis East (Clovis), 1-0
12.
Saint Francis (Mountain View), 0-0
13.
Manteca, 1-0
14.
Junipero Serra (San Mateo), 0-0
15.
Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa), 0-0
16.
Granite Bay, 1-0
17.
Los Gatos, 1-0
18.
Twelve Bridges (Lincoln), 1-0
19.
Marin Catholic (Kentfield), 0-0
Joe Davidson has covered high school sports since 1984, including since 1989 with The Sacramento Bee. In 2024, he was named the National Sports Media Association Sports Writer of the Year for California. In that same year, he was inducted into the California High School Football Hall of Fame at the Rose Bowl. He is a 14-time award winner from the California Prep Sports Writer Association and has been honored with the CIF Distinguished Service award and was in 2025 presented the Legacy Award for years of football contribution by the National Football Foundation, Sacramento Chapter.
