Roderick Robinson, already enrolled at the University of Georgia, became the third Lincoln athlete to win Cal-Hi Sports’ Mr. Football award after leading the Hornets to the state Division I championship and the San Diego Section in scoring.

Robinson had the academic credits and graduated early from high school not long after the Hornets’ 33-28 win in the championship game against Concord De La Salle. His 39 touchdowns and 234 points in the 13-1 season gave Robinson a comfortable edge over Francis Parker’s runner-up, Chris Williams, who had 204 points.

Lincoln’s Wally Henry also won the Mr. Football award in 1972 and Marcus Allen earned the honor in 1977.

Allen played quarterback and safety and was the star on a 12-0-1 team, culminating with a five-touchdown performance in a 34-6 championship win over Kearny.  Henry scored 132 points for a 9-3 Hornets squad, which lost to Sweetwater, 22-12, in the title game.

The leading individual scorers for 2022 and past years are listed on the Football/Top Performances/Annual Individual Scorers page. The Alltime Top Scorers list is here.

Eleven wins in 2023 could elevate Sean Doyle to as high as a fourth-place tie with Bennie Edens on the list of San Diego County coaches’ all-time victories.

Eleven wins in 2023 would move Chris Hauser into the club of eight who have won 200 games.

The late Bennie Edens of Point Loma is fourth with 238 victories and Ron Hamamoto, active at Monte Vista, fifth with 233.

Doyle has won at least 11 games nine times in his 27 seasons (1996-2022) at Cathedral and Hauser has reached that figure on four occasions at Vista and Mission Hills (2000-22).

Doyle, who annually puts together a schedule that is as difficult as any in the state, has a 227-102 (.690) record, seventh in wins.

Hauser, who started at Vista and inaugurated the Mission Hills program in 2003, is 189-82-2 (.696), tied for 12^th with Carl Parrick, who was 189-131-8 (.588) in 30 seasons at San Diego Southwest and Bonita Vista.

Madison’s Rick Jackson advanced from 16th to 15th with 162 victories.  Damon Baldwin and Joel Allen also made gains.

Three new members joined the Coach 100 Club this season; El Capitan’s Ron Burner, Morse’s Tracy McNair, and Mount Miguel’s Troy Starr.

The Club total now is 47, with Mater Dei’s Jon Joyner (96 wins), Brawley’s John Self, Jr. (94) and San Pasqual’s Tony Curlee (91) closing in.

The final act for 98 teams and the 561** games they played was a quaternary of success, 4 games, 4 victories in the state bowl championships.

San Diego Section teams enjoyed their most successful year since the inaugural Southern California and state bowl championship series in 2006.

Lincoln (13-1) went on a 21-0 blitz in the third quarter to take a 27-14 lead and held on to defeat Concord De La Salle of the North Coast Section, 33-28, in the Division I-AA final.  The outburst was similar to the 27-0 explosion the previous week third quarter in the 37-14 win over favored Chatsworth Sierra Canyon.

Granite Hills  (13-2) was named State Medium Schools Team of the Year after posting a 31-24, overtime victory against Danville San Ramon Valley of the North Coast Section for the state II-A championship.

Mater Dei (11-4) completed a remarkable comeback after four straight losses at the start of the season, topping Oakland McClymonds of the Oakland Athletic League (the only league of the Oakland Section), 26-18, and defending its state II-AA title.

Classical (11-3) joined the fray, outlasting the Central Coast’s San Jose Santa Teresa, 7-0, for the VI-AA championship in a game that necessitated an 884-mile roundtrip bus ride, the 442-mile jaunt back ensuring a lifetime of memories for the Caimans.

**The figure is for two teams playing one game.

The Union-Tribune’s last Top 10 with updated records and extended-season rankings of the three state-wide contributors:

FINAL RANKINGS

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
University City (11-2, 19 points), Blythe Palo Verde Valley (13-1, 3), Ramona (8-5, 3), Classical (11-3, 1), La Costa Canyon (7-5, 1).

Mater Dei’s recovery from an 0-21 hole to a 22-21 win over Downey in the Southern California playoff last week wasn’t the only remarkable achievement by the South Bay club this year.

The Crusaders’ 10-game winning streak, following four straight losses to open the season, is unprecedented, according to researcher and webmaster Henrik Jonson, who estimated that almost 29,000 games have been played by San Diego County teams since San Diego High (then known as Russ High School) kicked off in the first in 1891.

Two teams, 2014 Madison and 2018 Canyon Hills, lost their first three and then won nine straight before bowing in their final games.

Mater Dei can add an 11th consecutive victory and defend its state II-AA championship Friday at 4 p.m. at Mission Viejo Saddleback College against Oakland McClymonds, champion of the tiny Oakland section, comprised only of the historic Oakland Athletic League. “Mack” is the alma mater of many great athletes, including basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell and baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.

II-A

Granite Hills will attempt to win its first state championship after winning its first San Diego Section title in the school’s 63-season history.  The Eagles meet Danville San Ramon Valley at noon Saturday at Mission Viejo Saddleback College.

Coach Kellan Cobbs’ team likes to attack with a three-pronged running game of Isaiah Jackson, Zak Darling, and Maxwell Turner, who have combined for 2,437 yards and 34 touchdowns in the 12-2 season.

The Eagles showed as birds of prey they were higher up the figurative food chain when they soared past the Rancho Cucamonga Eagles, 41-21, in the Southern California playoff last week.

VI-AA

Classical’s almost Cinderella season comes to a conclusion Friday, beginning with a 5 a.m. bus departure from the Escondido campus and 442-mile ride to south San Jose.

The Caimans will meet Central Coast champion Santa Teresa on the Saints’ home field at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Classical’s 10-3 record is in sharp relief to the 1-9 campaign of 2021 and the 0-4 of 2020.  The Caimans finished third with a 1-2 record to city rival Escondido Charter and Francis Parker in the Pacific League this season.

The Caimans got Life (Pollard) this season from the running back, who rushed for 1,423 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Following the 16-8 loss to rival Escondido Charter in the final regular-season game, Classical rolled through the playoffs, defeating Calexico Vincent Memorial, 32-0; winning a rematch with Charter, 28-14; topping San Diego Section D-V No. 1 seed Crawford, 33-14, and ousting Lancaster, 34-14, last week in the Southern California playoff.

Matchups involving San Diego Section teams in the state bowl championship series this week:

Lincoln (12-1) versus Concord De La Salle (10-3), North Coast Section, Friday, 8 p.m., Mission Viejo Saddleback College.

Calpreps pick:

Lincoln, 65 per cent chance of winning.

Mater Dei versus Oakland McClymonds (Oakland Section), Friday, 4 p.m., Mission Viejo Saddleback College.

Calpreps pick:

Mater Dei, 65 per cent chance of winning.

Granite Hills versus Danville San Ramon Valley (North Coast) Saturday, noon, Mission Viejo Saddleback College.

Calpreps pick:

Granite Hills, 62 per cent chance of winning.

Calpreps pick:

Classical @San Jose Santa Teresa (Central Coast), Saturday, 6 p.m.

Calpreps pick:

Santa Teresa, 65 per cent chance of winning.

Lincoln, riding with Hot-Roderick Robinson, a 228-pound running back committed to the University of Georgia, will attempt to do what no San Diego Section team has done in this week’s CIF state bowl Division 1-AA championship:

Win a game against Concord De La Salle, the North Coast Section champion with the pedigree of 151 consecutive wins from 1992-2004.

Four of those 151 victories were against San Diego Section squads and two others have brought the Spartans a 6-0 record against the area’s best clubs:

Lincoln (12-1) stunned Chatsworth Sierra Canyon and a legion of Los Angele-area experts with a 37-14 victory on the road in the Southern California playoffs last week.

Robinson has been nursing a tender hamstring but he blazed a trail through the Trailblazers with 178 yards in 16 carries and four touchdowns, including 74- and 47-yard scoring runs.

Lincoln, leading, 10-7, at halftime, threw down on the Trailblazers with a 27-0 blitz in the third quarter.

The Hornets are Cal-Hi Sports’ No. 9 team this week and have a 65.1 calpreps rating.  They are fourth in California, according to Max Preps.

De La Salle (10-3) advanced with a come-from-behind, 17-14 win over Folsom, another blooded state contender. The Spartans are Cal-Hi’s No. 8 team, have 55.5 calpreps strength, and Max Preps ranks them 12^th.