Despite defeat, Cathedral got respect and cred in Cal-Hi Sports’  final rating of the state’s top 2018 teams.

Coach Sean Doyle’s team could not take down mighty Folsom, losing, 21-14, in overtime to the Sacramento-area power that had punished San Diego clubs in the past, but Cathedral’s stout performance in the Division 1-AA final at Cerritos College in Norwalk elevated the Dons from eighth to seventh behind, in order,  blue bloods Santa Ana Mater Dei, Bellflower St. John Bosco, Concord De LaSalle, Corona Centennial, and Folsom.

Westlake Village Oaks Christian nosed out the Dons for sixth.

Doyle’s clubs hit a bump in the road every once in a while but they travel with the elite and schedule the big boys.

Cathedral figures to make another run in 2019, returning several battle-tested players, starting with quarterback D.J. Ralph.  They’ll have to replace running back Shawn Poma, the San Diego Section player of the year who hit with howitzer force and was the heartbeat of the Dons’ offense.

Torrey Pines was 14^th in Cal-Hi Sports’ final,  St. Augustine 48^th, and Helix 52^nd.  Carlsbad, Eastlake, and Lincoln each was given honorable mention.

Cathedral ranked ninth in the state and 35^th in the country, according to Max Preps.  Torrey Pines was 23rd in California, St. Augustine 35^th, and Helix 45^th.

Cal Preps.com gave Cathedral a 64.7 grade, Torrey Pines 53.8, St. Augustine 49.0, and Helix 44.7.

CAVERS PREVAIL

San Diego was the only champion of the four San Diego Section finalists.  The Cavers, after traveling 563 miles, overcame an early, 10-0 deficit to defeat favored Colfax, 21-10, in D5-AA.

The victory revived memories of the Hilltoppers’ illustrious past.

While the Cavers had not done much in football the last 50 or so years, they still had their followers.

A Go-Fund-Me page with a goal of  $14,000 to help defray the Cavers’ expenses for the trip was met so quickly that many graduates couldn’t respond. Many in the school’s vast number of alumni had stepped up in support of the Park Boulevard mainstay.

Lincoln dropped a 21-7 decision to Menlo-Atherton in D3-AA and Orange Glen was defeated in D6-A by San Francisco Lincoln, 24-13.

VALLEY CENTER RUNNER TOPS

Mateo Sinohui of Valley Center led the section with 31 touchdowns and 18 two-point conversions for 222 points, according to the unofficial statistics annually provided by Max Preps.

Rancho Buena Vista’s Dorian Richardson had 34 touchdowns and 204 points and Orange Glen’s Cael Patterson, who returns in ’19, had 200, followed by Torrey Pines Mac Bingham with 158.

Go to the Football menu, search Top Performances, and then scroll to Annual Individual Performers for a list of the top 15.

San Diego Section squads are 10-16 since in state championship games were reintroduced in 2006:

YEAR	DIVISION	TEAM	OPPONENT	SCORE
2007	II	Oceanside	Novato*	28-14*
2008	III	Cathedral	Stockton St. Mary’s**	37-34
2009	V	Francis Parker	Modesto Christian**	40-44
2010	IV	Madison	Escalon**	14-30
2011	II	Helix	Loomis Del Oro**	35-24
2012	IV	Madison	Marin Catholic*	38-35
	V	Santa Fe Christian	Modesto Central Catholic**	7-66
2014	I	Oceanside	Folsom**	7-68
	III	El Capitan	Moraga Campolindo*	28-35
2015	III-A	Rancho Bernardo	Atherton Sacred Heart##	35-14
	IV-AA	Bonita Vista	Hanford+	21-33
	V-AA	Mater Dei	Reedley Immanuel+	55-21
	VI-AA	Coronado	East Nicolaus++	6-16
2016	I-AA	Cathedral	Stockton St. Mary’s**	38-31
	II-AA	Madison	San Jose Village Christian##	21-17
	III	The Bishop’s	Oakdale**	0-47
	V-A	La Jolla Country Day	Oakland McClymonds+++	17-20
	VI-A	Horizon	Strathmore+	22-62
2017	I-AA	Helix	Folsom**	42-49
	III-A	Steele Canyon	Half Moon Bay##	44-42
	IV-AA	El Central Southwest	Milpitas##	41-45
	VI-A	Calexico Vincent Memorial	S.F. Galileo***	20-38
2018	I-AA	Cathedral	Folsom**	14-21>
	III-AA	Lincoln	Menlo-Atherton##	7-21
	V-AA	San Diego	Colfax**	21-10
	VI-A	Orange Glen	S.F. Lincoln ***	13-24

CIF sections:

+–Central. ++–Northern.  +++–Oakland.  *–North Coast.  **Sac-Joaquin. ***–San Francisco. ##Central Coast. >Overtime.

Seasons of 9-2 and 8-4, respectively, continued to elevate Ron Hamamoto and Valley Center’s Rob Gilster in the upper strata of all-time, San Diego Section football coaches. Cathedral’s Sean Doyle is on the cusp of 200 victories.

Hamamoto, who completed his 32^nd season at Cathedral (nee University), Rancho Bernardo, Lincoln, and Monte Vista since 1985, completed the year with 227 victories.  The graduate of Long Beach Poly still is fifth in number of wins but is stalking Morse’s John Shacklett, who won 229 in 32 seasons at Morse.

Gilster, an all-section lineman in the 1980s at Escondido, has won 224 games since 1989 at Orange Glen and Valley Center and moved past Gil Warren into sixth place.

Despite a wrenching, 21-14 overtime loss to Folsom in the state Division I-AA championship, Doyle’s 12-2 season vaulted him from 13^th to a tie for 10^th with Vista’s Dick Haines, each with 194 wins.

Damon Baldwin has compiled a record of 98-61-1 since becoming Ramona’s head coach in 2005 and could become the 42^nd with 100 victories next year, with Olympian’s Paul Van Nosdtrand (97) and Grossmont’s Tom Karlo (95) in pursuit,

The eight active members of the Century Club:  Hamamoto, Gilster, Doyle, Matt Oliver (166), Chris Hauser (159), Mike Hastings (145), Rick Jackson (131), and John McFadden (130).

CARROLL LEADS

John Carroll, 248-75-6 in 26 seasons at Oceanside, still has the highest winning percentage, .763, followed Birt Slater (.753), Rick Jackson (.751), John McFadden (.747), and George Ohnessorgen (.745).

All of Jack Mashin’s 125 victories came when Grossmont was a member of the Southern Section, from which San Diego schools broke in 1960.  Herb Meyer, Bennie Edens, Chick Embrey, Gene Edwards, and Birt Slater also won games when their schools were in the Southern Section.

Ed Burke (215) won at least 40 more games as head coach at King City in the Central Coast Section.  Dick Haines (194) won an untold number in Dover, Ohio.

Chula Vista’s Chet DeVore and San Diego’s Duane Maley are the County’s all-time leaders in won-loss percentage based on a minimum of 50 games.  DeVore was 44-7-1 (.856) and Maley 97-19-3 (.828).

The all-time winner remains Herb Meyer, who won’t be challenged for many years, if ever.  With 339 victories at Oceanside and El Camino, Meyer is 91 ahead of runner-up John Carroll (248).

Search the “Football” menu and scroll down to “Coach 100 Win Club” for a complete list.

It’s been 96 years, but who’s counting when you’re having fun?

San Diego High coach Charles James has reason to be enjoying the moment.  The once tradition-rich Cavers (12-2) have become relevant after a slump that spanned generations.

How far the Hilltoppers have come back will continue to be measured when James’ club travels about 560 miles to the former gold country northeast of Sacramento and takes on the Colfax Falcons of the Sac-Joaquin Section in the state Division 6-AA championship game Saturday evening.

The Cavers will be making their first appearance in a state playoff since they dropped a 17-6 decision to Bakersfield in City Stadium (renamed Balboa in 1939) in 1922.   State championship contests were discontinued after the 1926 season and reinstated in 2006.

James, who was 7-5 and 4-7 at University City in 2013-14, assumed leadership of the San Diego program in 2015 and took his lumps, 2-8 and 1-9 in his first two seasons before his team hit stride and climbed to 12-1 in 2017.

–San Diego is one of four San Diego Section teams to have reached the final.  All four are considered underdogs by the ratings groups.

Colfax, with a 13-0 record, is ranked 80^th in the state by Max Preps.  San Diego is ranked 124^th.  Cal Preps.com assigns Colfax a 36.8 rating and San Diego 30.1.

–Orange Glen, which won its first league championship since 1995 and first section title since 1967, takes a 10-4 record to City College of San Francisco, where the Patriots will play San Francisco Lincoln, 12-0, and a 52-18 winner over Galileo, which beat Calexico Vincent Memorial, 38-20, for the 2017 state championship in D-6A.

S.F. Lincoln has a 12.5 Cal-Preps.com rating and Orange Glen 5.2.  Max Preps rated Lincoln 289^th in the state and Orange Glen 376th.

–San Diego Lincoln (11-4) will meet Central Coast Section big shot Menlo-Atherton (12-2) at Redwood City Sequoia High. The Bears have a 43.5 Cal Preps.com rating to Lincoln’s 42.7 and rate 49^th by Max Preps to Lincoln’s 51^st.  Menlo-Atherton is 41^st in Cal-Hi Sports’ top 50, while Lincoln is on the bubble.

–Cathedral, eighth this week in Cal-Hi Sports, will be the third consecutive San Diego Section squad trying to slow down Folsom, Cal-Hi Sports’ No. 5 team.  The Falcons received a 78.1 compliment from Cal-Preps.com, while Cathedral came in at 65.0.  Max Preps rates Folsom fourth and Cathedral ninth.

BULLDOGS TAKE NO PRISONERS

Folsom wore out Fresno Central in the Northern California final, 84-46, despite giving up 763 yards.  The Bulldogs lost their season opener, 14-0, to Concord De La Salle and then ran the table with 13 straight wins, six times passing 60 points and knocking out rival Loomis Del Oro, 40-0.

“We played them in 2014,” Folsom coach Kris Richardson said of Cathedral to Cal-Hi-Sports’ Mark Tennis.  After Folsom’s 55-10 victory, Cathedral coach Sean Doyle declared the suburban Sacramento team near the prison by the same name was the best he had ever seen.  “We’re pretty good this year, too,” Richardson noted to Mark Tennis.

Folsom also roughed up 14-0 Oceanside, 68-7, in 2014, after which  ailing Pirates’ coach John Carroll retired.

Folsom defeated Helix, 49-42, in the 2017 D-1AA championship. It was the only occasion that the Folsom coach was not able to pour it on.

Cathedral has been here before, defeating Stockton St. Mary’s, 37-34, in 2008, and again in 2016, 38-35.

QUICK KICKS

San Diego teams are 5-9 in state championships since the six-division model was adopted in 2014…they were 0-2 in ’14, 2-2 in ’15, 2-2 in ’16, and 1-3 in ’17…San Francisco Lincoln has one of the most diverse groups of notable alumni, including golf champions Johnny Miller and Ken Venturi, Super Bowl champion coach Mike Holmgren, and Alzono Powell, recently the San Diego Padres’ assistant hitting coach….

No team could match, or come close to, the withering pace of Bill Walton and the Helix Highlanders, but individual play was at an all-time high.

Eleven players, meeting a minimum of 15 games, averaged at least 23 points.  Eleven also scored more than 600 points.

By comparison, just 10 players averaged 23 points or more from 1960-69.  The table below includes annual leaders in points and averages from the inaugural San Diego Section season in 1960-61 through 1960-69.

Second table will show how scoring in 1969-70 was dramatically higher than in any of the first nine seasons of the decade.

More teams, more games and more players contributed to the increased level of points, but scoring average comes from better shooting, which continued to evolve, dating from the vintage, “running set shot” to today’s pure jump shot.

SEASON	NAME	TEAM	POINTS	AVERAGE
60-61	John Fairchild	San Dieguito	428
	Brian Ross	El Capitan		18.7
61-62	Dick Baker	Grossmont	490	19.6
62-63	Larry Blum	Crawford	737	23.8
	Elburt Miller	San Diego	688	25.5
63-64	Rip Barrett	Castle Park	537
	Paul Landis	Monte Vista		20.7
64-65	Mike Kinkki	Mission Bay	601	21.5
65-66	Von Jacobsen	Crawford	712	24.6
66-67	Blaine Bundy	El Capitan	656	25.2
	Oscar Foster	San Diego	642
	Russ (Whimpy) Northcutt	Kearny	622	23.9
	Steve Rostoker	Madison	602	23.2
67-68	Ron Dahms	Madison	712
	Mike Ela	Mount Miguel	685
	John Tschogl	Hilltop	649
	Monroe Nash	Morse	608	24.3
68-69	Wilburn Strong	Kearny	774	25.8
	Phil Edwards	Madison	766	23.9
	Paul Halupa	Bonita Vista	718*	28.7

*Next highest scorer had 553.

1969-70:

NAME	TEAM	GAMES	POINTS	AVERAGE
Bill Walton	Helix	33	958	29.0 (1)
Dave Smith	Madison	29	776	26.8 (3)
George Evans	St. Augustine	32	748	23.4 (8)
Cedric (Ric) Reed	Morse	29	711	24.5 (5)
Clarence Brown	Lincoln	29	709	24.4 (6)
Elias Delgadillo	Castle Park	30	689	23.0 (T10)
Paul Halupa	Bonita Vista	25	688	27.5 (2)
Steve Higgins	La Jolla	26	667	25.7 (4)
Mike Dupree	Helix	33	652	19.8
Pete Jackson	Hilltop	28	644	23.0 (T10)
Bob Nelson	Vista	26	605	23.3 (9)
Bob Tagye	Chula Vista	29	592	20.4
Randy Schutjer	Chula Vista	29	548	18.9
Kenny Carlson	Mar Vista	25	528	21.1
Bill Belander	Monte Vista	28	501	17.9
Steve Vickery	El Capitan	24	485	20.3
Gary Monahan	St. Augustine	29	485	16.7
Scott Braly	Francis Parker	20	474	22.7
James Ross	Kearny	25	475	19.0
Tim Doerr	Granite Hills	21	470	22.4
Nate Smith	San Diego	24	449	18.7
Kyle Hypes	Santana	29	444	15.3
Dave Bartholomew	Kearny	26	443	17.0
Jimmy Bristol	Monte Vista	28	440	15.7
Loren Russell	San Diego Military	19	433	22.3
Mark Wilde	Grossmont	24	427	17.8
Jack McMahon	University	29	416	14.3
Gary Kloppenburg	La Jolla	27	413	15.3

Reed, Christian, 16×391, 24.4. Pharr, La Jolla Country Day, 18×361, 20.0.                  Sander, San Miguel, 16×324, 20.3. Western, San Miguel, 10×239, 23.9.

HELIX OR MOUNT MIGUEL?

Bill Center of The San Diego Union posed the question to 10 area coaches.  Which is better, this year’s Helix team, 19-0 at the time of the poll, or the 1967-68 Mount Miguel team that was 32-0?

Five coaches voted for Helix, 2 for Mount Miguel, two abstained, and one didn’t reply.

The consensus was “Mount Miguel was great, but Walton….”

Madison coach John Hannon (18-11): “I used to say that Mount Miguel was the best around in a long time, but (Bill) Walton makes me think twice.  If you stress the word TEAM I like Mount Miguel…but I think Helix would win the game.”

Lincoln’s Bill Peterson (23-6): “Mount Miguel was a five-man effort, while Helix is four men working towards one.  It’s a better year (talent wise in the area) than it was then.  I think Helix is a better club.”

Wayne Colborne, Kearny (11-15):  “Mount Miguel.  (Mike) Ela and (Kenny) Greenman supplied the outside shooting you need to beat a good big man.”

Pal Pruett, Hilltop (19-9):  “Mount Miguel was the more demoralizing of the two and had better personnel.”

Tom Curran, Santana (20-9):  “I don’t think Mount Miguel’s press would have worked.”

Tom Williams, Morse (18-11):  “(Helix) is a fine team without Walton.  It’s a great team with him.”

Tom Snow, Castle Park (23-7):  “This is a sport that a big man can dominate.  Walton dominates.’

BEFOULED

La Jolla Country Day’s 92-78 win over Christian had an interesting angle.  Six of the seven players on the Christian roster fouled out in the fourth quarter.  The game was called with 1:42 remaining when the Patriots had one man on the court.

SPARTANS & RANDY ON FIRE

Randy (Shooter) Schutjer of Chula Vista drained all 10 of his field goal attempts but his 23 points were just a complement to Chula Vista’s 79-69 victory over Hoover (13-14).  Teammate Bob Tagye scored 24 points and the hot Spartans knocked down 32×44 attempts from the field, a fiery 73 per cent.

SHAULES-ERA RECORD FALLS

Tom Shaules, Sammy Owens, Raul Martinez and company set a St. Augustine scoring record in a 105-34 victory over La Jolla in 1957-58.  This season’s squad (28-4) surpassed that once-unapproachable mark in a 109-46 stomping of El Capitan (6-18).  Tom Davis (29), George Evans (19), Ron Wrigley (18), and Gary Monahan (12) led the way.

Francis Parker’s Scott Braly almost outscored San Marino Southwestern Military with 25 points in a 48-25 victory.  Braly scored 28 in a rematch in Municipal Gym as the Lancers prevailed again, 62-36.

TOURNAMENTS

KIWANIS

–Madison’s 6-foot, 4-inch Dave Smith set a school record with 45 points, bettering Phil Edwards’ 43 in 1968-69, with 16 field goals and 13×15 free throw shooting in the Warhawks’ 97-43, first-round romp over Mount Miguel in the 23^rd annual.

–Smith had 15 field goals and 33 points the next night but Madison fell to Helix, 87-65.

–Helix defeated San Diego (13-11), 89-45, for the Unlimited Division title.  Castle Park topped Lincoln, 65-52, for the Limited, and El Centro Central beat Mission Bay(12-12), 59-49, for the Classified.

—La Jolla’s Steve Higgins scored 37 points in the 15-12 Vikings’ 84-64 win over Carlsbad (12-14) for third place in the  Limited Division.  Higgins broke Chet Guthrie’s school record of 35 in 1960-61.

UNIVERSITY

Tenth-grader Steve Seidler had a game he could talk about the rest of his life.

Point Loma, 4-5, upset 7-4 Santana, 59-57, in overtime in the opening round.

Seidler scored 24 points, a notable achievement, but which took a backseat.

–Seidler scored the Pointers’ last 10 points in regulation play.

–With Santana stars Terry Forster and Kyle Hypes out with fouls, Seidler keyed a Pointers zone press that overcame a 12-point Sultans lead in the fourth quarter.

–Seidler rebounded a teammate’s missed shot and scored with three seconds left to tie the game, 55-55, and send it into the extra session.

–Seidler’s 20-foot jump shot with two seconds left in overtime lifted the Pointers to victory.

–Clarence Brown’s 31 points were enough for Lincoln to beat St. Augustine, 72-64, for the championship.

EL CENTRO ELKS

–Clarence Thomas, averaging 34.9 points for 10-0 Blythe Palo Verde scored 41 points and Art Harris, averaging 21.6, added 27 as the Yellowjackets overcame Dave Smith’s 38 to topple Madison, 96-95.

–Cedric (Ric) Reed scored 43 points the following evening as Morse eliminated Palo Verde, 123-72.  Harris scored 38 but Thomas was held to 19.

–The 12-0 El Centro Central Spartans outscored Morse, 19-9, in the fourth quarter to win the championship, 65-53.  Blythe beat Crawford, 84-75, for third place and Madison earned fifth place, 65-51 over Orange Glen.

VILLA PARK

La Crescenta Crescenta Valley topped Oceanside (20-7), 81-48. Oceanside won the consolation championship defeating Redondo Beach Redondo, 76-64, and Palos Verdes Miraleste, 77-72.

JIM MITCHELL (FORMER MUSTANG OPTIMIST)

Mar Vista (12-13)claimed the championship, 68-57, over Carlsbad as Don Wade and Kenny Carlsen each scored 21.

NEWPORT HARBOR

La Jolla’s Steve Higgins was injured in pregame warmup and didn’t play but the Vikings defeated Yuma KOFA, 64-63.  Lancaster Antelope Valley defeated La Jolla, 81-58, in the semifinals and Monte Vista (21-7) advanced, 73-65 over Newport Beach Newport Harbor after trailing, 50-49, entering the final quarter.

CHINO

Chula Vista won its opening game, 68-65, in overtime against Pomona and then lost to Pomona, 94-85.  Ganesha ousted Chula Vista from the consolation bracket, 73-70.

LA PUENTE NOGALES

Bonita defeated Marian, 70-50, Rowland Heights Rowland sent the Crusaders home, 67-50.

COVINA

While Helix was dominating, Poway advanced in the consolation bracket, 69-65, over Los Angeles Cathedral after an 83-73 loss to Pasadena La Salle.

BULLDOGS BITE

Ramona (18-7) won the Class A championship by defeating 10-8 La Jolla Country Day, 103-55, and Army-Navy (13-8), 84-55.  Army-Navy had knocked out 9-12 Mountain Empire, which practices outside and does not have a gym, 64-50 and ‘Day topped ‘Empire, 70-57, for third place.

QUICK KICKS

St. Augustine, with  12-0 record, became the first Eastern League team to run the table since Hoover was 10-0 in 1959-60…the Saints had clinched with two games to remaining, knocking down Morse, 78-69, behind George Evans’ 30 points…Patrick Henry(12-15) clinched a more successful second season when it won an early December game against Santana, 59-55, to improve to 3-0…the Patriots were  2-23 in 1968-69…coaches’ sons included La Jolla’s Gary Kloppenburg and University’s Jack McMahon…Bob Kloppenburg coached Cal Western University and Jack McMahon, Sr., mentored the San Diego Rockets of the NBA…all 11 Santana players scored in the Sultans’ 91-63 victory over Point Loma….future major league pitcher Terry Forster led the Santee club with 11 points…Chula Vista’s Bob Tagye converted a free throw and scored on a follow shot to give Chula Vista a 68-65, overtime win against Montclair in the Chino Tournament…future football coach Gene Alim on Mar Vista also could hoop…Alim scored 26 in an 86-82 loss to Bonita Vista…Granite Hills (5-19) dropped an 88-61 decision to Grossmont (8-16) despite 40 points from Tim Doerr…Mount Miguel, destined for a 2-22 finish won its first game of the season in the University event by overcoming a 40-point effort by Randy Larson and defeating Clairemont (5-20), 71-68…Roy Garcia converted 15×16 free throw attempts and Hoover upended Morse, 62-53…La Jolla converted 35×44 free throws in an 81-68 win over University (19-9)…James Ross, a transfer from Denver, Colorado, sank two free throws with 15 seconds left in regulation and drained a 22-foot shot at the buzzer in overtime to give Kearny a 57-55 win over Point Loma (8-16)….

Get your kicks on Route 101 or I-5.

And be sure to pack for cool…well, maybe cold weather.

That’s the forecast for 3 of the San Diego Section teams still competing in the state football playoffs.

Lincoln knows that it will play next week in Division III-AA but not where after winning the Southern California regional last week, coming from a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to win on the road, 54-42, at Culver City.

The Hornets will take on the winner of the Northern regional, matching Menlo-Atherton of the Central Coast Section and Eureka of the North Coast.

Should Eureka win, Lincoln may find use for a Rand-McNally road atlas.

A Lincoln-Eureka game would arguably represent the longest, in-state trip in the history of the state CIF.

The distance is 772.3 miles from the Hornets’ campus at 49^th Street and Imperial Avenue in South San Diego to the Eureka High campus at 19^th and J. streets, roughly 270 miles North of San Francisco and about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.

The trip could be longer, if this week’s site is an indication.  The Eureka Loggers-Menlo Atherton Bears contest will be played at McKinleyville High, 19 miles north of Eureka.

Should Menlo-Atherton win, the Hornets are looking at an approximate 490-mile trip.

San Diego High and Orange Glen also will make the rubber hit the road.

The Cavers will meet Colfax in the D5-A championship and they are preparing for a 563-mile venture to a community that its chamber of commerce advertises as “above the fog and below the snow”, northeast of Sacramento.  Colfax’ 2,425-foot elevation is probably a couple hundred feet  higher than Ramona’s in San Diego County.

The odometer will finally rest at 502 miles when Orange Glen visits San Francisco Lincoln in the San Francisco Washington stadium, which is located in  an area known as the “Avenues”, several miles west of downtown.

Cathedral also doesn’t know which team it will play, Folsom or Fresno Central, but the Division I-AA state championship game will be at Cerritos College in Norwalk, less than 2 hours from the Dons’ Del Mar digs.

LAST WEEK

CATHEDRAL 24, NARBONNE 21

Cathedral won another tough battle with visiting Harbor City Narbonne, the L.A. City champion, 24-21, when Jalen Dye, son of former major league baseballer Jermaine Dye intercepted a pass on the Dons’ one-yard line with 14 seconds remaining after the Gauchos had fought back from a 21-7 deficit.

Cathedral’s Dean Janikowski broke a 21-21 tie with a 40-yard field goal with 1:42 remaining.  Narbonne’s Jake Garcia passed for 334 yards, but Cathedral’s Shawn Poma rushed for 246 yards and touchdown runs of 33 and 80 yards.

Poma ran for 175 yards and four touchdowns in the Dons’ 35-28, DI-AA playoff win over Narbonne in 2016.

SIMI VALLEY GRACE BRETHREN 28, ST. AUGUSTINE 14

The Saints trailed, 21-14, with 2:01 remaining in the DII-AA contest at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks when they were stopped on fourth down at the Lancers’ 49-yard line.  Brethren’s Josh Henderson clinched the victory with a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:11 left.  The Saints ended coach Joe Kremer’s first season at 10-5.

LINCOLN 54, CULVER CITY 42

The Hornets’ Don Chapman scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, on a 40-yard interception return, 84-yard kickoff return, one-yard touchdown run, and two-yard point after run to seal the DIII-AA victory after Lincoln trailed, 35-26, in the second half.

VISALIA CENTRAL VALLEY CHRISTIAN 30, MORSE 14

The Central Section champion overcame an early, 8-0 Morse lead and dominated the IV-AA game.  Shamar Martin, apparently headed to UCLA, led the Tigers with 111 yards in 21 carries and a touchdown.

SAN DIEGO 42, TEMECULA LINFIELD CHRISTIAN 31

The Cavers trailed the DV-A favorite and state’s highest scoring team, 21-0, 24-7, and 31-21.  Jayden Wickware’s 94-yard kickoff return got the Cavers close, and then Mo Jackson put the them in front, 35-31, with a 57-yard scoring hike.

ORANGE GLEN 22, L.A. LOCKE 14

Carlos Galvan sacked Saints quarterback Mikel Beime, who fumbled and the Patriots’ Damien Gainey recovered and ran 10 yards to Locke’s nine-yard line.  On the next play Cael Patterson scored and then, after a couple penalties on the visitors, punched in a two-point conversion to clinch the DVI-A battle with 2:05 remaining.

Sixth and final in a series on San Diego Section state playoff matchups.

VI-A

After coach Rob Gilster departed to fledgling Valley Center following a 9-3 season in 1997, Orange Glen went into free fall.  They were 51-155 from 1998 until this season when fifth-season coach Jason Patterson, 1-9 in ‘17 and 15-28 overall, turned to another Patterson.

Cael Patterson, the coach’s son, a 180-pound junior not reluctant to take the ball, averaged 200 yards a game rushing, with 2,196 yards in 329 carries in 11 games, and scored 26 touchdowns to go with a 6.7-yard rushing average.

Patterson also caught 14 and scored two touchdowns although the pass is a passing thought to the Patriots, who have attempted 55 in their 8-4 season.

Cal Preps.com predicts a 28-21 Orange Glen victory over Los Angeles Locke tonight at  6 in the Southern California Class 6-A playoffs at the Patriots’ East Escondido facility.

Locke played in the Los Angeles City Section’s Coliseum League for many years, but, after a 1-9 season in 2016, the Saints moved to the Metro, winning a league championship with a 10-3 overall record.

The school in the legendary South Central L.A. community of Watts went back to the Coliseum this year, finishing third to Dorsey and Crenshaw, but defeated Roosevelt, 22-21, for the D-II section title and is 10-4.

Locke has an edge in prominent alumni.

Named after Alain Leroy Locke, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907, the Saints boast baseball Hall of Famers Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith among their graduates, along with Valery Briscoe Hooks, a five-time Olympic medalist in track and field.

Orange Glen cites two NFL players, quarterback Sean Salisbury and defensive back Lenny McGill. By the time he graduates in 2020, Patterson figures to increase Orange Glen’s list of prominent football alums.