St. John Bosco's championship aspirations have not changed
St. John Bosco football coach Jason Negro said his team's goal to win three championships this season remains the same despite a 30-23 upset loss in Hawaii to Kahuku on Saturday.
Negro said he would like to have a rematch against Kahuku next season and does not regret the team's challenging nonleague schedule.
“I would do it 100 out of 100 times and I'm going to continue to do it,” Negro said. “That's just what we do here at Bosco. I'm going to embrace it. I'm not afraid to challenge our program and I'm not afraid to lose a football game.”
After going 4-1 against five out-of-state opponents in nonleague games, winning the Trinity League title, the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship and the CIF State Open Division championship are still squarely on the table for the Braves, who have a bye this week.
“I think the biggest thing for us is to get back to some fundamentals,” Negro said. “It was an arduous five weeks for us. To play five out-of-state opponents and travel over 6,000 miles is hard to do for a college or NFL team, let alone a high school team that's still trying to go to school and be a student-athlete. So it was a challenge for us. Unfortunately, we just fell short, but at the end of the day I think it's going to make us a better football team in the future.”
Bosco is also the defending mythical national champion,
St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro said his team's goals this season have not changed in spite of the fact the Braves lost a game last weekend in Hawaii.
an accolade Negro still believes is possible for this year's team.
“I definitely think so,” Negro said. “Mater Dei beat Kahuku. If we beat Mater Dei, then A (Bosco) beats B (Mater Dei), B beat C (Kahuku) and C beat A, and we would probably have to do it twice (beating Mater Dei), which would be a pretty daunting path. You have to run the table, but you could still be in that conversation. ... There's certainly discussion for it, but I think that can't be at our forefront. Right now, we just have to get better as a football team and that has to be the number one priority.”
Negro believes sometimes teams can learn more about themselves in defeat than in victory.
“I think any time you have some adversity in a program, especially early on in the season, you have the opportunity to identify
some of the areas that you are not playing as well in,” Negro said. “I think we were able to identify some things and, hopefully, if we are able to fix those things, it's going to not rear its head in the future and that's the biggest thing that can come out of a loss.
“Sometimes I think you learn more from losses than you do wins. I think that's the approach we're going to take. We have a really resilient group. We were not happy with our performance, so we're going to fix it and get better the next week.”
The Braves will spend this week preparing for their Trinity League opener against Santa Margarita (41) at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on Sept. 29.
St. John Bosco drops in CalPreps rankings
After losing at Kahuku,
St. John Bosco (4-1) dropped to No. 4 in CalPreps' CIF Southern Section rankings. The Braves were previously No. 2 behind No. 1 Mater Dei. Bosco was leapfrogged by No. 2 Centennial (2-2) and No. 3 Sierra Canyon (4-0).
Poly (4-1) remains at No. 5 after its 48-19 win at Lakewood (1-4) in the team's Moore League opener last week. The Lancers were previously No. 120 in the CalPrep rankings, but moved up four spots after a competitive first three quarters against Poly.
Despite No. 29 Millikan's (3-2) 79-20 win against No. 219 Wilson (1-3), both teams' CalPreps rankings stayed the same.
The final two undefeated teams in the Press-Telegram area heading into the Week 5 games are No. 82 Jordan (4-0), which dropped three spots from No. 79 during its bye week, and No. 141
Dominguez (4-0), which jumped 11 spots from No. 152 during its bye week.
Poly players get offers
Poly senior defensive back Quimari Shemwell, who transferred from Western High, received Division I scholarship offers from Arizona and Washington State last weekend. The 6-foot cornerback, who also has an offer from San Jose State, was recently named a threestar recruit by 247Sports.
Poly sophomore Kamarie Smith received his latest DI offer from Arizona last weekend. The 5-foot-10 receiver previously received offers from Utah, Oregon State and Colorado State.
Gahr off to 3-1 start
Gahr junior defensive back/receiver Markell Slaughter has six touchdowns in four games this season.
The 5-foot-10 cornerback hauled in two interceptions, including a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown, in Gahr's 48-12 win at Santa Ana Valley on Friday. Slaughter also blocked a field goal attempt.
He has a team-high 18 receptions for 326 yards and five touchdowns. Slaughter transferred to Gahr from Serra in Gardena.
Gahr senior Kalen Montgomery, the reigning MidCities League Offensive Player of the Year, has 644 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns on 85 carries this season. The 5-foot-10 running back had 193 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 19 carries in Gahr's win at Valley.
Gahr (3-1) will host Crean Lutheran (3-1) on Friday.
BRADY SHAFFER
School: St. Pius X-St. Matthias Football Senior
ELLE DENISON
School:
Poly
Sport: Flag football
Year: Senior
Noteworthy: Denison had four interceptions in Long Beach Poly's flag football doubleheader against Jordan and Lakewood on Sept. 12. The senior defensive back hauled in her first three interceptions in the first half of Poly's 21-0 win against Jordan. Denison added another interception in the second half of Poly's 19-0 win against Lakewood.
Long Beach