In this fourth year of the Central Coast Section Open Division 1, 2 and 3 format the D2 field looks to be equal or maybe a bit stronger than the 2017 field with the West Catholic Athletic League looking like the overwhelming favorite. In 2017 the WCAL had three teams in the 8-team bracket and this year they add a fourth team and have the Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 6 seeds.
OVERVIEW
Because the West Catholic Athletic League is only rated equally as an “A” league, just like the highest rated of the three Mt. Hamilton Leagues, Oak Grove of the Mt. Hamilton snagged a No. 3 seed behind No. 1 St. Francis and No. 2 Valley Christian even though the winner of the league was Lincoln, but that team is locked into playing San Jose in the Big Bone Game on Thanksgiving Day so they were not seeded.
Leland snagged the No. 4 seed after tying for third with Oak Grove at 5-2 in league along with Open 3 third-seeded Live Oak, and the 6-4 record of Leland included enough points to seed then ahead of fifth-seeded and 6-4 Serra.
We’re not going to spend the entire preview taking shots at the CCS point system for teams and rating system for leagues, but despite disagreeing with a lot that goes into the power rankings, it’s hard to ignore the fact Leland is No. 444 in the state and No. 6,408 in the nation in the power rankings, and Serra is No. 72 and No. 709, respectively.
Oak Grove won the Open 2 title in 2015 after beating Los Gatos, Valley Christian and then St. Francis in the title game, before losing decisively at home to North Coast Section Division II champion Clayton Valley-Concord in the CIF NorCal 1-A Bowl game.
All of the above information and analysis is pretty much a moot point because after what St. Francis and Valley Christian did to a very solid defending CCS Open 2 and CIF state 2-AA champion Serra this season, beating them 42-7 and 37-6, respectively, it would be a total shocker this year if it came down to anyone but the top two seeds.
St. Francis has held steady at No. 4 in the P2P NorCal rankings, and as a top 20 team in all the state rankings, and the Lancers are up to No. 10 in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings, and deservedly so. They had a little trouble with Valley Christian in a 7-3 victory, but that was only the second game under center for 6-4, 195-pound junior quarterback Ryan Daly after he took when senior Jack Perry was lost for the season due to injury.
Valley Christian got after him pretty well but that was then and this is now, and Daly has done just what Coach Greg Calcagno has asked him to do, and the viselike defense led by Stanford-bound 6-4, 255-pound Josh Pakola has taken over since then with the offense scoring more than enough points in the final four WCAL games since the Lancers edged the Warriors. Calcagno’s boys shut out Archbishop Riordan and Bellarmine, gave up a touchdown to Archbishop Mitty, and then really showed their prowess in their victory over Serra where Daly had his best game of the season after going 9 of 13 for 215 yards and four touchdowns.
The running game led by senior Opeti Fangupo and junior Andre Bishop has been the backbone of the offense and Calcagno likely is not going to change a thing and why should he.
Even in their lone 33-15 loss to De La Salle with Perry under center the Lancers played the Spartans as well as anyone has and a lot of it had to do with a defense that held De La Salle to less point than any Northern California opponent other than P2P NorCal No. 2 and nationally-ranked Folsom.
“We do what we do and hopefully it works in the playoffs,” Calcagno said when asked if he was putting in any new wrinkles.
St. Francis (9-1) opens with Peninsula Athletic League – Bay Division fourth-place finisher and 2-8 Aragon in a game that could get ugly. If Serra gets past Leland as they should based on almost every factor considered, it would set up a semifinal re-match of last year’s title game won 31-30 by Serra.
On the other side of the bracket Valley Christian (8-2) faces Christopher in the opening round and we love Cougars Coach Tim Pierleoni after all the adversity he’s been through, but the Warriors running game led by senior D’Von Lang (753 yards 11 TDs) and junior Isaiah McElvane (794 yards rushing, seven TDs) is not something Christopher will be able to stop, nor will the winner of the Mitty at Oak Grove opening round game.
In their WCAL meeting this year the Warriors rushed for 357 yards and three TDs in a 28-0 win over Mitty.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
St. Francis LB/DL Josh Pakola, St. Francis RB/LB Opeti Fangupo, St. Francis RB/DB Andre Bishop, St. Francis QB Ryan Daly, St. Francis WR/DB Evan Williams, St. Francis OL/DL Mose Vavao, Valley Christian RB/DB D’Von Lange, Valley Christian RB/DB Isaiah McElvane, Valley Christian QB Cory Taylor, Valley Christian RB Thomas Dunham, Valley Christian RB/LB Michael Corini, Valley Christian TE/DE Skylar Loving-Black, Leland QB Carson Yates, Leland RB/DB Kekoa Lopez, Leland TE/LB Nate Winiecki, Leland WR/DB Siddhant Thadini, Leland WR/DE Preston Gook
Serra QB Luke Bottari, Serra LB/RB E.J. Lahlouh, Serra WR Terence Loville, Serra SB Nate Sanchez, Serra DB/RB Jackson Lataimua, Archbishop Mitty QB Shamir Bey, Archbishop Mitty WR/LB Joseph Vaughn, Archbishop Mitty RB/DB James Thomas, Christopher QB Ben Sanford, Christopher RB/LB Tyler Davis, Christopher WR Jason Scirigione, Aragon RB/LB Camron Grant, Aragon RB/DB Paul Lautaimi
SLEEPER TEAM
Yes, they got blown out by both St. Francis and Valley Christian but the CCS made the defending champions a sleeper with its system and if anyone in this field could reverse field against their WCAL rivals and pull it off in this group it would have to be Coach Patrick Walsh and his boys.
TITLE GAME PREDICTION
Unless there is a huge upset it will come down to St. Francis and Valley Christian and if the Lancers can win the battle in the trenches they will win in what might be a higher scoring game than the 7-3 win in WCAL play.
