I'm sure by now you've already heard that Wazzu head coach Nick Rolovich and four of his assistant coaches were fired for refusing to take the COVID vaccine. It's hard for me to fathom willingly giving up a $3 million a year job, the highest paid public employee in the state of Washington. As much as I like Coach Rolo, I don't feel sorry for him. We all make choices in life, I guess this is something he's passionate about.

Today while having a bite to eat with a buddy of mine I have known now for a solid three years, for some reason I mentioned his hometown and said man I remember when I went up with Riordan to Redding and beat Enterprise on our road to the state title. He said my brother in law is a legend at that school, his name is Brody Angley. I almost fell out my chair. He got Brody on the phone and handed me the phone. And we had a great conversation and Brody is alive and well. This world is small, and although we beat Brody, Foothill, my alum SH, and then the fellas from Compton, I would hope every team has a Brody Angley on their team. Kid was tough as nails, and left it all out on the floor.

PCAL Week 9

The marquee matchup of the weekend, Aptos V Hollister, has been cancelled due to a COVID outbreak at Hollister. For the record I was taking Aptos. I think that Salinas and Aptos should play again in a non-league contest. Win or lose it will help both teams earn some playoff points for a better CCS seed. Hollister had one of the more impressive victories of the Gabilan division by pulling away late from Palma last week. They have basically secured a 2nd place finish, with an outside shot of a shared championship with Salinas and Aptos, if (a really big if) Palma can upset Salinas in a few weeks.

In the Mission, Santa Cruz continues to roll. North Salinas, Gilroy and Soquel will be battling it out for the next 2 playoff spots. Carmel and Monterey continue to have disappointing seasons and are all but out of the playoff conversation. Carmel suffers from lack of experience and dedication. They had 4 starters out VS NS last week because School was on a break, so families took the football players with them on vacation. This would of never happened 3 years ago. Everyone knew the commitment it took to play Carmel football. The coaching staff will need to rebuild that. Monterey suffers from lack of discipline, it has been a on going problem with this team under the current regime. Not sure how log School administrators will allow it to continue.

Scott’s Valley V King City is now the marquee match up. @Streakone this game should of made your pick’em. 2 Great defenses vs ball control offenses. It will be a slugfest down in South Monterey County Friday night. Winner take control of the Mission division and the automatic play-off birth, loser needs to keep wining to secure an at large bid. The rest of the division is just not that strong.

In the Lucia it is all done as St. Francis has secured the division title.

Last week 11-3 Overall 87-24



Gabilan

Thu 10/21 Christopher (Gilroy, CA) at Alisal (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm: Christopher had a great 1st half vs Salinas and put a scare in the Cowboys. Alisal is getting hit by the injury bug. Christopher 24-7

Fri 10/22 Monte Vista Christian (Watsonville, CA) at Alvarez (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm: I had much higher hope for MVC pre-season. They laid an egg vs Seaside last week. Alvarez gets their 2nd league victory. Alvarez 28-21

Fri 10/22 San Benito (Hollister, CA) at Aptos (CA), 7:30pm Game canceled due to COVID

Fri 10/22 Palma (Salinas, CA) at Seaside (CA), 7:30pm; Tough loss for Palma vs Hollister last week. Great First win for Seaside! I hate seeing a team go winless through a season. Kids put in way too much work for no reward. It won’t be 2 game win streak. Palma 45-7



Mission

Fri 10/22 Gonzales (CA) at Gilroy (CA), 7:30pm- Gilroy needs to stay focused in order to keep playoff hopes alive. Gonzales just needs to play a complete game to get their first victory. Upset special. Gonzales 21-20

Fri 10/22 North Salinas (Salinas, CA) vs Monterey (CA) at Salinas Sports Complex (Salinas, CA), 7:00pm- Curios to see how Monterey bunces back from self inflicted loss to Gilroy. NS had a huge victory last week vs Carmel, can they make it 2 in a row. Nope. Monterey 24-14

Sat 10/23 Soquel (CA) at Carmel (CA), 2:00pm: Soquel finally had an easy victory vs Soledad. Carmel needs to scrimmage for 24 mins prior to kickoff, that way they think they will be in 2nd half when the game starts. Upset#3 in the Mission. Carmel 35-24

Sat 10/23 Soledad (CA) at Santa Cruz (CA), 7:30pm – The Mission upsets stop here. Santa Cruz 48-0





Cypress

Fri 10/22 Scotts Valley (CA) at King City (CA), 7:30pm – Winner in the drivers seat for the title. 2 great defenses. What more could you ask for. Scotts Valley will try to Run, KC likes to mix it up a little bit. I say King City gets 1 big offensive play. For the difference. King City 14-7

Fri 10/22 Watsonville (CA) at Pacific Grove (CA), 7:00pm- PG needs to win in order to challenge for the title. Watsonville is not a bad team, and PG lost its leading tackler for the year. Watsonville 24-21

Sat 10/23 San Lorenzo Valley (Felton, CA) at Los Altos (CA), 1:30pm- I believe this is a make up game, SLV has been very disappointing. Los Altos 35-14

Sat 10/23 North Monterey County (Castroville, CA) at Rancho San Juan (Salinas, CA), 1:00pm -Truth be told Rancho San Juan is one of the better stories this year, never thought I would be picking them to win their third game!. Rancho 20-18



Santa Lucia

Sat 10/23 St. Francis (Watsonville, CA) vs Harbor (Santa Cruz, CA) at Cabrillo College (Aptos, CA), 7:30pm

non-league game – St Francis is too good to lose to harbor, even if it is non-league. St Francis 28-14

Sat 10/23 Greenfield (CA) at Pajaro Valley (Watsonville, CA), 2:00pm non-league game: PV avenges earlier 3 point loss and gets its first W of the year. Pajaro 21-20

Can Valley pull the upset? Serra not the same team without "the missile" and Serra trationally doesn't play well at Valley, but I think they will wear them down by the 4th quarter. 31-21 Serra

Notre Dame DE Isaiah Foskey (De La Salle) had eight tackles and two sacks in Monday night's win over Florida State.

WR Joe Ngata (Folsom) had a game high 110 receiving yards for Clemson in a 10-3 loss to Georgia.

Alabama LB Henry To'oto'o (De La Salle) had seven tackles against Miami in his first game for the Crimson Tide.

Fresno State QB Jake Haener (Monte Vista) threw for 298 yards and a touchdown in a loss to Oregon. For the Bulldogs defense, Evan Williams (St. Francis) had a team high 10 tackles and a pass deflection. Levelle Bailey (Burbank) had eight tackles.

USC TE Erik Krommenhoek (Monte Vista) had a touchdown catch in the win over San Jose State. On the Spartans defense, Tre Jenkins (St. Mary's), Cade Hall (Bellarmine) and Kyle Harmon (Freedom) were three of the top five tacklers

Game Notes

Burlingame is 7-0 and giving up less than 10 points per game. It has key wins over Sacred Heart Cathedral and Sacred Heart Prep heading into this week’s game against Half Moon Bay. Senior Will Uhrich is the team’s leading receiver with 27 catches for 449 yards and four touchdowns. A three year varsity player, Uhrich had three total touchdowns coming into the season.

Player Notes

Serra 2022 offensive lineman Nathan Elu (6-foot-5, 296 pounds) committed to Oregon State on Wednesday night. He has been impressive through the first half of the regular season as a punishing run blocker. He finishes his blocks well and looks to be a good find for the Beavers.

JUCO Note

Modesto quarterback Gino Campiotti (Manteca) has thrown for 1,012 yards and 11 touchdowns to go with 370 rushing yards and four scores. Modesto (4-2) takes on Reedley this week before a big game on October 30 against Fresno City.

Alumni Watch

Oregon State redshirt sophomore Jake Levengood (Vacaville) has been part of a Beavers’ offensive line that made the Joe Moore midseason Honor Roll.

Video to Watch

Windsor 2022 quarterback Chase Vehmeyer has the Jaguars’ offense rolling along heading into this week’s matchup against Cardinal Newman. It is an offense that can beat you horizontally and vertically.

Story to Read

One of the top games of the week between San Benito and Aptos has been cancelled due to COVID issues at San Benito. Read how the decision was made and what could be next.

And if you only need one or two games for those dates, we can make that work too.

claykallam@gmail.com

Folsom looks to be the top public school in the state right now, and also the highest ranked team in NorCal, above De La Salle. (Los Alamitos is not that good). Folsom is also better than Servite who is getting some extra love for treading water in the Trinity League.

From what I saw last night out of Sparty in the 1st half, they may have a rough outing against the mighty Bulldogs of Folsom, Ca. De La Salle stands 2 spots behind Folsom right now.

Excited to see Folsom finally win one this year!

Seattle's Darrion Trammell (St. Ignatius) has been named the WAC preseason player of the year.

His teammate, Riley Grigsby (Mitty), also made first-team, all-league in the preseason release

Geico Top Flight Tournament is currently going on.

Watched the Prolific Prep vs. Hoop Nation Game and it was a blood bath.

Not a lot of Mor Seck or Zion Sensley.

MJ Rice and Adem Bona are bonafide NBA Lottery Picks.

Dior Johnson did not start Jordan Pope did.

Game Notes

It is a homecoming week of sorts in NorCal High School Football. In his first season at Windsor, Paul Cronin has the Jaguars at 7-0 with a tough to defend offense and a defense that is giving up 12 points per game. This week, Windsor will host Cardinal Newman to kick off an action packed three week stretch in the North Bay League - Oak Division.

In the Sac-Joaquin Section, Oak Ridge will travel to Del Oro in the first game back in Loomis for head coach Casey Taylor, who left the program after the 2016 season. This year, Oak Ridge is 3-5 with all losses coming to Top 35 ranked teams. Last week, it beat Grant for its first SFL win. Del Oro is 4-4 with four straight losses following its 4-0 start.

Player Notes

Nevada has been busy recently in recruiting Serra offensive linemen. 2023 Ryan Silver (6-foot-3, 295 pounds) picked up his first offer from the Wolfpack. 2022 Drew Azzopardi (6-foot-6, 310 pounds) took his visit to Reno this past weekend.

JUCO Note

San Mateo is giving up a state low eight points per game with linebacker Demarii Blanks (Carlmont) having a team high 31 tackles with three sacks and two forced fumbles. He was primarily a running back in high school.

Alumni Watch

Sacramento State got a 28-21 road win over Montana this past weekend to stay perfect in the Big Sky Conference. Quarterback Jake Dunniway (St. Mary’s) threw for 227 yards and three touchdowns. His top two receivers were Pierre Williams (Patterson) and Jared Gipson (St. Mary’s).

Video to Watch

One of the biggest wins from last week was Antelope’s 35-6 victory over Inderkum to keep the Titans undefeated. Here are some highlights from the win.

Story to Read

Gustine is going through a rare in-season coaching change as it looks to make a playoff push. This week, it will take on Ripon Christian.

Congrats to Rocklin. As I said many times throughout the last week, I thought they were a Tier 1 team and I was right. I said multiple times I loved what they were doing.

Rocklin was ready and plays a physical style that this Folsom team doesn't match up well with. I think they play each other one more time in the SJS sections.

It was a GREAT run for the mighty Bulldogs of Folsom, who hadn't lost to an SFL team since Vietnam.

I am just glad that someone on the Highway 80 side finally nutted up and punched Folsom in the gut. Only took 10 years! Now we finally get some competition!

He hit .333 with four home runs and 27 RBI as a junior.

With the blowout wins by DLS and Rocklin over Folsom, I wonder how far Folsom will fall in the rankings. After DLS manhandled them, I was surprised they only fell to 8th, and were still ahead of St. Francis and DLS. I would assume that their loss to Rocklin should drop them from 8th to say 22nd? I mean, losing 71-17 in their last two games is embarrassing.

Here are the games for this week. Picks are due by 7:00 PM on Friday

Serra at Valley Christian
Sacramento at Capital Christian
Elk Grove at Jesuit
Folsom at Rocklin
Manteca at Central Catholic
Palma at San Benito
Foothill-Palo Cedro at Chico
San Ramon Valley at Clayton Valley Charter
Clear Lake at St. Helena
Vanden at Vacaville

Obviously, we're not where we've been in the past on Aug. 15, but we're up to 70 now. Application here:


In other news, we will back at Las Positas for the Platinum (at least), which was a great site when we used it before.

Any questions, feel free to email claykallam@gmail.com.

I didn’t yet see a thread, so here it is.

I’m out at Rocklin High for the Folsom-Thunder matchup.

Folsom JV is up 27-7 with 255 remaining.

What games are you attending or streaming?

Projected Division 1 bracket

AE — anticipated Auto Entry
AL — anticipated At-large Entry
** — haven't met four-game win threshold

1. Rocklin, AE — 2,178
2. Folsom, AL — 2,706
3. Jesuit, AE - (Anticipated Delta League champion or would be D2)
4. St. Mary's, AE (Anticipated Tri-City Athletic League champion or would be be D2)
5. Edison, AE — 2,731
**6. Oak Ridge, AL — 2,598
7. Del Oro, AL — Must be D1
8. Lincoln (Stockton), AL — 2,894
9. Sheldon, AL — 2,598
**10. Turlock, AL — 2,587
11. Enochs, AL — 2,422
12. McClatchy, AL — 2,482

I was going to post about the upcoming Serra St Francis game. But under the radar talent doesn’t do justice to Riordan’s DL/FB #42 Kemoeatu Kefu. Exceptional combination of size speed and strength. I can’t be the only WCAL football fan to notice it. If he is not a D1 player I don’t know who is.

Game Notes

Since a season opening loss to Folsom, Jesuit has won seven in a row and scored a season high 70 points on Saturday afternoon in a 70-35 win over Elk Grove. The Marauders got six rushing touchdowns from five different players, forced seven turnovers and scored in all three phases. Saturdays in Carmichael has also become one of the better home fields in the region.

Player Notes

Elk Grove 2022 running back Zeke Burnett recently committed to Sacramento State, according to the Sacramento Bee. After rushing for 180 yards and three scores in the loss to Jesuit, Burnett has 806 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. When the chatter comes up that Sacramento State needs to bring in local talent, its players like Burnett that fit the need.

JUCO Note

Sacramento City (3-4) forced four turnovers against Reedley (4-3) in a 16-14 win despite only having 151 total yards. Reedley had 222 total yards. For Sacramento City, Khalani Riddick (Elk Grove) had a fumble recovery and an interception.

Alumni Watch

Georgia freshman tight end Brock Bowers (Napa) had five catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s win over Kentucky. On the season, he has 25 catches for 416 yards and six scores.

Video to Watch

Central Catholic head coach Roger Canepa talked about the Raiders’ big win over Manteca with Front Row Preps.

Story to Read

Sacred Heart Cathedral found their big plays in a 20-13 win over Bellarmine. They have won two straight after a 0-5 start, which included closer than expected losses to St. Francis, Valley Christian and Palma.

Just glanced at score posts and both DLS & Folsom in trouble with NorCal opponents [?] - is this correct... just feels strange 😄

JV game is 20-0 Folsom at the half. I still believe DLS gets it done in the Varsity game due to coaching, line play and style of play. These seniors beat DLS 35-7 in the JV game in 2019. It seems apparent that coaching and player development come into play at the Varsity level and DLS has it

Game Notes

Colfax (5-2) has won four in a row after a 20-17 win over Marysville on Thursday. Noah Souza had two touchdown passes in the win.

Aptos (7-1) had no trouble in a 51-0 win over Alisal. Nick Forbes threw two touchdown passes and the Mariners finished with 333 rushing yards.

Player Notes

Rocklin 2023 linebacker Derek Houston (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) has 61 tackles and four sacks. He has good size, closes well on the ball on running plays and as a pass rusher and looks comfortable dropping into coverage. He has been one of the breakout players this fall in the junior class.

JUCO Note

Chabot (2-3) faces a tough test this week when it hosts undefeated City College of San Francisco. Defensively, one of Chabot’s top players is defensive lineman Deonte Bridges. He has six sacks in five games.

Alumni Watch

Tight end Zach Ertz (Monte Vista) is on the move as the Philadelphia Eagles have traded him to the Arizona Cardinals. Ertz was a key player on the Eagles’ Super Bowl winning team He had a touchdown catch on Thursday night prior to the trade.

Video to Watch

Los Gatos senior Jake Ripp (Boise State) has been a two-way standout for the Wildcats at tight end and linebacker.

Story to Read

The Bay Area News Group checked in on a pair of first year head coaches in the East Bay with Monte Vista’s CJ Anderson and St. Mary’s-Berkeley Jahvid Best.