Monday Morning Lights: Serra beat De La Salle last season. Will Padres do it again?

“We’re not going to be scoreboard-watching, saying, ‘Oh, De La Salle is down.’” Plus, Pittsburg’s win on ‘Holy ground,’ more on Los Gatos QB’s five-TD game and an early peek at Week 2’s top matchups.

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HEAVYWEIGHT MATCHUP: DLS VISITS NO. 1 SERRA

Serra got past one problem in the first game of the season, beating Folsom at home. This week, the school in San Mateo has another game. On Saturday, De La Salle will come from Concord to play the top-ranked Padres.

De La Salle lost its first game at home on Friday to Orange Lutheran, 35–14. In the second half, they gave up 21 points that couldn’t be answered.

Patrick Walsh, the coach of Serra, made it clear what he thinks of DLS: “they’re big and physical.” He also pointed out again that the best teams in Northern California and Southern California are different.

“They played like a college team down there,” Walsh said. Walsh was honest about St. John Bosco and Mater Dei last season after his perfect team lost the Open Division state championship to Bosco 45-0. “NFL teams are like Mater Dei and Bosco.” It looked like they played like a top college team.

Walsh also said this about DLS, his old school, “It’s a great team.” We’re not going to look at the scoreboard and say, “Oh, De La Salle is down.””

They came back from being down 14 points in the fourth quarter to beat DLS 24-21 on the road last season.

Coach Justin Alumbaugh of DLS said that scheduling teams like Orange Lutheran is done for a reason.

“That’s a chance to learn,” he said. “Of course, as competitors, we want to win all of our games.” It’s La Salle. You wish to win all of your games. There is no question about it. That team is great. We didn’t play well enough to beat them.

“We’re not going back to the drawing board or anything.” I am sure that we will work well together. We need to change and learn from this. Get rid of the mental mistakes. Better watch out for the quarterback. Let our runners have more running lanes. Get rid of defensive mental mistakes. With a good team, you can’t do that.

MEMORY LANE: ORANGE LUTHERAN COACH ON DLS

Orange Lutheran coach Rod Sherman thought back to the first time he went to Concord to see the Spartans after his team beat DLS.

Sherman said, “I came here probably 20 years ago.” At the time, he was a coordinator at Orange Lutheran. “We watched how they did their work.” looked at how disciplined they were. At that time, we were a newer program at Orange Lutheran.

“So, as I rode the bus up yesterday, I thought, ‘Man, I’m in over my head as a head coach, bringing a team up to play De La Salle.'” I prayed and hoped that I wouldn’t get caught up in the lights of what that was. That’s really cool. We’re sure they do a great job with their young men.

PITTSBURG WINS ON ‘HOLY GROUND’

This past Saturday, Pittsburg beat Sacred Heart Cathedral 49–13 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Before the game, coach Charlie Ramirez showed his players an educational video about the stadium.

But his quarterback, Marley Alcantara, already knew the place where the 49ers played from 1946 to 1970, even though it had been shrunk down for high school games in the meantime.

The 49ers fan said, “It’s amazing to play on this holy ground where great football was played and great players played.”

Later, Ramirez made a jokey comparison between Alcantara and Joe Namath, another No. 12 who was a star on professional fields when Kezar was a pro stadium.

But Alcantara has now played in more games for Kezar than the famous quarterback. Candlestick Park was the site of both of Broadway Joe’s games in San Francisco.

HOT START: LOS GATOS QB LEADS THE WAY

MaxPreps looked at the stats and found that AJ Minyard of Los Gatos had the most touchdowns in Week 1 in the area covered by the Bay Area News Group.

In a 45–14 win over Soquel, the senior threw five touchdowns.

Minyard said it helped that he has played with playmakers Jaylen Thomas and Scott Garwood since he was a freshman.

He said, “We’ve really got that link.” There is a great tradition at Los Gatos where kids start as freshmen and work their way up to varsity. “Those guys and I have played together for four years.”

MITTY: COACH SULLIVAN IS A NEW DAD

Danny Sullivan, the coach of Mitty, has had a crazy year.

Last season, Sullivan led his team to the Central Coast Section Division I final, which was a big surprise since the San Jose school had only won once before. On Valentine’s Day, Sullivan and his wife had their first child.

Coach Sullivan is used to not being able to sleep at night.

He did say, though, that juggling being a coach and a dad was new for him. He believed that his players would prepare and work out on their own over the summer, and on Friday night, they earned his trust by beating James Logan 20–12.

At one point, Sullivan said, “I asked them to do things when I wasn’t there, and I had full faith in what they were going to do.” “These kids have to find their own ways to manage their time and make plans, so it fits with what we do.”

PIEDMONT: EAST BAY TEAM CAN’T GO HOME YET

The Piedmont team lost 33–21 to Pierce–Arbuckle on Friday night. On the other hand, the fact that East Bay had to end its 2022 season early after only four games and forfeiting two others because of a small roster was a win in a way.

Even though there are still only about 20 players, the Highlanders played well in their first game.

Junior Brayden Hong told Bay Area News Group before the game, “We’ve been getting ready for this since the end of our season.” “This is all we sought.” Our goal was to get this back.

The Highlanders have a small team, and they have to play all of their games away from home this season while their field is being fixed up.

This has been turned into a rallying cry for the team.

The coach of Piedmont said, “It stinks, and there’s no other way to put it.” “But you know what? We’re road warriors, and that’s what brings us together.”

PEEK AHEAD TO WEEK 2

Thursday

Wilcox (0-1) at Hollister (1-0), 7:30 p.m.: Another challenging road game for Wilcox after the Chargers lost at Valley Christian 16-15 on Friday.

Friday

Aptos (0-1) vs. Mitty (1-0) at Foothill College, 7 p.m.: Never easy for anyone to prepare for Aptos and its old-school Wing-T offense.

Live Oak (1-0) at Mountain View (1-0), 7 p.m.: Live Oak scored 53 points last week. Mountain View scored 48.

Los Gatos (1-0) at Liberty (1-0), 7 p.m.: Both teams rolled in Week 1 as Los Gatos toppled Soquel and Liberty breezed past Enochs-Modesto.

McClymonds (0-0) vs. Bellarmine (1-0) at San Jose City College, 7 p.m.: Rematch of last season’s thriller, which Mack won 24-21 in OT.

Palo Alto (1-0) at Leland (1-0), 7 p.m.: Leland goes for two in a row after a stunning 40-7 win at Half Moon Bay on Friday.

San Jose (0-1) at Lincoln-San Jose (0-1), 7 p.m.: Both teams enter the Big Bone Game looking for their first points of the season.

Pioneer (1-0) at Leigh (1-0), 7:15 p.m.: Both teams got big wins over “A” league teams in Week 1.

San Leandro (0-1) at Monte Vista (1-0), 7 p.m.: Monte Vista coming off a rout of Granada. SL lost by two on the road Friday against Redwood.

San Ramon Valley (1-0) at Acalanes (0-1), 7 p.m.: Acalanes lost to San Marin, a defending state champion, last week. SRV was a state runner-up in 2022.

Saturday

De La Salle (0-1) at Serra (1-0), 1:30 p.m.: DLS hasn’t started a season 0-2 since 2004, the year its national-record 151-game win streak ended.