CIF NorCal football finals: From championship glee to all-out preparation scramble mode
Eric Cavaliere on Sunday rounded up his coaching staff, all weary and bleary from a 14-week grind of a season.
The plan was to unwind at a local spot with some good eats and chatter to digest a football season that rolls on for Oak Ridge High School.
“We met for lunch for a decompression, debrief, good to go,” said Cavaliere, the Oak Ridge coach. “We were told the NorCal brackets would be released about 2 p.m., so I brought my laptop, just in case, and then we get the call. We instantly went into business mode. No debrief. No attaboys. Let’s find film and learn about our opponent.”
Such is the fast-paced nature of the prep playoffs. It goes from Sac-Joaquin Section championship joy late Saturday night at Hughes Stadium to sudden cram and study mode in El Dorado Hills less than 14 hours later. But no one’s complaining.
To still be standing is worthy of good cheer.
Oak Ridge (11-2) will host Central High of Fresno (13-0) on Friday night in the CIF Regional Northern California Division I-AA championship in a meeting of fast and prolific spread teams.
At the same time in Concord, Elk Grove (10-4) will take on Clayton Valley Charter (8-5) in the Division II-AA final in a showdown of run-heavy programs. That game may end at 8:40 p.m., given how much the teams hand off and chew clock.
“Wouldn’t that be great? We can all get done early and go eat!” said a laughing Tim Murphy, Clayton Valley Charter coach.
All the coaches at this point are in full scramble mode, poring over film of opponents, learning tendencies on the fly.
“We don’t have much time to enjoy the section championship, and that’s fine because it’s a good scramble right now,” Cavaliere said. “There’s nothing we’d rather do. Our guys love the grind of preparation.”
Elk Grove coach John Heffernan, like Murphy, is fast to get online to research the next opponent.
“I know they have great athletes and will be very well coached,” Heffernan said of Clayton Valley Charter. Elk Grove impressed in rolling Whitney 35-0 to win the section D-II championship.
Said Murphy of Elk Grove, “They look great, really fast, and they run the triple-option really clean. It makes it hard to emulate in practice. The biggest thing is Elk Grove has a great combination of size and speed. Should be a great game.”
So should the Oak Ridge-Central game. Oak Ridge is in a NorCal final for the first time and Central is in its third successive such game. The Grizzlies lost to Folsom in each of the past two finals. That Oak Ridge got this game bid and not another is an example of the Sac-Joaquin Section’s state-wide reputation for its D-I champions when the state’s 10 section commissioners break down the NorCal brackets.
The Division I-AA NorCal game is deemed the top NorCal game. It’s important to know that De La Salle is the best team in Northern California, and has been since 1992 with no NorCal losses since then to teams north of Fresno.
Because of that school’s dominance, the CIF has since 2014 advanced De La Salle straight from the North Coast Section title round to the elite CIF State Open Division final, where on Dec. 14 the Spartans will play national No. 1 Bosco of Bellflower to cap the season.
Gavin go-mode
Gavin McAuliff is still doing Gavin things.
The East Nicolaus senior keyed a 61-14 rout of Pierce to win the program’s fifth consecutive Northern Section Division IV championship. It’s the third such title for McAuliff as the starting quarterback and free safety. He rushed 13 times for 213 yards and five touchdowns and he tossed a touchdown pass. On defense, McAuliff had seven tackles and two interceptions.
Under McAuliff and coaches Travis Barker and Neil Stinson, East Nicolaus has gone 38-1 through section play in three seasons. The Spartans (12-1) will play St. Bernard’s of Eureka (10-3) on Friday in the Division VI-AA NorCal game. It will be played at River Valley High in Yuba City, a bigger venue than East Nicolaus with a field turf.
Sutter rolls on
Sutter has also been a Northern Section powerhouse, winning six such championships in eight years under coach Ryan Reynolds to reach a NorCal final for the third time since 2014.
The Huskies (12-1) play at Ripon (12-1) for the NorCal Division IV-AA championship Friday. Sutter beat previously unbeaten Paradise 20-7 in the Northern Section D-III finals in the rain as Daniel Cummings ran for 144 yards and Cory McIntyre 120 and two scores.
Paradise players and coaches expressed a mixture of relief and pride. Its championship march came a year after the town of Paradise was leveled by the Camp Fire, displacing all but three players from their homes.
Said longtime Bobcats coach Rick Prinz, who held off coaching retirement for one season to help get his players through the season, “In a lot of ways, this was bigger than football and bigger than what happened tonight on this field. This was for our town and helping rebuild it.”
CIF State Northern California Regional bowl games
All AA games Friday at 7:30 p.m. and A games Saturday at 6 p.m., unless noted
Division I-AA
Central-Fresno (13-0) at Oak Ridge (11-2)
Division II-AA
Elk Grove (10-4) at Clayton Valley Charter-Concord (8-5)
Division III-AA
Los Gatos (12-1) at Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (12-1)
Division IV-AA
Sutter (12-1) at Ripon (12-1)
Division V-AA
Del Norte-Crescent City (12-2) at Kings Academy-Sunnyvale (10-3)
Division VI-AA
St. Bernard’s-Eureka (10-3) vs. East Nicolaus (12-1) at River Valley HS
Division VII-A
Lincoln-San Francisco (10-1) vs. Mariposa (8-4) at Golden Valley HS
Division I-A
Memorial-Fresno (12-1) at Serra-San Mateo (12-1), noon Saturday
Division II-A
Manteca (11-2) at McClymonds-Oakland (10-0)
Division III-A
Rancho Cotate-Santa Rosa (10-3) at Sierra-Manteca (11-3)
Division IV-A
Escalon (12-1) at Pleasant Valley-Chico (7-5)
Division V-A
Milpitas (7-6) at Caruthers (13-1)
Division VI-A
Salesian-Richmond (11-2) at Santa Cruz (10-3)
CIF State Open Division Final
8 p.m. Dec. 14 at Cerritos College
De La Salle-Concord (12-1) vs. Bosco-Bellflower (12-1)
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 5:00 AM.