‘They’re great again’: Top-ranked Folsom knocked off course again by De La Stomp
The postgame mood was somber for the guys in red.
That happens when a team collectively has their helmets handed to them, when there is an emphatic reminder that for all of the changes in football, it still boils down to fundamentals.
Blocking, tackling, execution. And these: Speed, ferocity and playmakers.
That has been De La Salle High School’s blueprint for success over 40 remarkable seasons of success. The powerhouse from Contra Costa County came to Prairie City Stadium on Friday night and dropped a 31-10 haymaker on Bee and Northern California top-ranked Folsom in a meeting expected to be a great deal-closer.
It is a contest that will resonate throughout the state because CIF State selections very well could depend upon this outcome. Had Folsom won this game — always a big if when it’s De La Salle — the Bulldogs would have had the fast lane to the prestigious CIF State Open Division championship.
Folsom’s hold on the NorCal No. 1 spot, its first such honor since the end of the 1962 season, lasted three weeks. It came about after De La Salle lost to Saint Francis of Mountain View 31-28, its first NorCal setback in 30 seasons, a 316-0-2 streak that is hard to fully fathom.
De La Salle moved to 45-0 against Sac-Joaquin Section teams since it first rose to power in 1982, and 20-0 against the section since 2012, including 5-0 against Folsom.
This loss stings a little more because the Spartans knocked Folsom star quarterback Tyler Tremain out of the game with 8:40 left to play, his team down 31-10. His left, non-throwing shoulder was injured, and he could miss several weeks of games, including next week’s Sierra Foothill League showdown at Bee No. 2 Rocklin in Placer County.
De La Salle started the game with an electrifying 85-yard kickoff return for a score, and then used defensive pressure, team speed and big plays to win its biggest game of the season as it rounds into form. Because this is the social media age, the criticism will hail down on the Bulldogs for not being up to the task, and for being taken to task.
“They just don’t know how good De La Salle is then,” Folsom coach Paul Doherty said. “They’re great, again. It would’ve been a great story if we won, but we didn’t. I’ve seen De La Salle for years, when I was in high school, as a fan, as a coach. and it’s the same thing: They’re big, they’re physical, they’re fast. “
He added, “I’m disappointed for the kids, for the program, for the community. We want to keep improving as a program.”
Said De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh, “We were physical, and that makes me very happy. We wanted to grind those guys down, be physical and control the clock.”
The Spartans did all of that, expertly, again. Game after game, year after year.
Luke Dermon gave De La Salle a 14-0 lead after the first quarter off his 56-yard touchdown spring, untouched. Charles Greer made it 21-0 with 8:54 left in the second with a 6-yard scoring run, which was set up by Mickey McLaughlin’s blocked punt inside the 10. He bullied his way through the line and nearly inhaled the ball.
“That’s their best player, and they have a ton of great players,” Doherty said of McLaughlin. “He’s thick, snappy, explosive, nasty. impossible to block. He’s a monster.”
Jordan Kennedy’s 43-yard field goal gave De La Salle a 24-0 lead. Tremain hit D.J. Brown for a 15-yard touchdown for Folsom’s first points, and Jake Tremain’s 33-yard field goal cut it to 24-10 with 9:50 to play in the game.
But true to DLS form, the Spartans struck quickly with Dermon hitting Notre Dame-bound tight end Cooper Flanagan for an 86-yard touchdown, and game over.
Folsom players were left to wonder what more its gritty defense could have done. Players said they should have and needed to block better for Tremain, who passed for 255 yards with Walker Lyons accounting for 135 of those yards.
“We made too many mistakes and De La Salle never makes bad mistakes,” said Folsom linebacker Josh Tremain, brother of the quarterback. “It was an honor to play them. We all grew up watching them and hearing about them.”
Said Folsom receiver Rico Flores Jr., “They’ve been doing it for so long and so well. We had to show them what Folsom is all about but we came up short of that. Tomorrow is a new day. We have to move on.”
Folsom has absorbed humbling defeats from De La Salle before and the key then is the same as it is now: How do the Bulldogs respond?
In losing to De La Salle in the CIF NorCal Open finals in 2012 and 2013 after starting those seasons 14-0, Folsom responded by going 16-0 in 2014 and winning the CIF State Division I-AA finals while De La Salle roared to the CIF Open finals.
In 2018, Folsom returned 18 starters from its CIF state title team but lost 14-0 at De La Salle in a season opener and then repeated as state champions.
“We’re a close team and we all have each other’s back, and we will be back,” Josh Tremain said.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 5:55 AM.