Serra faces challenge of No. 1 Mater Dei-Santa Ana
Calpreps.com’s computer has made its projection for the Open Division state championship game between Serra and national No. 1 Mater Dei-Santa Ana, which will be played Saturday night at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
It says Mater Dei will win 48-0. That is easily the largest point differential of the 15 championship games this weekend — the next-closest is 21 — and the widest in the Open game since Mater Dei and St. John Bosco-Bellflower elevated themselves to an entirely different level.
Calpreps predicted De La Salle to lose to Bosco by 21 in 2016 and 18 in 2019 and Mater Dei by 25 in 2017 and 14 in 2018.
Asked Dec. 5 if he has any advice for the NorCal representative, Alumbaugh noted that he and Serra coach Patrick Walsh, a De La Salle alum, talk daily.
“Nobody has faced a team like Mater Dei unless you’ve actually played them and there is going to a natural adjustment factor,” Alumbaugh said.
“We talked at length. It’s basically about finding what he feels his team can do best from the outset against what he thinks his team can do against Mater Dei.
“You’ve got to go with that, to begin with, and steady the ship a little bit. Scrap. They’re high schoolers, too. They’re loaded, obviously. They’re an incredible team. But regardless of all the exterior talk, those guys are teenagers. You can’t let the moment be too big.”
Alumbaugh added, “I told him, ‘It’s fun, man. It’s a lot of fun to challenge yourselves against an incredible team.’ People talk about the talent that Mater Dei or Bosco have. But here’s the double-whammy. They’re really well-coached. They’re not just rolling talented kids out.”
Mark Twain wrote: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Wilcox coach Paul Rosa believes that applies to his football team, which on Saturday will play for a CIF state title a second time in four seasons.
“I think our program is that way,” Rosa said. “They play way bigger than their size and I think it’s kind of a testament of the area, too. We get a lot of tough kids that are undersized, but in high school you can win with that, right? You’re not playing a bunch of recruited guys, you’re playing a regular high school team most of the time.”
A pair of unspoken heroes proved his point in the first half of this past weekend’s 35-21 victory over Manteca in the NorCal Division 2-A title game.
Christopher Sargent — all 5-foot-9, 154-pounds of him — wasn’t fooled on a trick play and made a momentum-shifting interception in the first quarter.
Later in the first half, cornerback Mitchell Gonzalez — listed at 5-7, 135 — picked off the second pass attempted by Manteca.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Chargers (10-4) are dominant in the trenches. After dropping four of its first five games, Wilcox found its groove behind a brand-new offensive line.
“Probably only one guy on this line would’ve played this year,” Rosa said.
None of the five starters from the spring returned this fall, with two lost to injury while three moved out of town.
Rosa has a simple explanation for the turnaround and current nine-game winning streak.
“Print this, because football is about your assistant coaches,” he said. “The head guy always gets the credit, but it’s really the group. Every good program has a bunch of good coaches on it. You can’t coach football with one guy, it’s impossible. And it showed. Our o-line coach had a new set of guys and it took a little while to get going. …
“I think we have six or seven guys who could be head coaches. We’re lucky in that sense — and the kids are lucky.”