Prep football rankings: Cosumnes Oaks, Grant move up; Grigsby finishes fast
Anthony Grigsby wasn’t a one-man show for Cosumnes Oaks High School football as a quarterback marvel who makes all the throws and all the runs — but he was close.
The senior team captain was at least one of the last ones standing for the Elk Grove Unified School District program. The Wolfpack anticipated a big fall season, if there was one, and then as a program endured the loss of 20 players throughout the winter and spring months when the pandemic pushed the season into March and April.
“We lost guys to grades, to transfer sitouts, or those who lost interest — linemen, receivers, running backs,” Grigsby said. “A lot of them were starters, but the rest of us stuck it out.”
Grigsby is a Bee Player of the Year candidate for his ability to impact games and for driving the Wolfpack to a final spring ranking of No. 5. In going 2-1 this shortened season, the 5-foot-9 senior leader played as well as any quarterback in the entire 190-member Sac-Joaquin Section, and then some. He had three touchdowns in a 57-21 loss to No. 2 Monterey Trail, then tossed four scoring passes to beat Davis 31-16 and finally capped his prep career with two touchdown passes and a scoring run to beat Elk Grove 26-8 in the final local game of the season, a Saturday night contest at Cosumnes Oaks and a rematch of last season’s showdown, a split with Elk Grove winning in the playoffs.
Grigsby wants to play in college and offers an undying commitment to the game to match his skills.
“I would die for this game of football,” Grigsby said. “I know that sounds extreme, but football is my life. I wake up, and it’s school and football. I go to bed, and it’s football, and repeat. I want to play this sport until I can’t throw a spiral any more, until I can’t run fast enough.”
Grigsby credited his coach, Andrew Bettencourt, and his father, Anthony Grigsby Sr., for challenging him to be his best. He also plays in honor of his sister Merrylynn, who has battled cancer.
Said Bettencourt of his quarterback, “He’s a great young man of character. He’s coachable, makes mistakes and learns from them and he has a good heart. He can play.”
Rocklin-Whitney tension
The season was short but it wasn’t without tension beyond last-minute scheduling due to COVID-19 test results.
One week, it’s Rocklin backers fuming at Folsom coaches, insisting they didn’t push hard enough to allow a game to play. The contest was canceled due to lateness in test results for Rocklin, which was later cleared, but too late to hold onto that game.
On Friday, the annual Quarry Bowl between Placer County rivals Rocklin and Whitney started with Whitney players standing on the Rocklin block R at midfield in an effort to say, “We’re here!”
The game ended with Rocklin rolling 31-3 to cap a 4-0 season — and with scores of Thunder players racing to that block R to wave goodbye to their rivals. The postgame scene also included players and coaches from both sides barking at each other. The rivalry simmers and then boils even in the spring.
Whitney went 1-4, including a 10-6 loss to then No. 2 Oak Ridge and a 27-15 loss to No. 4 Granite Bay with a 28-13 triumph of Del Oro in the mix.
Anthony Garcia dazzles
Lost amid the celebration of coach Mike Alberghini winning his section-record best 282nd game for Grant on Friday was the sparkling effort of Capital Christian quarterback Anthony Garcia.
The 6-3 junior is a three-star recruit and could be the region’s top senior recruit this fall. He throws a terrific deep ball and is deceptively fast. He passed for 302 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-32 setback to the Pacers. On his 65-yard touchdown bomb to Kanye Clark for a 32-14 lead, the ball zipped through the air a good 50 yards.
“Anthony’s better than I was in high school,” said Aaron Garcia, Capital Christian’s offensive coordinator who set regional passing records at Grant in 1986 and ‘87. “He’s faster, and he has a 4.0 GPA and gets that from his mom (Shelby). He works hard, is coachable, wants to be great. I’m proud of him.”
Season over (almost)
Sac-Joaquin Section teams are finished with football, and there will not be any last-moment Folsom versus Monterey Trail or Rocklin versus either of them to cap the spring fun as the section is firm on April 17 being the final date of play.
The only Northern California section still playing is the Northern Section, which stretches from Yolo County and Sutter County to the Oregon border. That section started later than others. The top teams include 4-0 Sutter, ranked second in the section by MaxPreps behind Pleasant Valley of Chico. The Huskies have been a small-school power for years under coach Ryan Reynolds, and they belted out wins over Truckee (14-7) and Gridley (10-7) and then rolled Oroville 47-7 and Las Plumas 35-14. Sutter visits Wheatland on Friday night.
Winters, a regional small-school power since the early 1970s, is 3-1 with wins over Bradshaw Christian (37-30), Live Oak (42-6) and Dixon (35-14), with Pierce visiting Friday night. Carson Lowrie, from a family of players, has rushed for 637 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 7 yards a carry and nearly 160 a game. The 6-1, 215-pound senior went for 184 yards and four scores against Bradshaw Christian and for 198 and three against Dixon.
Pierce has a recruit in 6-3, 215-pound athlete/tight end Luke Vorhees, who also plays basketball, baseball and golf while sporting a 4.0 GPA.
THE BEE’S FINAL TOP 25
1. Folsom (6-0)
2. Monterey Trail (5-0)
3. Rocklin (4-0)
4. Granite Bay (4-2)
5. Cosumnes Oaks (2-1)
6. Vacaville (5-0))
7. Elk Grove (0-1)
8. Cosumnes Oaks (1-1)
9. Grant (2-0)
10. Oak Ridge (2-4)
11. Jesuit (3-2)
12. Vista del Lago (4-1)
13. Lincoln (3-1)
14. Oakmont (3-0)
15. Antelope (2-2)
16. Inderkum (3-3)
17. Yuba City (3-1)
18. Capital Christian (1-2)
19. Sheldon (2-1)
20. Pleasant Grove (2-2)
21. Franklin (2-1)
22. Casa Roble (4-0)
23. Placer (2-1)
24. Christian Brothers (3-3)
25. (TIE) Colfax (3-0)
25. (TIE) El Dorado (3-0)
Bubble teams: (alphabetical order): Amador (1-1), Argonaut (2-2), Bear River (2-3), (Bradshaw Christian (1-1), Colfax (3-0), Davis (1-3), Del Campo (2-1), Dixon (2-2), Foothill (2-2), Kennedy (3-1), Natomas (4-2), Nevada Union (1-1), Pioneer (3-1), River City (1-2), Rio Linda (2-3), Roseville (1-2), Sacramento (2-2), Sutter (4-0), Union Mine (2-1), Vanden (3-2), Wood (2-3), Woodcreek (2-2), Woodland (2-2). - Joe Davidson
This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 6:04 AM.