Prep football notes and rankings: Folsom-Rocklin showdown will not have star QBs
As the weather cools, league races heat up, including in the Sierra Foothill League, where on Friday in Placer County top-ranked Folsom takes on No. 2 Rocklin for conference honors.
This is an interesting game for a lot of reasons, including the region’s top defensive outfit in the Thunder taking on the most-explosive offense in Folsom.
Especially intriguing is that the star quarterbacks for both teams will not play. Rocklin’s Kenny Lueth has been nursing a knee injury suffered Sept. 24 against Del Oro. He is off crutches but will not be rushed back into action. Lueth has a collegiate future and this isn’t the Super Bowl, just the title round of the Sac-Joaquin Section’s super league.
The plan is to have the skilled 6-foot-5 senior ready for a section and CIF State championship run because the Thunder are that good. The depth includes quarterback backup Joey Roberts, who has been solid in relief of Lueth.
Depth and patience is the same thinking for Folsom, where the prolific and gritty Tyler Tremain will miss some game action after suffering a crunching hit in a 31-10 loss to De La Salle on Friday.
The image of Tremain on the bench as the game wore down, with ice and wrapping on his non-throwing shoulder, captured a team leader courageous but disappointed he wasn’t able to solve the Spartans defense and the feeling he let his team down. The senior winced, he fidgeted, and for a moment, tears were there because his season had been turned upside down in an instant. And shoot. Searing pain makes eyes water. Tears aren’t weakness. They’re a show of resolve and investment.
Other Folsom players were emotional in the locker room afterward, some with watery eyes, everyone pained that they were outplayed by De La Salle after playing so well in the season’s first six weeks. What Folsom’s sold-out home crowd saw and what TV and photos showed was Tremain, on the bench, trying to whisk away his hurt, wondering if someone would kindly hand him back his helmet.
“Shoot man, he thought he was going to go back in!” Tremain’s father, Bob, said in a text message.
X-rays showed no collarbone break or structural damage for Tremain. Said the quarterback who grew up dreaming of big-game moments while watching Folsom passing legends before him, “I’ll be back.”
Tremain also has the backs of his mates who move on without him down the regular-season stretch as Folsom sets aim on the program’s 11th consecutive league championship.
“Tyler’s the heart and soul of our team,” Folsom receiver Rico Flores said. “We all have his back.”
They also have the back of junior quarterback Carter Martinelli, who finished the De La Salle game. And they have the back of Folsom junior varsity quarterback star Austin Mack, who at 6-foot-5 has fast arrived on the national recruiting radar, including unofficial recruiting trips this fall to Notre Dame and Oregon. Mack will move up to varsity after helping guide the JV to a 7-0 record.
Rankings breakdown
Why is Folsom still top-ranked in our rankings after the De La Salle loss? Simple.
Folsom has not lost to an area team since the 2019 playoffs, to Monterey Trail, and it went 6-0 in the spring and is unbeaten against local competition this season. De La Salle has beaten all 45 section teams it has faced since 1982 and all 20 since 2012. A loss to De La Salle is a quality loss.
And Folsom has not lost a league game since 2011, to the Joe Cattolico-coached Pleasant Grove Eagles in a Delta League contest. Folsom’s overall league winning streak is a region-record 54, including 47 in succession in the SFL since the Bulldogs entered that mix before the 2014 season. Folsom remains up top until a local team beats the Bulldogs.
For weeks, we ranked Oak Ridge over Elk Grove because the Trojans won on a last-play defensive stop. But Oak Ridge is 2-5, and despite a strong schedule and strong showings in the SFL, the Trojans dropped to No. 15 this week. Del Oro was ranked for weeks ahead of Lincoln due to a close head-to-head win in a season opener, but Lincoln is surging at 4-2 and Del Oro has lost four in a row after starting the season 4-0.
THE BEE’S TOP 25
1. Folsom 6-1
2. Rocklin 7-0
3. Jesuit 6-1
4. Granite Bay 6-2
5. Vacaville 5-2
6. Inderkum 5-1
7. Elk Grove 4-2
8. Lincoln 4-2
9. Sacramento 7-0
10. Antelope 7-0
11. Capital Christian 5-2
12. Vanden 6-1
13. Woodcreek 6-2
14. Whitney 4-3
15. Oak Ridge 2-5
16. Del Oro 4-4
17. Monterey Trail 2-5
18. Yuba City 4-3
19. Christian Bros 4-3
20. Sheldon 5-2
21. Vista del Lago 5-2
22. Union Mine 6-0
23. Pioneer 5-0
24. Rosemont 6-1
25. Bradshaw Christian 7-0
Bubble teams (alphabetical order): Casa Roble 4-2; Colfax 4-2; Marysville 5-2; McClatchy 5-2; Ponderosa 4-1; Rodriguez 6-1; Sutter 5-1; Wood 5-2; Woodland 6-1; Woodland Christian 6-0. - Compiled by Joe Davidson
Football Schedule
All games kick off between 7-7:30 p.m.
Casa Roble at Woodland
Folsom at Rocklin
Valley at Natomas
Mira Loma at Mesa Verde
Golden Sierra at Highlands
El Camino at Christian Brothers
Granite Bay at Whitney
Sutter at Sonora
Lincoln at Ponderosa
Encina Prep at Foresthill
Johnson at Cordova
Lindhurst at Bear River
Nevada Union at Oakmont
Sacramento at Capital Christian
Rio Linda at Placer
Delta at Western Sierra
Rio Americano at Del Campo
Dixon at Pioneer
Grant at Oak Ridge
San Juan at Vacaville Christian
Pleasant Grove at Davis
West Park at Florin
Foothill at Center
Burbank at River City
Antelope at Inderkum
Franklin at Cosumnes Oaks
Sheldon at Vista del Lago
Yuba City at Roseville
McClatchy at Laguna Creek
Monterey Trail at Kennedy
Colfax at Marysville
Bella Vista at River Valley
Bradshaw Christian at Galt
Rosemont at El Dorado
Wood at Armijo
Vanden at Vacaville
Liberty Ranch at Union Mine
Saturday
Elk Grove at Jesuit, 1 p.m.
Woodland Christian at Valley Christian, 1 p.m.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 7:32 AM.