The first Friday night of the 2014 football season is a wrap, at least in the North Coast Section. The Central Coast Section commences this week.
Here are five lessons gleaned from the initial night:
IT'S JUST FOOTBALL: Whether on the perilous turf of Levi's Stadium or Cal's picturesque Memorial Stadium or just good old Wilcox High, it comes down to execution. That is, precision, blocking, tackling and an absence of penalties and turnovers. De La Salle did all that in a 63-0 victory against a good Jesuit-Carmichael team at Cal. Meantime, Wilcox put up a noble struggle in a 20-14 loss to Manteca in Santa Clara.
"They were awesome tonight," De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh told the Contra Costa Times of his defense and special teams. "They weren't getting many (first downs) and we were working with a short field all night."
At Wilcox, Manteca just made a few less mistakes than the Chargers.
"You can't turn the football over in a big ballgame," Wilcox coach Dan Brown told the San Jose Mercury, "We didn't take care of the football. We're young and we're going to get better as we go."
Neither game was played with the grand $1.3 billion Levi's Stadium as a backdrop, as originally planned. Neither had to be. De La Salle and Manteca got it done in more modest digs with superior talent and attention to details. They'll both do just fine this season and Wilcox and Jesuit will figure it out as well.
NEXT MAN UP NO MISNOMER: Every football season the message boards are filled with excuses. Team A might have beaten Team B if only (insert star here) had played. Note to message-board mavens: Injuries and absences are a part of football.
The latest hit is Sacred Heart Prep tackling machine Ben Burr-Kirven slated to be out the first 4-5 games of the 2014 season, according to the San Jose Mercury. Burr-Kirven (calf injury) made the CalHiSports.com pre-season all-state team.
"I'm just trying to stay patient." Burr-Kirven told the Mercury. "If I go out there and push it, I could make it worse and miss the whole season, which would be terrible."
Teams have survived worse. Serra's former mountain of a defensive lineman, Matt Dickerson, missed the entire 2013 season with a bad back and the Padres won the Open title. Mitty played the Open title game without quarterback Trent Scharrenberg and led 7-0 late in the third quarter before falling.
So it's next man up at SHP -- not desirable, but that's football.
YOU PLAY THE CARDS YOU'RE DEALT: As with injuries and in dealing with billion-dollar stadiums with tear-away turf, some things cannot be controlled. Down in the 831, Santa Cruz High has an unplayable field due to the drought. Johnnie Johnson himself couldn't get a first down on that parched earth, thanks to the ruts and divots.
"It's lumpy, there's clumps of dead grass, and the ground is just like concrete," said former NFL referee Bruce Hermansen who heads the Santa Cruz County Football Officials Association to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "It's an absolute concussion waiting to happen. I've never seen anything like that — anywhere."
Now the unthinkable has happened -- Santa Cruz's home games have at least tentatively been moved to rival Soquel. Cardinal fans will have to drive one town over to cheer on their heroes and that's a long way given the entertainment options available to today's teens. As for the Cardinal players, they'll just have to deal with it. They don't have a choice.
SOD-GATE NOT A HORRIBLE THING: Yeah, it was a bit of a bummer that Wilcox and De La Salle didn't get to play their 2014 openers where Kaepernick and Gore frolic. Enjoying their first games at the so-called "House of Jeans" would have been a kick for the area preps.
But as Wilcox coach Dan Brown told Prep2Prep earlier this month, the turf problems at Levi's that moved the games elsewhere didn't necessarily hurt the home teams. With the glare of the media spotlight dimmed, Wilcox played reasonably well in a close loss to Manteca. As for De La Salle it was De La Great in its demolition of Jesuit at Cal.
And the beauty is, both teams still get to play at Levi's later this season.
THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART: With apologies to Tom Petty, the most difficult thing about the CCS openers are waiting for them. They take place a week after the NCS due to the CCS's shorter playoff schedule.
So while the NCS and San Francisco City Section began play this weekend, CCS fans had to be content with scrimmages and jamborees. By comparison, that's pretty mundane fare, but preferable to what some NCS teams endured in their openers ... namely:
College Park, 55-7 losers to Alhambra.
Benicia, fell 48-13 to Concord.
Elsie Allen-Santa Rosa, lost 35-0 to Deer Valley.
Hayward, pummeled 53-7 by Northgate.
Hercules, downed 22-0 by Tokay.
CCS teams? All but Wilcox are still unbeaten. There's something to be said for that.
