Saturday’s football roundup: Serra crushes Salinas; Heritage routs Redwood
Top-seeded Serra will play Wilcox for CCS Open Division title. Sacred Heart Prep falls to Monterey in CCS D-II.
On Saturday, the Bay Area’s best high school football team performed admirably.
Serra scored 27 points in the first quarter and cruised past eighth-seeded Salinas 47-7 in the first round of the Central Coast Section Open/Division I playoffs at home in San Mateo.
The Padres will compete for the Open championship against seventh-seeded Wilcox on Friday night at San Jose City College. On Friday, Wilcox upset second-seeded St. Francis in the first round.
The winner of the Open will advance to a state game. In two weeks, the Open runner-up will compete for the CCS Division I title and a regional spot.
Nano Latu scored Serra’s first touchdown on Saturday with a 14-yard run. The two-point conversion made the score 8-0.
Jaden Green’s pick-six increased the lead to 14-0, and Green’s 3-yard run increased it to 20-0.
Kyon Loud’s pick-six made the score 27-0.
Serra dominated Salinas in the playoffs for the second year in a row, scoring all 47 points in the first half. Last season, in the semifinals against the Cowboys, Serra scored 50 points before halftime and won 57-21.
If the Padres defeat Wilcox, they will play in the Open Division state championship game for the third year in a row, most likely against Mater Dei or St. John Bosco, the teams that have annihilated Serra the previous two years.
What happens if Wilcox wins?
The Chargers don’t appear to be a contender to face Southern California’s top team. They would almost certainly compete in an upper-division NorCal regional.
Other games include:
NCS Division II
5 Heritage 35, 7 Redwood-Larkspur
The fifth seed The Patriots scored on their first drive of the NCS Division II playoffs and never looked back, routing host No. 4 Redwood-Larkspur for their first postseason victory in six years.
Mekhi Adanandus scored on a three-yard run to cap an 80-yard opening drive, and Phillip Babbitt connected with JJ Kinnaird later in the quarter to put Heritage up 14-0.
On the next drive, Adanandus sprinted through the Redwood defense for a 60-yard touchdown, giving Heritage three touchdowns in as many possessions. Heritage went into halftime with a 21-0 lead.
Following a scoreless third quarter, Heritage increased its lead to 28-0 early in the fourth quarter when Babbitt connected with Brooks Davis for a six-yard touchdown.
Heritage’s scoring was completed by Ilias Muhammad’s one-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.
Heritage (5-6) will face top-seeded El Cerrito for a spot in the Division III championship game.
CCS Division II
Sacred Heart Prep 24, No. 6 Monterey 38
Sacred Heart Prep led at halftime, 24-17, but was held scoreless in the second half.
Anthony Noto scored twice in the first half on runs of 2 and 1 yards to tie the game 7-7 and 14-14. Greg Gamitian’s 18-yard scoring run gave SHP its first lead at 21-17, and a Nathan Fox 38-yard field goal made it 24-17 at the half.
The second half, on the other hand, was all Monterey.
Preston White’s pass to Kavon Collins and Enobong Wirth’s two runs put the Dores ahead.
SHP triumphs 6-5. Monterey (8-3) will face Soquel in the semifinals.
NCS Division III
Marin Catholic is ranked first, while Bishop O’Dowd is ranked eighth.
In the first half of the NCS Division III playoff game, the Dragons gave top-seed Marin Catholic everything they could handle. The teams went into halftime tied 7-7, a far cry from the Wildcats’ 50-0 thrashing of O’Dowd during the regular season.
Marin Catholic retook the lead in the third quarter on a 13-yard run by Peter Macaulay. Charles Williams extended the lead to 21-7 with another rushing touchdown before turning it into a three-possession lead by returning an interception 70 yards for a touchdown.
Bishop O’Dowd finished the season with a 6-5 record. Tamalpais will visit Marin Catholic the following week.
