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:

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….

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.

Fifth in a series this week on San Diego Section playoff matchups.

V-A

San Diego coach Charles James, while returning the city’s oldest and perhaps most beloved high school to prominence, recognized tradition and greatness.

After multi-generation tough sledding, which began with a gradual shift in demographics and school boundaries after Duane Maley retired following a championship in 1959, the Cavers are thriving again.

San Diego won 176 games and lost 347 from 1960-2014.  They were 2-8 and 1-9 in James’ first two seasons, 2015-16, but have enjoyed back to back 12-1 and 10-2 campaigns.

The Cavers topped Kearny, 42-14, last week for their first outright San Diego Section title (they shared a championship after a 21-21 tie with Escondido in 1969) and James paid tribute to those who came before him in an interview following the game with television channel KUSI 51.

James, born several years after Maley’s departure, wanted the viewing audience to know that he was up on his Cavers history and how James valued the school’s tradition.

That tradition includes national championship recognition in 1955 and the years 1944-60, when San Diego made the playoffs 14 times, plus Southern Section championship appearances in 1916, ’25, ’33, ’47, and ‘59.

His message also has filtered down to James’ players, music to the ears of the vast number of alumni who still support the former “Old Grey Castle.”

San Diego takes its next step against Temecula Linfield Saturday night  in the Southern California Division V-A playoffs.

The Cavers like to run the ball.  Raiden Hunter has rushed for 1,063 yards and 18 touchdowns.  Mo Jackson has gained 986 yards in 86 attempts plus 17 touchdowns and an 11.5-yard rushing average.  Jayden Wickware is at 7.3 yards a carry and has gained 631 yards in 87 carries. Quinn O’Connor, who transferred when Horizon Christian closed, has been an effective quarterback with 49 completions in 95 attempts and 16 touchdown passes.

FAMILIAR FACE

Linfield Christian, which opened in 1936 as Culter Academy in Los Angeles and bounced around until settling in Temecula in 1972, has a long history with San Diego teams, mostly among the smallest schools, many in eight-man competition.

The Lions hold a 30-22-2 record against San Diego Section clubs since 1981.  Local teams, however, were 6-1-1 from 2010 through the 2012 season. There have been no games since.

Linfield, with reported support from ex-Lincoln star and Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, upgraded to 13-1 against stronger competition this season, losing only to San Bernardino Aquinas, 30-20, and averaging 57 points.

The Lions won games in which they scored 85, 78, 70, 69, and 63 points.  Their offensive coordinator is former Lincoln standout and NFL No. 1 draft choice Akili Smith.

Kaleb Maresh has thrown for 32 touchdowns, is averaging 8.8 yards carrying the ball, and has scored 13 touchdowns.  Kenric Jamieson is the workhorse with 2,011 yards rushing and 30 touchdowns.

Max Preps ranks the Cavers 137^th in California and Linfield 165^th.  Cal Preps.com assigned San Diego a 29.2 rating and Linfield 27.6.  The computer predicted a 35-34 Linfield victory.