Bay Area Blast: Terra Nova beats Sacred Heart Prep to the punch

ATHERTON, Calif. — Longtime Terra Nova (Pacifica, Calif.) football coach Bill Gray insisted there was no good news-bad news scenario concerning his team's convincing 29-15 Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division victory at Sacred Heart Prep Friday afternoon.

As the kids say nowadays, it's all good.

Guard turned fullback Paul Noa — all 6-foot-1, 250 pounds of him — rushed for two touchdowns and a two-point conversion, and junior quarterback Anthony Gordon passed for 314 yards and two touchdowns as MaxPreps' No. 8 Bay Area squad (9-0, 5-0) clinched the outright league title - its fifth consecutive crown.

Along with it, the Tigers earned an automatic bid into the Central Coast Section's rugged Open Division tournament which will feature up to five West Catholic Athletic League squads.

Compared to Sacred Heart Prep (8-1, 3-1), which will drop into the more manageable Division IV playoffs, it doesn't seem like much of a reward for victory, something Gray has noted in the past.

But not this year.

"We're right where we want to be," he said. "We prepared for this (the Open Division). We're ready."

They were certainly ready Friday, taking advantage of a short field three times to take a 20-0 lead in the first 10 minutes and three seconds.

Noa, filling in during short yardage situations for injured 1,000-yard running back John Wallace, scored on a 4-yard run and Gordon connected on touchdown passes of 18 yards to Jaylend Jones and 9 yards to Jordan Genato.

That was basically the ball game, though SHP fought back behind the stellar defensive effort from 6-1, 200-pound junior linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven (two sacks, two other tackles for loss) and 162 yards passing and a touchdown in the second half by sophomore quarterback Mason Randall.

Terra Nova, which came in averaging 45 points and 500 yards of offense per game, sputtered offensively much of the last three quarters when Gordon was sacked four times. Gray was quick to point out that the Tigers scored five times more points than SHP gives up per average (4.5).

The Gators closed to within 29-15 with 8:43 to play on a 1-yard plunge by Andrew Segre and was driving toward another score, but Nick Pierotti, who was everywhere on both sides of the ball, made a leaping interception to clinch the win with 5:20 left. Pierotti leaped, tipped the ball high into dusk (the game lasted until 5:23 p.m. and with no lights, vision was limiting) and then caught it while falling into the end zone. It was his second interception of the game.

The two-way starter, who was in on more than a dozen tackles, also had five catches for 75 yards.

"Those were two really good football teams," Gray said. "We wanted to stun them early and we did that. We scored when we needed. We knew there was no quit (in SHP). … Sacred Heart Prep is the heir apparent in this league. Just not right now." 

#1 De La Salle (Concord) 55, #5 California-San Ramon 0

As usual, the Spartans (10-0) appear to be peaking at just the right time as John Velasco rushed for 185 yards including an 85-yard touchdown run and Antoine Custer rushed for a 48-yard score and returned a punt 45 yards for another touchdown. … De La Salle, which also got a passing and rushing touchdown from Chris Williams,  has now won 36 straight overall and extended its unbeaten streak against Northern California opponents to 245 games. … California, which had negative yards rushing at halftime, dropped to 8-2. It clinched its first East Bay Athletic League title the week before and played without starting injured quarterback Cameron Owen.

#3 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 34, #12 Bellarmine (San Jose) 7

Dakari Monroe caught touchdown passes of 50 and 19 yards from Trent Scharrenberg as No. 3 Mitty (9-0, 6-0) clinched at least a tie for the title in the WCAL with a convincing win over Bellarmine (6-3, 3-3) at at San Jose City College. … After K.J. Carta-Samuels scored on a 10-yard run for Bellarmine to tie the game at 7, Chandler Ramirez scored on a 3-yard run and Monroe hauled in his second TD of the game to give Mitty a 21-7 halftime lead.

#10 Valley Christian (San Jose) 21, #6 St. Francis (Mountain View) 14

Kirk Johnson, Tre McCloud and Collin Johnson scored touchdowns leading host Valley Christian (6-3, 4-2) to a WCAL win over St. Francis (6-3, 3-3), which got two touchdowns from Landon Baty. Baty scored on a 9-yard pass from William Fisher-Colbrie and then after his team trailed 21-7, he returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdowns. ... But Kirk Johnson controlled the clock most of the way and rushed 29 times for 244 yards. ... St. Francis played without two offensive starters due to injury, including starting running back Alex Andrighetto. ... Valley Christian has been shorthanded most of the year, but got Kirk Johnson back to weeks ago and his sophomore brother Collin on Friday.

#14 Clayton Valley Charter (Concord) 56, Northgate (Walnut Creek) 28

Miles Harrison scored four of his five touchdowns in the second half as the visiting Eagles locked up their second straight Diablo Valley Athletic League title. … Harrison finished with 297 yards on 23 carries for Clayton Valley (9-1, 5-0 DVAL), and the Eagles defense forced five turnovers. Northgate (8-2, 3-2) was led by quarterback Kyle Austin's 240 yards on 24 completions.

#17 Casa Grande (Petaluma 40, Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 28

JaJuan Lawson passed for 170 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 116 as visiting Casa Grande (10-0, 8-0) won its first North Bay League title. … Running back John Porchivina got 103 of his 120 yards rushing and both of his TDs in the second half. … Cardinal Newman (7-3, 6-2) got 390 yards passing and two TDs from Keaton Dunsford, who was sacked six times and intercepted three times. … Cody Hughson had three of those sacks.

St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 49, Sacred Heart Cathedral 14

CCS Division III playoff teams aren't going to be happy about playing perhaps the best 2-7 team in the state. … Before more than 5,000 fans at Kezar Stadium, St. Ignatius (2-7, 2-4) all but wrapped up the final CCS playoff spot from the WCAL with a superb showing in the famed Bruce-Mahoney game that dates back 120 years. … Joe Lang continued his stellar senior season with his fifth and sixth return for score on the season with a 63-yard punt return and 35-yard interception return for scores. … Nik Bell scored his second TD of the night on a 24-yard pass from Ryan Hagfeldt to give St. Ignatius a 42-7 halftime lead. ... St. Ignatius' career rushing leader Elijah Dale rushed for two touchdowns, including a 22-yarder in the first half. …St. Ignatius has been competitive in all four of its WCAL losses and has a 31-20 defeat to The Chronicle's No. 2 team Marin Catholic-Kentfield. … Zhi'ir James had a 54-yard TD run for SHC (2-7, 0-6).