St. Pat’s, Benicia release schedules

Schools won’t play each other in Diablo Athletic League

In just over two weeks from now, the St. Patrick-St. Vincent football team will kick off its season.

Benicia could start even earlier. St. Pat’s released its completed Diablo Athletic League schedule this week. The Bruins moved from the Tri-County Athletic League to the DAL for spring football since the TCAL fractured after a meeting earlier this year. They are expected to move back to the TCAL next fall.

Benicia’s schedule is nearly complete as well.

St. Pat’s will start March 19 at home against College Park of Pleasant Hill, play at Alhambra of Martinez on March 26 and then go to Northgate of Walnut Creek on April 2. The last two dates are April 9 and April 16 against two of the three aforementioned teams in the newly created Mid-Valley Division.

“The fourth week will depend upon seeding,” Bruins head coach Lane Hawkins said. “It’s like a mini-playoff the fourth week and then a championship or consolation championship the fifth week. Originally, we were going to have crossover games in the final two weeks but decided against that.”

Benicia will open the regular season either March 12 against Northgate or March 19 against Campolindo of Moraga. The Panthers are in the Foothill Division in the DAL.

“(March 12) could be either a regular season game or scrimmage depending on if both coaches believe their team is ready,” Holden said. “We are still looking for a game for (April 9).”

The rest of the dates on the Panthers’ schedule are March 26 at Miramonte of Orinda, April 2 at home against Acalanes of Lafayette and April 16 at Las Lomas of Walnut Creek.

When the teams play, it will be the first time since November of 2019. The fall 2020 season was moved to the spring due to the pandemic.

Both schools recently had practices in pads for the first time.

“The kids were able to run around in pads and they were really excited. It was like Christmas in February,” Hawkins said about Friday’s practice. “On Saturday, we had a ‘rooster practice’ where we had to be out there at 6:30 a.m. There was no daylight yet and everyone had to get up at the crack of dawn. It was a good look.”

Football players at Benicia are set to be tested for the first time on March 11 under the State of California’s policy for contact sports.

“We only need to test 24 hours before our first scheduled game,” Holden said. “If the contest on March 12th turns into a scrimmage instead of a game, we will push the first testing cycle to Thursday, March 18th. … Hopefully our county drops below 7% soon so that we can drop the testing aspect to the season. As of three weeks ago, our county was at 15.4, last week in the 12’s and today 8.2 new cases per 100,000 tested. Hopefully at some point indoor sports can start to open up.”

Hawkins said his players are set to be tested for the first time on Friday, March 12. The Bruins’ first scrimmage is scheduled for March 13 against Salesian and Rodriguez.

Hawkins said schedules for other sports are still coming together. He said St. Pat’s won’t able to field a boys tennis team due to lack of players and boys soccer team might be an issue too due to a lack of interest. Girls tennis, baseball and softball schedules are released.

The first St. Pat’s sport to play is softball as the Bruins host Acalanes on Monday and Benicia on Tuesday of next week.

Benicia began play with non-contact sports about two weeks ago.