Turkey Day series will skip a year
San Francisco Section Commissioner Don Collins is trying to get the word out: There’s no Turkey Day Game on Thursday.
“We don’t want to ruin someone’s Thanksgiving and have them show up at Kezar to an empty stadium,” Collins said. “It will probably happen anyway, but we want to hold the disappointment to a minimum.”
Since 1943, the SFS title game has been played on Thanksgiving with only a few exceptions — the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 being the last one.
A month ago, the principals of the 17-team section (only seven play football) voted to push back the regular season and playoffs (top four teams) because of the postponement of all games Oct. 13 and 14 because of poor air quality as a result of the Wine Country fires. That pushed the season past Thanksgiving.
The semifinals — Mission (7-3) against Washington (5-4) at Kezar and Lincoln (7-3) at Galileo (7-2) — are scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday. The championship will be at 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at Kezar.
As it turns out, last week’s final week of the regular season had no effect on the final four teams or home sites, making the decision to skip tradition harder to chew.
“We all wanted to play out the season for sure,” said Lincoln coach Phil Ferrigno, who has led the Mustangs to Turkey Day games nine times since taking over the program in 2002. Lincoln, the defending champ, has won six of those. “But missing out on all that tradition is tough. Waking up on Thanksgiving, getting on the bus and driving to the only game in town is special. Alumni with no connection to the players or our team would show up.”
That probably won’t happen Dec. 2. Regional playoff projections: Based on current computer ratings, and projecting section winners, here is where MaxPreps sees Bay Area teams landing in regional action (note: home teams here are based on higher rating, but the CIF picks destinations based on other factors).
Pittsburg at Folsom (Division 1-AA), Tulare Union at Serra (2-AA), Milpitas at Oakdale (2-A), Bishop O’DowdOakland at St. Francis (3-AA), Half Moon Bay at Placer-Auburn (3-A), East Nicolaus at McClymonds-Oakland (4-A), St. Bernard’s-Eureka at Campolindo-Moraga (5-A), St. Patrick-St. Vincent-Vallejo at Modesto Christian (6-AA) and Chester at Mission (6-A).
As it has been in each of the past three seasons, De La Salle-Concord is projected to be the Northern California Open Division pick (top team from the North), and is projected to play Southern California’s projected top team, Mater Dei-Santa Ana. Second chance: They’re still talking about the crazy ending in Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park’s 38-35 North Coast Section D3 quarterfinal win over Eureka on Saturday. Andrew Alfaro booted a game-winning 42-yard field goal with 11.1 seconds left, but only after Alfaro’s 30-yard try was blocked on third down with 23 seconds remaining.
Rancho’s Brandon Slate was alert enough to pounce on the ball. That gave Alfaro another chance, and he drilled it down the middle. Stat city: Another D3 backand-forth game featured 1,137 total yards, including 590 from Marin Catholic-Kentfield in a 49-39 home win over Miramonte-Orinda.
Oregon State-bound quarterback Spencer Petras completed 16 of 28 passes for 448 yards and five touchdowns for Marin Catholic. He had big receiving help from Gaven Cooke (four catches, 169 yards, two TDs), Ben Skinner (six, 156, one) and Peter Brown (five, 114, two). Miramonte got strong performances from quarterback Will Cassriel (324 total yards, four TDs) and running back Peter Stehr (19 carries, 177 yards, two TDs).
Fremont-Oakland senior Antonio Faeteetee rushed 18 times for 420 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-40 Oakland Athletic League semifinal loss at Oakland Tech on Friday. Faeteetee, the OAL CoPlayer of the Year with McClymonds’ Charles Alberty, finished with 2,626 rushing yards and 31 touchdowns.