‘So good, so great’: Folsom and De La Salle meet again in clash of NorCal football powers
De La Salle is coming, and that means it’s time to buckle the chin straps, maybe fortify them with bolts, and apply extra eye black. That’s for the players, too.
De La Salle needs no real introduction to those who understand and appreciate high school football, but here’s a synopsis as the Spartans of Contra Costa County head to Folsom for Friday night’s CIF Northern California Division I-AA championship: They’re good. Really good. Historically great.
DLS may not be superhuman and invincible at 9-3 this season like it was when it went 12 consecutive seasons without a loss in piecing together an unfathomable 151-game winning streak, ending in 2004, but the NorCal scene knows what DLS is about. The Spartans entered last season with a 318-game unbeaten streak against NorCal foes north of Fresno, including ties. Folsom absorbed some of those losses, including having 14-0 teams in 2012 and 2013 get crushed in NorCal title games by the Spartans. Or in a 2018 season opener when DLS won 14-0. Or in 2019 when DLS rolled to a 28-7 halftime lead and won 42-27. Or in 2021 when Folsom’s 6-0 season start was De La Stomped, 31-10.
But Folsom did something about each of those losses. The Bulldogs got better. In 2014, Folsom didn’t play DLS, but the Bulldogs learned from those setbacks and went 16-0 with 16 running clocks.
After that season-opening shutout to DLS in 2018, Folsom never looked back, rolling to a CIF State Division I-AA championship repeat.
In 2021, the 31-10 haymaker from DLS fueled the Bulldogs, who savored revenge in prevailing 28-27 at De La Salle to win the NorCal Division I-AA championship, the region’s first victory in 31 tries against DLS dating back to 1987. In fact, Folsom is the only local team to ever beat DLS since the Spartans started playing football nearly 50 years ago.
And earlier this season, on Sept. 23, Folsom went back to DLS and won again, 24-20, as 6-foot-6 quarterback Austin Mack jumped up and just far enough over on the goal line as time ran out. The Bulldogs became the first NorCal team to beat DLS twice in succession in Concord since Salesian of Richmond did it in 1978-79.
Folsom coach Paul Doherty has known the DLS brand his entire life, a Bay Area product who watched with admiration from afar.
“As impossible as it was to beat them last year, it was more impossible to beat them in the NorCals, and it’s even more impossible to beat them a third time,” Doherty said. “We’ll see how it goes. They’re just so good, so great. In the 2019 game here, De La Salle beat us, outcoached us, outplayed us. That’s what De La Salle has done for decades. We had to get better. We, as players and coaches, had to see what it was all about, the standard. We’re in education. We talk about standards all the time. I don’t think we beat them in the NorCals last year if they didn’t thump us before.”
The coach added, “I remember (star Folsom players) Walker Lyons and Rico Flores said after the (31-10 loss to DLS) last year, ‘Whoa! OK. I get it now.’ You have to experience it.”
Folsom will experience DLS this time without Lyons or Flores, both out with injuries. DLS hasn’t been at full strength since maybe July, but the Spartans are picking up steam again. The regular-season losses were to NorCal No. 1 Serra, 24-21, Folsom, 24-20, and St. Mary’s of Stockton, 45-35. The Spartans have not lost since, a six-game winning streak that includes winning the program’s 30th consecutive North Coast Section championship.
“I’m encouraged by our progress,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “We took some losses early, but I give credit to our guys for bonding together, weathering the storm. There’s a lesson in that: keep grinding.”
Alumbaugh shurgged off any notion by frustrated DLS alums who have gone to social media to suggest the program has dipped.
“I’m an alum, too, and it’s a double-edged sword,” the coach said. “There’s an expectation of greatness and success here. We have to embrace that. We knew what we were getting into, and in a lot of ways, that’s a good thing. Negativity comes with it. There’s better football being played in Northern California than ever before. There’s no doubt about it. It’s a testament to the other schools and their coaching staff and players, including Folsom, which is really good again.”
NorCal heavyweights
A peek at the last 5 meetings between Folsom and De La Salle:
2018 — DLS 14, Folsom 0
2019 — DLS 42, Folsom 27
2021 — DLS 31, Folsom 10
2021 — Folsom 28, DLS 27 (NorCal finals)
2022 — Folsom 24, DLS 20
* DLS leads the series 5-2 since the programs first played in 2012