Bellarmine, St. Francis prepare for key matchup
Bellarmine basketball coach Patrick Schneider spent 10 minutes breaking down his third-ranked team’s West Catholic Athletic League game with eighth-ranked St. Francis, scheduled for Tuesday.
The longtime rivals own identical records of 14-2 and 6-0 in perhaps the state’s top league.
They each feature reigning co-WCAL Players of the Year, Jake Wojcik, a 6-foot-4 senior guard for Bellarmine, and Logan Johnson, a 6-2 senior guard for St. Francis, which will be the visiting team Tuesday. Both teams own win streaks: St. Francis at 14 and Bellarmine, which hasn’t lost to a team in state, at seven.
Schneider, who has led the Bells to four WCAL and 13 Central Coast Section titles since taking over the team in 1991, wasn’t about to make bold predictions, but he did offer this one piece of advice: “Get there early,” he said. “It’s going to be packed.”
Although the rest of the players probably will decide the game, the most intriguing matchup is between Wojcik and Johnson, who happen to be best friends.
Both are college-bound — Johnson to Cincinnati and Wojcik to Siena — two colleges that don’t often recruit in this area. Both have interesting bloodlines: Wojcik’s father, Dave, is a longtime college coach, most recently at San Jose State, where he resigned in the summer after four seasons; Johnson’s brother Tyler isa key reserve on the Miami Heat.
Schneider breaks down the players this way:
“Johnson is an unselfish decision-maker and incredible creator. He’s both explosive but poised. He’s a great passer and finisher, and what often gets overlooked is that he’s relentless as an offensive rebounder. He causes havoc baseline to baseline.
“Jake is so good at knowing how to play angles, which he does meticulously and methodically to create separation. He possesses that old-school, East Coast toughness, and he’s the best high school shooter I’ve ever coached.”
That’s saying something, consider Schneider coached Jeb Ivey, the 1999 WCAL Player of the Year. Ivey played at Portland State and overseas, where he made a three-pointer in 177 consecutive games, which stands alone in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“At the high school level, Jake is even a better shooter,” Schneider said.
If the Johnson-Wojcik friendship doesn’t connect these teams enough, assistant coaches Alfred Duncan (Bellarmine) and James Duncan (St. Francis) are brothers.
“Talk about a sibling rivalry,” Schneider said.
All of it adds up to “a very big game,” Schneider said. “Whoever wins has the upper hand in the league. For us, it’s important to defend our home court. For both of us, we have to keep winning to separate us from the pack. St. Ignatius can easily make this a three-horse race.” Stream central: For those who either get shut out at the gate or don’t want to fight the crowds for Bellarmine-St. Francis, NorCal Sports TV is scheduled to stream the game live at norcalsportstv.com or youtube.com/norcalsportstv. Cal offers Torchio: Campolindo-Moraga quarterback and defensive back John Torchio was offered a full ride from Cal over the weekend. The 6-2, 205-pound senior was The Chronicle’s Contra Costa County Player of the Year.
He accounted for more than 4,000 yards of offense and 48 touchdowns and had 98 tackles and seven interceptions on defense. Torchio said he has been recruited as an athlete. His dad, J Torchio ,wasa quarterback at Cal in the early 1980s.
“I was really excited to get the offer,” the younger Torchio said. “I have been to Cal games all my life, so it was pretty cool to get it.” He has offers from San Jose State, Rice, San Diego, Dartmouth and Columbia. The regular signing-day period starts Feb. 7. De La Salle schedule: National power De La Salle announced its football schedule, which features a home game against Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas (Sept. 14) and an away game against East-Salt Lake City (Utah) on Sept. 29. The Spartans also play at defending state Division 2-A champion St. Francis (Sept. 7) and host threetime state champion Central Catholic-Modesto (Aug. 24), along with Bishop O’Dowd Oakland (Aug. 31).