San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
St. Francis earns 1st outright WCAL title in 15 seasons
Losing four straight games to Serra was one thing.
But not having won an outright conference championship for 15 years made St. Francis’ 42-7 West Catholic Athletic League road win Saturday even more special.
In a matchup of defending state champions, the Lancers (9-1, 7-0) used a vise-like defense that gave up just 172 yards and stellar games from quarterback Ryan Daly (9for-13, 215 yards, four touchdowns) and receiver Evan Williams to clinch a top Division 2 seed in the Central Coast Section playoffs. The playoff pairings will be announced Sunday.
“It feels great to win an outright title,” St. Francis coach Greg Calcagno told Prep2Prep.com’s Harold Abend. “We think this league is pretty special and pretty darn tough. Serra did it last year for the first time in a while, and for us it’s been a long while coming, and it was nice.”
Daly, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound junior, fired touchdown passes of 7, 63 and 70 yards to Williams.
After being used sparingly in the first half with most of the carries going to Opeti Fangupo (18 carries, 35 yards, one TD), running back Andre Bishop got his chances in the third quarter and finished with 64 yards rushing and one touchdown.
St. Francis deferred the opening kickoff. After the teams traded punts, the Lancers took advantage of a fumble recovery by Maurice Wilmer in the first quarter, taking a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard plunge by Fangupo.
St. Francis extended the lead when a fumbled punt was recovered by Christopher Senteno. Daly found Williams for the first of their three touchdowns, making it 14-0.
Serra (6-4, 5-2) closed to 14-7 on an 18-yard pass from Luke Bottari to Malakai Rango with 1:26 left in the half, but St. Francis took advantage of personal-foul and pass-interference penalties to go 70 yards and score with 34.7 seconds left on a 10-yard pass from Daly to Michael Leahy to make it 21-7 at the half.
The Lancers kept the pedal down with three unanswered second-half touchdowns, and the defense — which allowed just 23 points in league play — was dominant.
“We come into every game with a mind-set of wanting to get a shutout,” Stanford-bound Lancers defensive end Josh Pakola said. “We didn’t get the shutout, but our defense got some turnovers and stops, and our offense took advantage of it and shined.”
#7 Valley Christian 53, Riordan 7: At Terra Nova-Pacifica, D’Von Lang rushed 10 times for 221 yards and three touchdowns as the Warriors (8-2, 6-1) wrapped up second place in the WCAL. Lang scored on runs of 70 yards, 13 yards and 1 yard. Riordan quarterback Azaan Ledbetter completed 17 of 35 passes for 249 yards in the first half before leaving with a head injury. Adham Abdelghani threw a touchdown pass to Chris Whiley for the Crusaders (1-9, 0-7). Valley Christian’s Thomas Dunham (32 yards), Isaiah McElvane (31) and Michael Corini (5) rushed for touchdowns. #25 Lincoln 29, Balboa 0: Jovon Baker rushed for a touchdown and passed 54 yards to Ajani Adewusi for another score as the visiting Mustangs (9-0, 5-0 Academic Athletic Association) beat the Buccaneers (5-3, 3-2) while posting their third shutout of the season. Desean Crawford scored on a 1-yard run and Jack Gaughan scored on a 23-yard run.
Burlingame 38, San Mateo 7: Jordan Malashus threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score as the host Panthers (8-2, 5-0 Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division) won the 91st Little Big Game. Burlingame, which has won nine straight against the Bearcats (3-7, 2-3), leads the series 55-32-4. Devon Malashus caught a 16-yard TD pass and added a 13-touchdown run for the Panthers, who scored the final 31 points after Luke Bergstrom tied the game for San Mateo on a 2-yard TD run.
St. Ignatius 34, Bellarmine 0: Mark Biggins rushed for two 18-yard touchdowns and added a 54-yard pick-six as the host Wildcats (3-7, 3-4 WCAL) finished the regular season with their second straight shutout. Zachary Taylor-Smith completed a 12-yard touchdown throw to Alfred Ugaitafa to open the scoring and Jack Hagfeldt finished it with a 40-yard TD run. Bellarmine (2-8, 1-6) was shut out in its final four games and five times overall.
NORTH COAST SECTION PLAYOFFS
Marin Catholic 42, Santa Rosa 0: In Division 2 first-round play, Ryan Dolan rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns and sophomore Matt Jacobsen took back an interception 45 yards for another score as the host Wildcats (8-3), the fifth seed, advanced past the Panthers (7-4). Quarterback Gaven Cooke completed 7 of 11 passes for 123 yards, rushed for 73 yards and accounted for three touchdowns.