Cathedral Catholic takes on visiting Corona Centennial Friday night in a battle of elite privates and publics.
Coach Sean Doyle’s private-school Dons defeated Arizona’s big one, Scottsdale Saguaro, 18-10, last week at home in the final of the Honor Bowl tripleheader.
Public school Centennial, after a 42-12, opening-game loss to national No. 1 Santa Ana Mater Dei, won its second straight blowout, 56-14 over usually rugged Orange Lutheran.
Matchups like these have become common for Doyle’s team, which does not flinch when assembling a schedule.
Part of the work is done for Cathedral because it embraces the opportunity each year to participate in the Honor Bowl, a season-opening series played to assist wounded war veterans and brings together some of the top teams in the country.
The Dons are guaranteed a tough opponent in those games, but Cathedral takes it a step further.
Cathedral is acknowledged as having one of California’s top programs and it has gotten there by venturing out of San Diego County.
Winning the league championship and moving through the playoff rounds are the preeminent goals every year, but ratings rate, too.
Three major observers, Cal-Hi Sports, Cal-Preps.com, and Max Preps consider this week’s Dons-Huskies one of the season’s top matchups.
Cathedral is weekly Cal-Hi Sports’ No. 6 team and Centennial No. 5.
Max Preps rates Cathedral No. 5 in California and No. 19 nationally. Centennial is No. 3 and No. 6, respectively.
Cal Preps.com gives Centennial a computer score of 80.1, Cathedral 68.4.
Doyle, who played at University and became the Dons’ coach in 1997 and was part of the move to Carmel Valley when the school was renamed Cathedral Catholic in 2004, has won 198 games in his career and is 16-10 against teams from out of San Diego County.
Cathedral and Helix are two teams from this area who approach the season in much the same manner as the Duane Maley teams of San Diego High in the late ‘forties and 1950s. Maley’s pre-league schedule always was loaded.
Cathedral’s intersectional record since 1997:
| SEASON | OPPONENT | WIN-LOSS | SCORE |
| 1998 | @Las Vegas Cimarron | W | 28-6 |
| 2001 | Norristown, @Villanova, Pennsyvania | L | 35-6 |
| 2003 | @Carmichael Jesuit | L | 41-6 |
| 2004 | Carmichael Jesuit | L | 16-13 |
| 2006 | Mansfield, Massachusetts | L | 35-0 |
| 2008 | Stockton St. Mary’s | W | 37-34* |
| 2013 | Sandy Jordan, Utah | W | 38-6 |
| Murrieta Vista Murrieta | W | 35-28 | |
| 2014 | Folsom | L | 55-10 |
| Westlake Village Oaks Christian @Oceanside | W | 28-21 | |
| @Newbury Park | W | 42-28 | |
| 2015 | Rancho Santa Margarita | L | 40-14 |
| Westlake Village Oaks Christian | L | 35-33 | |
| Bakersfield Liberty | W | 24-10 | |
| Reno Damonte, Nevada | W | 48-19 | |
| 2016 | Reno Damonte, Nevada | W | 49-12 |
| Modesto Central Catholic | W | 28-25 | |
| Bakersfield Liberty | W | 49-7 | |
| Harbor City Narbonne | W | 35-28* | |
| Stockton St. Mary’s | W | 38-35* | |
| 2017 | Loomis Del Oro | L | 22-12 |
| Orange Lutheran | L | 37-0 | |
| 2018 | Gardena Serra | W | 42-21 |
| Harbor City Narbonne | W | 24-21* | |
| Folsom | L | 21-14* | |
| 2019 | Scottsdale Saguaro, Arizona | W | 18-10 |
| Corona Centennial | |||
| 16-10 |
Meanwhile, the Dons continued to rank No. 1 in the San Diego Section ahead of arch rival and Western League opponent St. Augustine.
The Saints whacked former power Eastlake, 47-0, last week and take on old rival Los Angeles Loyola at Mesa College this week.
The teams first met in 1926, were members of the Southland Catholic League from 1945-50, and then went their separate ways.
The Saints and Cubs renewed aquaintances and have played every year since 2014, with Loyola holding a 3-2 edge, although St. Augustine won last year’s game, 28-10, in Los Angeles.
Loyola holds an overall, 8-3-1 lead in the series.
QUICK KICKS
“There’s no doubt that it hurts, because we invested a lot of time, effort, and energy in trying to win that game,” Saguaro coach Jason Mohn said to Richard Obert of the Arizona Republic in recapping the loss to Cathedral….
San Diego Union-Tribune Week 2 poll:
Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
First-place votes in parenthesis. NR–Not ranked.
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | PREVIOUS |
| 1. | Cathedral (29) | 2-0 | 308 | 1 |
| 2. | St. Augustine (2) | 2-0 | 280 | 2 |
| 3. | Helix | 1-1 | 207 | 3 |
| 4. | Carlsbad | 2-0 | 198 | 6 |
| 5. | Lincoln | 2-0 | 178 | 5 |
| 6. | Steele Canyon | 2-0 | 150 | 7 |
| 7. | Torrey Pines | 1-1 | 128 | 4 |
| 8. | Mission Hills | 1-1 | 120 | 8 |
| 9. | Grossmont | 2-0 | 31 | NR |
| 10. | La Costa Canyon | 1-1 | 30 | NR |
Others receiving votes: Granite Hills (2-0, 26 points), Oceanside (1-1, 14), Madison (1-1, 12), San Marcos (1-1, 2), San Diego (2-0, 1), El Camino (1-1, 1), San Pasqual (2-0, 1).
Voting panel of 31 sportswriters, sportscasters, various County football honchos:
- John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
- Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Bob Petinak, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
- Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone,Ted Mendenhall, KUSI Chl. 51
- Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
- Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
- Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
- Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090
- Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions
- Troy Hirsch, Kaylyn McMakin, Tabitha Lipkin, Fox 5, San Diego
- Rick Smith, PartletonSports.com
- Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, Ron Marquez, CIF San Diego Section
- Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
- Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
- John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
- Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
- Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.
- Christian Pederson, SoCal Prep Insider
- Eric Williams, WBK Sports/San Dego Friday Night Lights Magazine
