The Sports Informant

The beauty of high school sports is that they are so unpredictable. Friday night we saw plenty of that, as schools performed well beyond expectations in the opening week of high school football.

I say that from an outsider’s point of view, of course. In reality, coaches are never surprised when their teams rise to a challenge and perform up to, and well past, their expectations.

Such was the case on Sept. 12 in several instances. Folsom High School stands out, though, as it stomped a visiting Davis High 53-0 on Friday. The Sacramento Bee, which listed Davis as No. 17 in its Top 20 preseason rankings, didn’t even have the matchup with Folsom as one of Davis’ three key games of the season, and didn’t even have Folsom listed anywhere in the Top 20. Someone got their wires crossed, because a lopsided score like that can put quite a dent on their credibility, especially with a team on the warpath.

Folsom’s win was bigger than just the score. The school’s been fighting for respect for years, and with consistently one of the best offenses in the entire Sac-Joaquin Section, it should be getting it by now.

Sure, the Bulldogs lost star quarterback Cary Grossart to graduation, but they already had his replacement in training all year last year, and David Graves shined in his first appearance (eight rushes for 81 yards and two touchdowns, 8-13 passing for 109 yards and a touchdown, with one interception).

While everyone’s looking somewhere else, Folsom’s doing what it’s been doing for years, and this season it could make the biggest difference.

“The base of the offensive system remains the same,” Folsom coach Kris Richardson told me. “Then we adjust based on our abilities at QB. Dave is a phenomenal runner and has one of the strongest arms I have ever seen in high school football. I also think we have more depth and are more athletic at [wide receiver]. So I don’t see our offense slowing down one bit. In fact, I think this will be our best offensive team since I became head coach four years ago. The beauty of our system is it puts stress on the defense to defend the entire field. We take advantage of putting our athletes in space against the defense. Folsom has great young talent and we are very excited about this season.”

After that first game, we all should be.

Other Surprises

Speaking of blowouts, if you were surprised by how poorly Davis played, I hope you didn’t catch the Jesuit game. Usually a perennial power, and this year’s No. 13 pick by the Bee, the Marauders had a horrible first week of football, falling to St. Mary’s of Stockton, 52-0.

Granted, St. Mary’s is a powerhouse, one that went 12-1 before a narrow 38-36 loss in the section title game to Napa last year. But never ever did I expect to see a program the caliber of Jesuit’s take a pounding like that. The Marauders are too well coached for that.

Dan Carmazzi, in his 28th year, built a tradition of excellence at Jesuit, and after going 4-1 in league last year and 8-3 overall, the team is expected to still come out this season and compete with the best of them. Friday night the Marauders did not.

Expect Golden Valley to take the blunt of the anger this weekend, as they’ll come to Sacramento with an 0-2 record to face a Jesuit team at home with one of the bigger chips they’ve had in Carmazzi’s tenure.

Another surprise was how well Vista del Lago High in Folsom played. While I should know better, as head coach Chris Jones is one of the better coaches in the area, I thought for sure the Eagles would suffer an embarrassing defeat in its first attempt.

The 1-year-old school in its inaugural varsity season, with no seniors on the roster and no players with varsity experience, obviously, squared off against last year’s Division I Sac-Joaquin Section defending champion Napa High School. Vista del Lago is a Division II school.

Yet odds makers, including myself, who expected a Napa High blowout of the Eagles, were pleasantly surprised to see a competitive game through most of the first half. In fact, the defending champs struggled early to do anything against Vista del Lago, seeing early drives shut down by the Eagles–in one instance resulting in a safety putting Vista up 2-0 in the game.

Eventually, an experienced and powerful offense ran the ball through the Eagle defense and the Napa’s defense shut down Vista’s offense en route to a 29-9 win. But it wasn’t easy, and for a team looking to make a name for itself, Vista del Lago had a pretty good start to its campaign.

Instant Classics

There were some good football games this weekend between top level teams. Pleasant Grove came out on top in an absolute dog fight with Franklin High School on Friday, 18-14. While both teams hope for deep playoff runs, a hard-fought game like this one is a good indicator of the gritty play they’ll need to have to be successful.

The battle happened at Cosumnes River College, but had the feel of any high school football stadium with raucous students from both sides. A 14-6 lead for Franklin going into the fourth quarter kept Pleasant Grove in the dirt until it clawed its way out with a score, a forced turnover and another score to cap the victory.

This game, although lacking in heavy contribution to the scoreboard, could be what the Division I playoffs look like later, and potentially, could involve another meeting with the exact two teams.

Nevada Union edged Ponderosa in another close fight over the weekend, 15-14. Quarter-by-quarter the game shifted one way to the other, with the game ultimately decided by a two-point conversion with just minutes left.

Nevada Union scored first, rushing in from two yards out in the first quarter. It was the only score of the quarter. Ponderosa followed suit from four yards out in the second quarter to tie it up at 7-7 going into the half.

After several defensive stands by both teams in the third quarter, Ponderosa broke free on a 33-yard touchdown pass, the only score of the quarter, to go up 14-7. And after battling defensively most of the fourth quarter, Nevada Union followed with a similar score, a pass from 21-yards out to bring it within one point.

In a precursor to the Denver Broncos’ decision Sunday, Nevada Union decided to go for the win instead, and with only 3:36 left on the clock, converted a two-point conversion on a two-yard rush for the victory.

While the area posted far more opening weekend football games, I’m only one man and so I must move on. Congrats to all the high school teams who put on a show for us, and to those who didn’t, it’s week one, you’ve got plenty of time to recover. Give me a reason to make your game the one that I, and the rest of Sacramento, should be talking about.