A brief history of No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdowns in high school football

Video: No. 1 St. John Bosco vs. No. 2 Corona Centennial

According to MaxPreps records, this is the sixth matchup of the top two ranked high school football teams in the country since the turn of the century.

I've been lucky enough to cover the previous five and plan to be at the sixth on Saturday, when top-ranked St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) takes on No. 2 Centennial (Corona) for the Southern Section Pac-5 Division championship at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.

The winner will most certainly be selected as the Southern California representative in the state's Open Division final and will likely face perennial national power De La Salle (Concord), currently ranked No. 9.

The loser on Saturday is done. Both teams are 13-0. What sets this No. 1 versus No. 2 match-up distinctly apart from the previous five is that it is so late in the season — almost two months later than the others — and it's a do-or-die game.

The previous five were more showcase games — this truly means something. And it comes at the end of the nation's toughest football bracket.

From a strictly aesthetic angle, this one is almost guaranteed to be an offensive bonanza. St. John Bosco is averaging 59.5 points per game and Centennial 56.1. The offensive comparisons are off the charts, with both teams averaging more than 500 yards per game — SJB at 554 and Centennial at 515.

The crazy part is that both teams are utterly balanced, so there's no loading the boxes and running largely nickel packages. Centennial averages 263 yards passing and 252 running; Bosco 281 and 273. That's truly remarkable.

Good luck defensive coordinators.

Many are anticipating the remarkable 2013 Southern Section Open Division final result, a 70-49 Bosco win over Centennial in a game that featured 1,401 yards. Running back Sean McGrew, then a sophomore and now a senior at St. John Bosco, rushed for 367 yards and seven touchdowns.

Only one of the other five Prep Super Bowls — something we tabbed them — was a real offensive showcase: St. Thomas Aquinas defeating Byrnes 42-34. Byrnes actually out-gained STA 558-303 in the loss.

Of those five games (10 teams), four were from California (actually two — Long Beach Poly and De La Salle twice), four from Florida and one each from Texas and South Carolina.

Here are the other No. 1 vs. No. 2 games since 2000:

Prep Super Bowl I
Oct. 6, 2001, Long Beach City College, Long Beach (Calif.)
De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) 29, Long Beach Poly (Calif.) 15

Who could remember anything else? De La Salle’s Maurice Jones-Drew somersaulting into the end zone, the first of four touchdowns he scored in a breakout performance. Poly, one of the most talented high school teams ever with five future NFL players and 15 FBS players, was shell-shocked.
 
Prep Super Bowl II
Oct. 12, 2002, Cal-Berkeley, Berkeley (Calif.)
De La Salle 28, Long Beach Poly 7

The far-away dreamy look of De La Salle quarterback Britt Cecil, an absolute afterthought going into the star-studded game, turned out to be the star by going 12-of-17 for 237 yards and three touchdowns.

He also rushed for a score and a 2-point conversion.

"I'll probably go to bed tonight and just cry," Cecil said that day. "I mean that, I'll probably cry. No one knows how good this feels right now. I can't describe it."

Neil Hayes, author of "When the Game Stands Tall," a book on the history of the De La Salle program that was adapted into a motion picture, said the De La Salle wins against Poly probably rank as the program's best.

"Considering De La Salle was in the middle of its (151-game) win streak at that point and that Poly had sent more athletes to the NFL than any program in America, everyone was watching those two matchups," said Hayes who recently released a second book with former De La Salle head coach Bob Ladouceur, "Chasing Perfection."

Prep Super Bowl III
Sept. 15, 2007, Southern Methodist University, Dallas
Northwestern (Miami) 29, Southlake Carroll (Texas) 21

Another far-away stare, this one from defensive stud Marcus Forston, who looked into the warm Texas night long after Northwestern broke Carroll’s 49-game win streak before 31,896 fans in Dallas and a national television audience.

His team held high-powered Carroll scoreless in the second half while Jacory Harris completed 21-of-28 for 280 yards and four touchdowns. (Harris and Forston went on University of Miami).

Forston was reflective because his team’s previous coaching staff was fired a couple months earlier in a controversial decision.

"We practiced for a week without a coach," Forston said. "What team anywhere would practice without a coach?

"I knew then this was a special group. I could see it in their eyes."

Prep Super Bowl IV
Oct. 2, 2009, Lockhart Stadium, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.)
St. Thomas Aquinas 42, Byrnes 34

An hour before the game the two teams and coaching staffs jawed at midfield, setting the tone for the most entertaining of the previous three showdowns.

This one had it all, including celebrity sightings, electrifying runs, bonehead mistakes, heroes, goats, comebacks, trick plays, fake punts, pin-point passes, speed demons, hellacious hits, 861 yards, a 93-yard kickoff return, a blocked field goal, a fumble return for touchdown, gobs of Division I talent, numerous Division I college coaches, and speed, speed and more speed.

Junior quarterback Jacob Rudick threw for four touchdowns, including a 52-yard beauty to Lamarcus Joyner, who later put the game away with a 93-yard kickoff return.

"I felt a little disrespected that they would kick to me in that situation," said Joyner, who starred at Florida State before being drafted in the second round by the St. Louis Rams. "We call that an automatic six when Lamarcus Joyner is back on the return."

There was a lot of talk and kids backing it up in this game. In a losing effort, Chas Dodd threw for 416 yards and three touchdowns and Byrnes actually out-gained STA 558 to 303. Turnovers did in Byrnes and the chief culprit, of all people, was its unquestioned star and leader Marcus Lattimore, who fumbled four times, twice in the red zone.

He also rushed for 118 yards, had 94 more receiving and scored two touchdowns. But afterward he was inconsolable. There was a lot of emotion in this one.

"That's the first dog fight St. Thomas has been in for a long time," Joyner said. "This just showed the world that we're No. 1. It feels great."

Said Dodd: "It was a great high school football game. I'm sure people got their money's worth."

Prep Super Bowl V
Sept. 6, 2013, Traz Powell Stadium, Miami (Fla.)
Booker T. Washington 28, Central (Miami) 17

As Washington (Miami) junior linebacker Terry Jefferson weaved his way down field in the waning moments of his team’s national showdown with crosstown rival Central (Miami), his head coach Tim "Ice" Harris was anything but cool.

Harris, racing down the sideline parallel to Jefferson, was pleading with his 5-foot-9, 170-pound linebacker to fall on the ground to preserve an excruciatingly hard-earned win.

Finally, seeing there was no quit in the diminutive but talented third-year starter — yes Jefferson started as a freshman — Harris relented. Jefferson did not stop, completing a 65-yard interception return with 9.9 seconds remaining to put a cherry on top of this as-good-as-advertised 28-17 Washington victory before 8,000 exhausted and sweaty South Florida fans at steamy Traz Powell Stadium.

See photos of first four Super High School Bowls