High School Sports

Sure athletes have been competing for a month or so now. Between indoor meets and early season invites the track season is in full swing.

Now comes the Stanford Invitational followed by the Arcadia Relay and the Sacramento Meet of Champions.

These are your chances to see where you are at and what you might need to improve on to make a state finals and maybe win state at the end of the season.

Hundreds of track and field athletes dedsended on Cobb Track and Angell Field over the April Fools weekend on the campus of Stanford University.

For some this was a chance to get in some training and prepare to run at the Arcadia relays this weelend down in LA.

For others it was a chance to see where they are at against some of the best that northern Cali has to offer. More click here

De La Salle once again rules the East Bay

They stepped up. One by one teams came at the Spartans (11-1) late in the season and gotten beat pretty bad. The biggest difference for De La as the season went on was it's defense.

In the six games since the Spartans hung on to beat San Ramon Valley 28-27 De La Salle has given up just 33pts. That includes a 41-7 pasting of a good Freedom squad capturing their 26th NCS Championship in a row.

It was 7-7 after each team touched the ball for the first time and all De La Salle after that.

In the five games stretch that ended with the win over San Ramon Valley De La Salle allowed 109pts. That included a 28-27 win over Servite (Anaheim), 28-21 over Antioch and their only loss of the season, 23-21 to East (Salt Lake City).

The Spartans will take on the winner of the St. John Bosco v Mater Dei contest. Mater Dei beat Bosco in league play this season 26-21 so the rematch should be a great one.

Freedom High marches on thru the 2016 football season

This was the one they wanted. Big, bad Pitt High was on deck and with both teams being un-defeated the BVAL league championship was on the line.

Freedom's Ronnie Rivers returned a kickoff 97-yards for one score before taking a hand off and rushing 70-yards for another score to jump start Freedom's comeback.

The Freedom Pitt game was the start of a bunch of league deciding games being played out the next week.

Clayton Valley v Campolindo (Diablo - Valley), San Leandro v Bishop O'Dowd (West Alameda County - Foothill), El Cerrito v Salesian (Tri City - Rock) , Cardinal Newman v Rancho Cotate (North Bay), Palma (Salinas, CA) at San Benito (Hollister) Monterey Bay - Gabilan are all tied for the lead in their leagues.

The best part about that is they all play each other to close out the regular season.

Kennedy of Richmond and Fremont are having great seasons. Kennedy (Richmond) improved to 8-1 beating De Anza 31-6. Kennedy QB Micah Barnes did not complete many passes (5), but he made the count.

Three of them went for touchdowns. Kennedy (Fremont) continued their perfect now 9-0 season with a 28-14 with over a game Washington squad.

It is going to be an exciting time with the final week of the season and the playoff announcements. There is a new four team Open bracket in place for the 2016 CIF State Football championships.

There are more then four teams that feel they can win the Open division so some team is going to feel left out when they seeds come out. Of course they will still fall back to their regular division and play for a state title there.

De La Salle plays 9-0 Monte Vista this week. Many people feel this could be the game when De La's streak against teams from Northern Cali, Pitt back in 1991, could come to an end.

That has been said many times before and the streak went on. it should be a great game at De La Salle Friday night.

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Did I read that right - De La Salle lost at home

It does not happen very often, but yes the mighty Spartans fell 23-21 on a last second field goal to East High out of Salt Lake City Utah.

After surviving Servite (Anaheim, Ca) 28-27 last week De La Salle could get past one of Utah's best teams.

That ended a 74-yard, 13-play drive with 3:11 left in the 4th quarter that started at the East 4-yard line. It was De La Salle’s first loss on its home field since Sept. 27, 2008.

Piedmont is off to a 3-1 start

The Highlanders moved up into the West Alameda County - Foothill Division and it is turning into what looks like an exciting season for Piedmont. They are fresh off a 28-27 win at Salesian last week.

Piedmont's only loss came to Moreau Catholic (Hayward, CA) 24-21 last week. Piedmont's season is just heating up. They play at a 3-1 Encinal squad that have 74-0 and 40-0 wins under there belt this year.

The Jets only loss was to 3-0 Paradise (36-33) out of the always tough Eastern League in the Northern section.

Piedmont still has league play in front of them. They will get tested by San Leandro, Berkeley High and Bishop O'Dowd when league play rolls around.

De La Salle, among others impress at the start of the 2016 prep football season

A 2-0 start by a combined score of 89-20 shows they did not far to far from the form they have had in the past despite numerous graduations from a year ago.

De La Salle made a game winning drive with two minutes left in the game, capping their comeback when Kairee Robinson score a two point try with under a minute left in the game.

Tiny Encinal has not been playing powerhouses or anything like that, but when you start the season by blowing out teams 74-0 and 40-0 it can raise a few eyebrows. The Jets from Alameda should get tested with up coming games against Paradise (2-0) and a strong looking Piedmont High that has also started out 2-0.

The same goes for McClymonds High out of West Oakland. They have opened their season with wins against El Cerrito and Moreau Catholic.

Mack (2-1) was on the wrong side of an offensive minded 48-44 game against now 3-0 Paso Robles (just off the coast in Northern LA). The Warrior's have a big test at Sacred Heart Prep Saturday.

Football is back with an early start to the season

In what used to be a game or two here or there has turned into the first real weekend of high school football. I am talking about the last week of August and the number of football games that are played during that week.

Teams all across the state of California hit the gridiron last week. Several teams looked as good as advertised and some teams will have to go back to the drawing board.

De La Salle got their season off to a blowout win. It started slow, however and they found themselves up just 14-7 against Amador Valley (Pleasenton, CA) in the first half before hitting their stride and winning the game 42-7.

McClymonds (Oakland) got their season off to a promising start by knocking off El Cerrito 26-6 in West Oakland. The Warrior's have big games against Moreau Catholic and Sacred Heart Prep coming up in the next three weeks.

Prep Cagers lay claim to a state title

One road playoff win after another led the Yellowjackets all the way to a state title game for the first time since 1924.

There they ran into an experienced Crespi (33-4) squad that was defending their state championship. Crespi dominated the boards on their way to a 68-53 win.

De'Anthony Melton led the way for Crespi with 24pts and 17-rebounds. Crespi led 34-25 at the half.

Berkeley High opened the second half with a 14-2 run that gave them a brief 37-36 lead. Niles Malone paced Berkeley High with 18pts. Sean Spikes had 8 of his 12 points during Berkeley High's 3rd quarter run.

The Yellowjackets were sunk by their shot selection and they made just 19 of the 60 shots they threw up.

Chino Hills complete perfect season

De La Salle did all they could to hold off one of the top ranked teams in the country. They held a team that scores 100pts with ease to just 28 in the first half. Chino Hills found themselves behind 30-28 at the break.

So what does a talented offensive team like Chino Hills do ?, ramp up the defense naturally. De La Salle made just 7 of their 28 field goal attempts in the second half while Chino Hills raced to a 70-50 win to claim the 2016 Open Division title.

The Ball Bro's (Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo) did not disappoint. Lonzo, the only senior out of the three and the 2016 Naismith National Player of the Year, only had 15pts. Many of these came late in the game when it was out of reach.

Tiny Pinewood's upset highlights NorCal playoffs

Many people penciled in a St. Mary's (Stockton) against Miramonte girls NorCal final next Saturday at Arco Arena. Who know that a D5 school, Pinewood, would step up and beat one of the best teams in the country.

St. Mary's had come into the game with a 28-0 record on the season and they had a 57-game winning streak snapped. Pinewood has won six small school state titles in the past under head coach Doc Scheppler.

The school of just 210-students nestled in the Los Altos Hills will now try to topple Miramonte and there All American Sabrina Ionescu who beat Salesian (Richmond) 74-61.

Ionescu scored a game high 36pts, 31 in the second half when Salesian fought back from a 10pt hole midway thru the 3rd quarter to make it 48-43 Miramonte in the 4th quarter.

Sabrina would go on a personal 10-0 run to push Miramonte's lead back up to 58-45. Salesian's Minyon Moore (26 points, five assists, five steals) scored six of her points to close the gap to 62-56 with 1:36 left in the game, but The Matadors close the game out by hitting free throw after free throw down the stretch.

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With section championships in the bag teams look towards state

Teams like the Miramonte girls and Moreau Catholic boys teams took care of business in their section championships.

Miramonte handled a decent Bishop O'Dowd 82-79 to win their 3rd NCS D3 Championship in a row.

Senior Sabrina Ionescu closed out her NCS career with 25pts, 14-rebounds and 7-assists.

Miramonte took off in the second when they outscored O'Dowd 33-19 and led 55-27 at the half. They built a 25pt lead in the 3rd quarter.

O'Dowd would rally in the 3rd quarter outscoring Miramonte 16-7 but it was not nearly enough. Uriah Howard chipped in with 16pts and 6-rebounds for the Mats.

Myah Pace led O'Dowd with 16pts, 10-rebounds and 5-assists. Zakiya Mahoney scored 13pts and pulled down seven rebounds for the Dragons in the loss.

Moreau Catholic used a 19-2 first quarter run to dominate Miramonte 98-67 to win the NCS D 3 Championship at St. Mary's College in Moraga Saturday. Damari Milstead was in full control scoring a career high 35pts (and 8-assists) in the win.

Moreau hit 11-three's in the first half. Terrell Brown (23pts) had four of them as Moreau took a 62-34 lead into the half.

Oscar Frayer put on a mimi show with a couple of nice dunks in the second half and finished with 17. Moreau has been playing great defense of late and if they keep that up and their ball movement on offense they will be hard to beat in the state playoffs.

Up first for Moreau in the 2016 NorCal Playoffs is Sheldon from Sacramento. More click here

Basketball teams gearing up for the post season

Things are starting to come into focus as teams play thru the second half of there league seasons.

They brought their whole team back that ran into a Bishop O'Dowd defense last year that was backed up by Ivan Rabb in the NorCal playoffs.

Oakland Tech is making some noise for the first time since Leon Powe was running around North Oakland.

Tech survived a overtime game to win at McClymonds 92-85 to improve to 21-1 on the year. Tech out scored Mack 29-11 in the 4th quarter to force OT.

Oakland Tech's only loss of the season was 76-73 at Pittsburg. The Bulldog's also won the Torrey Pines Classic down in the San diego area this season. That is one of the best high school tourney's in California year in and year out.

Tennyson's Silva tearing up defenses in 2015

Tennyson improved to 4-1 behind the duel threat of quarterback Christian Silva beating crosstown rival Mt. Eden 40-14 last Friday night.

He also rushed for a game-high 167 yards with two more scores on just 12 attempts.

Silva hit Jhayvee Daily for a 64-yard touchdown and Naima Fualaau for a 4-yard score before scoring on touchdown runs of 52 and 32 yards.

The Lancers jumped ut to a 27-0 second quarter lead and coasted from there. Mt. Eden fell to 3-2.

Since getting hammered 39-0 by James Logan to open the season Tennyson has won four in a row. Wins over San Lorenzo ( 0-5) 48-0, Mission San Jose (1-3) 35-0 and Lowell SF (0-3) 48-0 followed that loss to Logan.

A bye week is on deck for Tennyson before they get their season underway for real with a league game at Bishop O'Dowd.

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St. Mary's (Berkeley) back on track

The Panthers got the best of host Bishop O'Dowd 25-15 in front of a packed house.

The game was close until second half turnovers helped St. Mary's break a 14-all tie at the half.

Good blocking by St. Mary's offensive line helped spring senior tailback Tamarick Pierce for a 56-yard touchdown to give St. Mary's a lead they would not give up.

Pierce and linebacker, senior Alex Glover would force mistake after mistake from the Dragons offense.

Bishop O'Dowd's second half included three turnovers and a bad snap on a punt that resulted in a safety.

St. Mary's QB Ryan Jenkins played mistake free football throwing for 142-yards on 12 of 17 passing and touchdown pass (55-yards) to wide receiver Sonjay Kettles that closed out the scoring.

Pierce finished with 125-yards rushing (18-carries) and several tackles on defense. Glover had three sacks and he was a terror every time the Dragons passed the ball in the second half.

One bright spot for Bishop O'Dowd was freshmen running back Austin Jones who had 133-yards rushing.

Wild games highlight week of high school football

Pittsburg (2-1) headed into their game against Monte Vista (2-0) riding a two game win streak with a high ranking to boot.

They knew it would be a tough game. The two teams have played some great games over the years with upsets on both sides.

Pitt was stopped on a 4th and 1 at Monta Vista's 10-yard line midway thru the 4th quarter and the game tied at 42.

Monte Vista drove 90 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, a 17-yard pass from Jake Haener to Traehone Banda. Haener finished 16-for-27 passing with 326 yards and six touchdowns.

Pittsburg scored 21pts in the 3rd quarter to take a 35-21 lead into the 4th quarter. Monte Vista answered back with three TD's of their own before Pitt tied the score at 42 in the 4th.

Pitt got a little carried away with themselves going for it at Monte Vista's 10-yard line because they have a good field goal kicker.

Freedom 31 Amador Valley 28

The Monte Vista - Pitt game was not the most exciting finish out there in the bay.

That would go to Freedom v Amador Valley tussle in which Freedom ended the game with a 20-yard pitch and catch from quarterback Joe Sweeney to Baylei Coston across the middle.

Coston then lateraled to a trailing Dominic Dominguez who finished off a 62-yard touchdown play giving Freedom a 31-28 lead with nine seconds left in the game.

Ledre McCullough (119 yards on 25 carries) had just given Amador Valley it's only lead of the night when he finished off a 74-yard drive with a one yard plunge into the end zone with 23-seconds left in the game.

Mack having another strong season

McClymonds High is doing just fine in their tour of Northern California. The warrior's still have weeks to go before they play at home. On the road so far they have beaten Benicia (38-21) and Mt. Pleasant (San Jose, CA) 60-6.

Both of these teams were a combined 16-7 last year but they are just 1-3 this year. That is not McClymonds fault. Up next for the Warrior's is a trip up north to play Del Norte (Crescent City, CA).

Del Norte was 9-3 last season but they have gotten off to a 1-2 start in 2015. Mack will head off to Stockton next week to play Stagg. A game at Piedmont will follow that.

It is not a home game but it is only two or three miles away from Mack's campus so at least some fans will be able to make the trek over to watch their team play.

McClymonds will open OAL play at home (their 2015 home opener) against Castlemont Oct. 9th.

Prep football in full swing this weekend

De La Salle got over 200-total yards and two fantastic touchdowns (1 running 81-yards and 1 receiving 79-yards) from tailback Antoine "Manny" Custer, but it wasn't enough as the Spartans fell to Trinity (Euless, TX) 26-21.

A top ranked team in many polls to open the season, the Spartans could never really get their offense going. Turnovers only made matters worse.

The biggest one turned into a 45-yard touchdown return on a fumble caused when a reverse run play went bad and Trinity Linebacker Samuel Leota scooped the ball up and rambled in to make it 14-12 De La Salle at the half.

Trinity's D took over in the 3rd quarter and it took a spectacular 81-yard TD run by Manny in the 4th quarter for the Spartans to get back into the end zone.

Just barely. The Spartans had a chance to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but with 36-seconds left a flea flicker pass by Spartans tight end Devin Asiasi missed a wide open Chris Vanderklugt in the end zone.

The OAL represented itself well in the opening weekend of the 2015 football season. Fremont shut out Sonoma Valley 24-0 on the road last Friday. Fremont will get a tougher test Friday when they play at Piedmont.

Castlemont High put up 48pts. beating St. Patrick-St. Vincent by 21pts. The Knights are led by quarterback Sosefo Feao who threw for 17-TD's last season. The Knights will play Pittsburg High at home Oct. 2nd before opening up OAL play with McClymonds in West Oakland.

With games against Burton (SF), Berkeley and Emery High on deck for Castlemont they could be 4-0 when Pittsburg comes calling. Head coach Edward Washington has Castlemont moving forward.

McClymonds High will not have a home game until castlemont comes calling Oct. 9th. Mack's schedule will let them know if a OAL title is in the works this season.

Benicia (7-5), Mt. Pleasent (San Jose 9-2) and Del Norte (Crescent City 9-3) were all playoff teams last year. Those are the Warrior's first three games of 2015. A game in Stockton at against Stagg follows before the Warrior's play anywhere near West Oakland.

A game at Piedmont Oct. 2nd will give Mack fans a chance to see their team play near home. That early schedule could take a toll on a squad that lost 19 of 22 starters from a year ago.

Sacramento Meet of Champions hits the Capital City

Just in the 10th grade, Brenea Palmer showed she has a chance to compete at the state championships.

Oakland Tech's relay team also had the fast time during the day in the 4x100m relay's (48.84).

That is one of the fastest times in the state of California. Jesuit's Sean Kurdy (4:17.30) and Colin Burke (Bishop O'Dowd 4:17.84) were not far behind.

Prep Cagers moves a step closer to a state title

Many a dream was dashed last Saturday as the best of the best hooked to play for regional finals.

It is always one of the roughest weekends because, not matter what, some very good teams were going to have their season come to a crashing end.

Just ask Piedmont who saw their girls team fall in the D4 final to Brookside Christian.

Likewise for a Modesto Christian squad that gave a powerhouse Bishop O'Dowd team all they could handle before O'Dowd's defense began to take over midway thru the second quarter.

Yeah, that's right. Bishop O'Dowd's defense is what got them thru to the Open Division state finals. Ivan Rabb and Paris Austin can light it up with the best of them.

O'Dowd's team defense has flown under the radar all season, but it truly is the straw that stirs the drink. O'Dowd will need all the D they can play when Mater Dei comes calling for the state finals.

Head coach Mater Dei’s Gary McKnight, the winningest coach in state history (1,024-89 record) with the nation’s best career winning percentage (.920), with 11-state title under his belt.

None of that matters to a Bishop O'Dowd team that has been groomed for this season. One of the best players in the country, Ivan rabb will have his hands full for sure.

He now has the team around him to make a serious run at O'Dowd first state championship in almost 30yrs.

Tiny Eastside Prep 1 win away from state title

You have to give it up to a team that only uses six players and they have a chance to win a state championship in basketball.

It is not that their rotation is not that deep. No, Eastside Prep out of East Palo Alto only has six players on the team.

EastSide Prep forced 23-turnovers in last weeks 38-26 win over a Valley Christian (Dublin) team that averaged over 60pts a game this season.

They will represent D5 against San Diego area power La Jolla Country Day bright and early Friday mourning at 10am.

St. Mary's is fresh off topping a game Miramonte team in last week's NorCal Open final's.

They will have their hands full with the 6'3" Katie Lou Samuelson and the rest of Mater Dei. St. Mary's trapping defense will be put to the test 6pm Saturday night at Cal Berkeley.