Serra can make history with win at St. Francis
SAN MATEO >> No matter what unfolds Friday night, a league championship banner will hang in Serra’s gym after the football season. The Padres secured a piece of the crown last weekend, their sixth in the past 15 years under coach Patrick Walsh.
League championships, once seemingly unreachable at Tom Brady’s high school alma mater, are not so elusive any longer. Neither is beating St. Francis.
Serra went 34 years between victories over its league rival from Mountain View, a streak that did not end until 2006. Counting that outcome, Serra has won seven of the past 12 meetings in the series, including two wins last season.
But there is still one barrier the Padres have not cleared under Walsh — or any other coach — since 1969, an impediment that can be erased with a win Friday at St. Francis.
If Serra wins, it will be the outright West Catholic Athletic League champion for the first time in 48 years, or since Pro Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann starred for the San Mateo school.
If St. Francis wins, the WCAL will likely end as it did last season, with St. Francis, Serra and Valley Christian sharing the championship.
Those are the stakes in the matchup between Bay Area heavyweights, a marquee game that moved from mid- October to this weekend because of poor air quality fromthe North Bay wildfires.
Walsh said this week that he was unaware of the outright title drought but noted that this week is just one step in a journey that could extend well into December.
“I knew that we hadn’t won a league title since 1972 when I got to Serra,” Walsh said. “But since that point, we got rid of a lot of the demons that had haunted the school for a long time. You know, not beating St. Francis
in 35 years. Not winning at St. Francis in 40 years. League titles, Open Division championships, all that stuff, have kind of fallen by the wayside, which has been great.
“I am a very competitive person. But putting outright league championship at the top of the list is probably not in the forefront of our consciousness right now. I will say that hanging a WCAL banner in any WCAL school in any sport still matters because our league is so strong. Having accomplished that this year, never going to take that for granted.”
But Walsh, as with any coach at a high-level program, hopes his players want more than league titles.
If Serra survives the Central Coast Section’s upcoming Open Division II playoffs, which will include St. Francis and Valley Christian, it will have a chance to duplicate last season’s Padres team that won a regional championship or maybe take the next step — i.e win a state title.
Serra lost to Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth 42- 40 in a state final last season.
“It’s like how far and how deep does this team want to go?” Walsh added. “Are we satisfied? Are we comfortable? Are we done, great job? Or do they want to be unique? This team has an opportunity to be unique. Part of the story could be an outright WCAL title. That could be part of the narrative. But as always, that narrative tends to go through Mountain
View. That’s why this weekend’s game will be so exciting.”
St. Francis could change the narrative if it wins Friday and grabs a piece of the WCAL crown for the third consecutive season. The Lancers’ only losses were to De La Salle and Valley Christian.
“Proud of the team,” St. Francis coach Greg Calcagno said. “Dropped our first WCAL game against Valley in a tough one where we lost by a touch. At that point, we’re 2-2 and who knows how good we are? Fortunately for us the kids have responded and played pretty well. We’re where everybody would like to be at this point, got a chance to get a share of the league title. Great opportunity. Serra is a very, very good opponent, but at least we have a chance.”
No WCAL team has been more impressive than Serra. Since losing to East Bay heavyweight Pittsburg 35-28 in early September, the Padres have rolled through six consecutive league opponents, outscoring them 290- 63. That includes a 35-7 rout of Valley Christian two weeks ago, a team that beat St. Francis 35-28 in September.
“They are pretty darn dynamic offensively,” Calcagno said. “We’re pretty big up front, and they make us look small, and they utilize those guys in nice ways, put them in good spots to be successful. It’s tough.”