WCAL Football 2019-20: Serra Padres 9-0 vs St. Ignatius Wildcats 7-2 for WCAL Championship
S.I. Wildcats QB Teddye Buchanan (10) runs vs Gonzaga Prep in S.I.'s 37-22 win earlier this season.
[pic courtesy of SF Examiner]
In the top WCAL game this week St. Ignatius hosts the Serra Padres on the Wildcats home turf in the Sunset district of SF. Simply put if Serra wins the Padres are the undisputed & undefeated champs of the WCAL & if S.I. can pull off the win then the Wildcats throw the league championship into a 3-way tie with Serra & Valley Christian who would all finish league at 6-1. As S.I. does not report statistics on its games/players I will attempt to give you a better idea of its players and what Serra is facing in this game. I think more fans due to the teams exposures are a bit more familiar with the Serra team & why I'll focus more on the St. Ignatius team & players in this post.
Serra & St. Ignatius Game Scores vs Same Opponents:
Valley Christian: Serra won 10-0 while S.I. lost 17-7
Mitty: Serra won 35-29 while S.I. won 21-7
SF: Serra won 35-21 while S.I. won 35-26
Bells: Serra won 37-0 while S.I. won 28-7
Riordan: Serra won 41-0 while S.I. won 45-0
SHC: Serra won 35-7 while S.I. won 28-14
Serra best game = 10-0 shut-out win over previous unbeaten VC
St. Ignatius best game = 17-7 loss to unbeaten VC where S.I. led 7-3 starting the 4th quarter.
While we know Serra is 9-0 and S.I. is 7-2 the Wildcats record is mildly deceiving in that S.I. could easily be 9-0 as well. S.I.'s first loss was to SHP in the 2nd game of the season by 28-21 in which S.I. led the entire game until SHP scored a TD with 73 seconds remaining in the game. In the VC game the Warrior's found themselves behind in the 2nd 1/2 of a game for the first time this season after having led S.I. by 3-0 at the 1/2 [its interesting to note that Serra-VC was tied 0-0 at the 1/2 of their game]. In the 4th quarter on a pivotal play VC went on 4th and 1 and made the 1rst down by inches. After a pass and several short runs VC regained the lead by 10-7 with 10 minutes in the game. S.I. then threw aggressively down field resulting in an interception by VC all WCAL DB Kavir Bains. VC then controlled the ball with their run game scoring a final TD on a short run with 3 minutes left in game for final score of 17-7. So S.I. lost 2 close games to 2 good teams in which S.I. had a chance to win either or both.
S.I.'s Team/Players: make no mistake as this is a very good S.I. team on both sides of the ball who seems to have gotten better as the season has progressed. S.I. works well as a cohesive unit and has a number of dynamic playmakers of which several play both ways at times. S.I. uses a 2-QB system and both players are very good. The #1 QB and also LB is Teddye Buchancan 6'2-215 who is excellent at both positions. Now before I indicate Teddy's stats remember he shares time at the QB position with Zach Taylor-Smith and also missed the Mitty game last week with a leg injury so his stats would be for 8 games instead of 9. Mitty's QB Shamir Bey is the WCAL's leading passer who has also missed several games now. Serra's Daylin McLemore was among the top QB's before being injured and had a similar average per game as Bey while McLemore had the highest efficiency rating. Looking at the games and stats available S.I.'s Buchanan while sharing time at the QB position would still come in at #2 just behind Bey & McLemore in yardage and would be the league leader in passing TD's at 14 while rushing for another 5 TD's [fans feel free to correct me if you have more accurate info than I've compiled]. Buchanan's stats while sharing the position at times indicates he is the top QB in the WCAL. A big statement for sure and hopefully Buchanan is available for this weeks game. Another top player for the Wildcats is their star WR Danny Ryan the #1 pass catcher in the WCAL. Ryan 6'1-170 also a basketball player catches anything thrown his way and gets open often. Ryan has had some spectacular games and the only other WR in WCAL remotely close to him in stats is Mitty's Reymello Murphy who is the other top WR in the league. Danny Ryan leads the league in pass receptions, yards and TD's well ahead of the #2 WR Mitty's Reymello Murphy. In 9 games Ryan has 4 more TD's than Murphy with a total of 11 TD's and a dozen more passes. The #2 QB for S.I. is Zach Taylor-Smith 6'2-210 who is athletic and like Buchanan can run & pass as well as play DB as needed. In Buchanan's absence last week Taylor-Smith directed the S.I. 21-7 win over Mitty. The 3 RB's are Joe Celetano, Mark Silva & Jahsai Shannon who make for a productive short-gain run game with Celetano used in the short yardage situations. Celetano 5'11-190 is one of the talented players who plays both
ways and has several INT's as a DB. S.I. also has one of the best FG kickers' in the league. S.I.'s Kealan O'Connell has made a number of field goals including a 37-yarder. The Wildcat defense is not huge across the line, but are fast & very athletic and difficult to run against. VC's worst games rushing were against Serra and then S.I. with Serra allowing just over 2 yards per rush while S.I. allowed just over 3 yards per rush - no other team was able to contain the VC rushing attack as Serra & S.I. did.
Conclusion: Unless I am wrong these 2 teams are well matched up against each other and S.I. maybe more so than VC in playing Serra. S.I. has a quick D and a much better passing game than VC. VC was more one dimensional relying on the run game and limited play selection. S.I. has a credible run game and perhaps the best passing game in the WCAL. Cover S.I.'s top WR Danny Ryan and S.I. has several other capable pass catchers. Pressure the S.I. QB and either one Buchanan or Taylor-Smith can run. While Serra-VC was a defensive slug-fest this game could turn into a shoot-out between the 2 teams. This will be a challenge for the Serra defense and also for the new Serra QB Dominique Lampkin starting his 2nd game running the Padre offense. While Serra has had its way with St. Ignatius in recent years' this game looks to be very competitive and a close game. If S.I.'s Buchanan cannot go it will certainly be a loss for S.I. all the way around. If that is the case then S.I.'s Taylor-Smith like Serra's Lampkin will have to step up his game for the Wildcats to have a solid shot in this game. This is a difficult game to predict and in all likelihood should be a very entertaining game and possibly a 1-score game. A WCAL Championship is at stake and both teams should be ready to go along with a loud home crowd of S.I. fans who been waiting awhile for this game.
