The St. Ignatius football team's improbable run toward a state title ended abruptly Friday night in a 45-17 loss to Granite Bay in the California Interscholastic Federation Division I Northern Regional championship game at Sacramento State. The Grizzlies (12-3), winners of 11 games in a row, move on to the Division I state championship game against Long Beach Poly (12-3) next Friday at the Home Depot Center in Carson. The season is over for the Wildcats (10-4), the champions of the CCS Open Division.
Running back John Cooley rushed for 206 yards and four touchdowns as Granite Bay raced out to an early 14-0 lead and coasted to the victory. The Grizzlies led 24-3 at halftime on the strength of three scoring runs by Cooley and a 43-yard field goal by Colin Brown.
Senior Jack Stinn threw a pair of touchdown passes for St. Ignatius, including a 55-yarder to junior Joe Lang in the final minute of the game. He also found his top target Andrew Vollert on a 4-yard score in the third quarter, but that merely cut the Granite Bay lead to 38-10.
Aaron Knapp had a 52-yard interception return for Granite Bay in the third quarter to extend the Grizzlies' lead to 38-3. Taft Partridge also scored a third-quarter touchdown for Granite Bay, which captured the Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
St. Ignatius, the only CCS team to receive a regional berth, won the first CCS Open Division title in school history as the No. 6 seed, stunning top-seeded Bellarmine, 13-10, in overtime. The Wildcats head into the 2013 season as the owners of back-to-back CCS title, as they took the Division III crown in 2011.
