California's state capital will host this week's top game, as De La Salle battles Folsom for a berth in the state title game.
Photos by Derek Carroll/Dennis Lee. Graphic by Ryan Escobar
As the season continues to wind down, the stakes grow even higher. A showdown between Folsom and De La Salle, with the right to represent Northern California in a CIF Championship Bowl Game on the line, highlights this week's edition of the MaxPreps Top 10 Games of the Week.
Folsom boats one of the nation's premier offenses, led by Jake Browning, a major contender for National Sophomore of the Year honors. Though it will enter the game as the favorite, the possibility exists that De La Salle could lose its first game to an opponent from Northern California since 1991.
With a 7-3 record in last week's games, Mitch Stephens has a one-game lead over Jamie DeMoney in the season-long standings. Stephen Spiewak and Leland Gordon are six and seven games back, respectively.
Here's a breakdown of the Top 10 games along with predictions by MaxPreps staff and contributors.
MaxPreps Top 10 Football Games of the Week
De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) vs. Folsom (Calif.)After seeming somewhat fallible in regular-season victories, De La Salle has reasserted itself in the playoffs, delivering a 52-7 thrashing to a highly capable Logan squad that some thought would hand the Spartans its first loss to a NorCal opponent in more than two decades. A defense led by
Michael Hutchings,
Victor Egu and
Austin Hooper ranks with the nation's finest units. Youngster
Boss Tagaloa is a rare freshman seeing action on the varsity level. At 6-foot-2, 264 pounds, he adds great size to the defensive line.
See our California Regional Bowl Game previews for all 10 contestsConversely, Folsom is led by its explosive offense, which carried it to a CIF Bowl Game victory over Serra (Gardena, Calif.) in 2010 and has been the program's calling card. The emergence of sophomore
Jake Browning after Tanner Trosin's graduation has been nothing short of remarkable. In his first game, he tossed for 10 touchdowns and has showed no signs of slowing down. Folsom was very consistent in the Sac-Joaquin Section II playoffs, scoring at least 44 points in each contest.
Mitch Stephens: De La Salle 35, Folsom 24
Jamie DeMoney: De La Salle 38, Folsom 28
Stephen Spiewak: Folsom 35, De La Salle 31
Leland Gordon: De La Salle 42, Folsom 20
Kevin Askeland: De La Salle 45, Folsom 7
Steve Montoya: Folsom 28, De La Salle 27
