Prep football notes and rankings: Rosemont scores for underdogs; Rocklin-Folsom rematch
Of the 14 finalists left standing in the Sac-Joaquin Section high school football playoff field, the most surprising is the team that did not have a single practice or game in the spring.
Everyone else did. Rocklin did. Folsom did. Monterey Trail did. Each of those heavyweight programs played at least six games. Each of those programs and scores of others used the shortened spring slate as a warmup for a full fall season.
The Rosemont Wolverines were on the outside looking lost. The Sacramento City Unified School District in effect shut all football programs down.
So coach Rick Wanlin this late summer welcomed a group of new faces. He recognized his senior son, Adam Wanlin, and introduced himself to scores of others after months of Zoom teaching sessions. The roster started with 21 players, then grew to 37, and then the neatest thing happened. The young Wolverines came of age and started winning, and that momentum has them in Saturday afternoon’s Division VI championship against Argonaut at Hughes Stadium.
The Wolverines are a school-record best 11-2, avenging a league loss to Bradshaw Christian with an 18-13 rematch win Friday to extend the record. The school opened in 2003. It has had a string of good football teams under Wanlin but this is his first title contender. Rosemont has already made history. It is just the second Sacramento City Unified School District program to reach a section football final. The other: Burbank in 2008. The football playoffs started 50 years ago. Sacramento Charter High School reached the D-III finals in 2013, but the Dragons were no longer part of the SCUSD, as they had become a charter school 10 years earlier.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Wanlin said of the season. “I was hoping for a 5-5 season, maybe 6-4. We have a lot of sophomores who went from playing youth ball to varsity high school football because they didn’t have a fall 2020 season (pandemic) or a spring season. Their progress has been astronomical. We’re trying to make history. The culture and excitement at our school is crazy.”
Rosemont has been led by junior quarterback Jojo Ortiz, sophomore runners Michael Cherry (1,496 rushing yards, 17 touchdowns) and Wayshawn Parker (483, 8) and the grit and leadership of the coach’s son, a 4.3 student.
Mustang mite
Argonaut is big on small-school pride, and parts of Jackson and Ione and other regions that feed into the high school close down for title games. The Mustangs (9-3) are in their first final since winning D-IV honors in 2004, and they have toppled larger-enrollment schools throughout the D-VI playoff run, leading coach Rick Davis to say with a laugh, “Bring it on!”
When the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams from Argonaut reach section finals, including at Golden 1 Center in the spring of 2020, the whole region shows up. Expect more of the same here with a sea of green and yellow inside Hughes Stadium.
More Mustangs
Monterey Trail graduated a host of players from perhaps its best team of 2020 and spring 2021, but the Mustangs are in their third successive section final and fifth overall under coach T.J. Ewing because of one core belief, and it carried over after an 0-5 start to the season. An eight-game winning streak has landed Monterey Trail into Saturday’s D-II final against 19-time section winner Central Catholic of Modesto.
“As coaches, we can’t give up on kids,” Ewing said. “We have to believe in them. They feed on that. Hard work pays off. We believe in our guys. We have a youth football program that helps prepare our guys. Fourteen of our kids were pee-week champions. They’re still playing.”
Monterey Trail, seeded seventh, toppled No. 2 Granite Bay and No. 6 Elk Grove behind superb line play, the running of Ali Collier , the cool quarterback play of Frank Arcuri and the relentless efforts of defenders Tanaki Tonga and Alonzo Your, both combining for 28 tackles against Elk Grove.
Bulldog bite
Folsom is in a section final for the 10th time in 11 years, seeking its eighth championship.
But for once the Bulldogs are not favorites to celebrate outside their locker room. That’s because Folsom absorbed a 40-7 loss at Rocklin last month that snapped an 11-year, 54-game league winning streak. Rocklin and Folsom meet for D-I honors Friday night at Hughes Stadium.
Rocklin is rolling at 12-0. Folsom lost three of four entering the playoffs but is 2-0 in the playoffs, thanks to the grit of senior quarterback leader Tyler Tremain, who has come back from injury, an active defense and the coaching courage to go for a two-point conversion to beat Jesuit in a semifinal. National recruit stars Rico Flores and Walker Lyons have played big because they have to play big as Folsom bears the biggest target of any regional program. Success leads to that.
Coach Paul Doherty said adversity either sinks a team or binds it. His team has come together.
“This was the first time some of these kids ever struggled in games, lost games,” Doherty said. “They’ve won a ton. We have to match (Rocklin’s) intensity and the physicality. It falls back on fundamentals: blocking and tackling.”
Thunder bolts
Rocklin is rolling because it has a veteran group with a dominant defense, a balanced offense, and strong special teams. And now it has a wake-up call to hammer home perspective.
St. Mary’s of Stockton pushed Rocklin to the limit in a semifinal before MacGreggor Teselle won it with two late field goals for a 51-48 victory that left Thunder players so emotionally spent, some laid on the turf, or took two knees. Coach Jason Adams leaped and sprinted down the field in joy. This is Rocklin’s best team since its 14-1 group of 2009.
“St. Mary’s smacked us, but we’re still standing,” Adams said. “It was good for us.”
The Thunder are a united bunch. Winning does that. It’s clear in their expressions. Star quarterback Kenny Lueth has missed much of the season due to a knee injury but he has coached up and encouraged backup Joey Roberts, who kept on throwing deep and kept quarterback play a team strength. Any ounce of discord of insecurity at that position would have doomed the Thunder.
Sac-Joaquin Section
Football finals
Division I
Rocklin vs. Folsom
Friday, 7 p.m. at Hughes Stadium
Division II
Monterey Trail vs. Central Catholic
Saturday, 6 p.m. at Hughes Stadium
Division III
Oakdale vs. Manteca
Friday, 7 p.m. at St. Mary’s
Division IV
Vanden vs. Merced
Saturday, 1 p.m., at St. Mary’s
Division V
Escalon vs. Hilmar
Saturday, 6 p.m. at St. Mary’s
Division VI
Rosemont vs. Argonaut
Saturday, 1 p.m. at Hughes Stadium
Division VII
Woodland Christian vs. Le Grand
Friday 2 p.m. at Hughes Stadium
Tickets: gofan.co
This story was originally published November 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.