Can Folsom High halt De La Salle’s ridiculous run in football?
Paul Doherty is a fan, a football purist to the core and a believer of the benefits of what this sport can offer beyond blocking, tackling, winning, losing and learning. There’s something to admire about the best and trying to clear the hurdle in an effort to become the best.
The Folsom High School coach grew up in the Bay Area, where if it wasn’t the 49ers as the talk of the town, it was the powerhouse of national renown tucked away in the heart of Contra Costa County: De La Salle. Or De La Stomp, if you have ever been put on your back by those guys in green and silver with how they prepare, how they execute and how they mow through all comers for the better part of 40 seasons now, all rooted in the principles of fundamentals and effort.
On Friday, Doherty will lead his Bulldogs, a program steeped in its own rich tradition, onto Owen Owens Field in Concord for another shot at the Spartans, another shot to clear an obstacle that has proven to be too formidable for this entire Sac-Joaquin Section region.
These teams met in Folsom in October, when the Bulldogs were ranked No. 1 in Northern California, a spot normally reserved for the Spartans. De La Salle rolled 31-10 and hasn’t slowed down a bit, picking up its 29th consecutive North Coast Section championship. Folsom was floored from that setback, got up, wobbled into the Division I playoffs having lost three of four and have since found its footing again. This time, the teams face off for the NorCal Regional Division I-AA championship, a shot to advance to the CIF state finals. If an area program is going to topple the untopplable, here’s a prime opportunity.
The Spartans seek their 14th trip to a state final, far and away a state record. The CIF finals started in 2006. Folsom has won four CIF crowns since 2010.
“I’m a De La Salle fan because I appreciate great football,” Doherty said. “They’re the greatest sports thing going in the United States — any sport, any level, anywhere. It’s crazy how many games they’ve won over the years and how they do it.”
The coach paused and added, “We get another shot at them. There’s no downside to it. We have a shot. We’re the underdog, deservedly so, which is good for our kids. For so many of our kids, they’ve never lost. Not in sixth grade or seventh grade or freshman level or JV, until now. Humility can be a good thing. We have three losses now. Our mindset earlier this season was, ‘We can beat De La Salle, we can take that move, rise to that level.’ But we ran into a brick house and lost, and it knocked us back. We didn’t even finish second in our league. They hit us hard, and it took us awhile to get out of it.”
De La Stomp’s record of success
Folsom was rolling at 6-0 when De La Salle came into that Oct. 8 game. The Spartans were still trying to figure out how good it can be after losing two early games. This included De La Salle’s first loss to a team north of Fresno in 30 seasons, a 318-game unbeaten streak that ended with a 31-28 setback to Saint Francis of Mountain View.
DLS showed it was human that night, but it has been pretty much inhuman against the Northern California field since 1984. Since that time, when Ronald Reagan was president and gas was still about a buck a gallon, DLS has gone an unfathomable 410-6-2 against NorCal programs north of Fresno.
That streak includes a 20-0 showing against the Sac-Joaquin Section since 2012 and 45-0 against this section since 1982, when DLS fielded its first perfect season. DLS’ run through this section includes a 5-0 all-time record against Folsom, starting with NorCal finals victories over 14-0 Bulldogs teams in 2012 and 2013, and three regular-season setbacks.
“De La Salle, this is still the hill and mountain we’ve got to climb, like everyone else in Northern California,” Doherty said. “How cool is it that we get to play them again? We’re excited. You hear about the standard of high school football excellence, then you play them like we did in October, and the kids really don’t get it until they play De La Salle. Then it’s ‘Oh, this is what you’re talking about.’ It’s just a different level of play.”
The coach added, “We’re not as good right now as we were when we were 6-0 and first played them, but we’re getting there, getting healthy, getting better, and we’d better get back to where we need to be in a hurry. Friday’s coming up quick.”
De La Salle (10-2) was coming off a 42-28 loss to St. Frances Academy of Baltimore, currently ranked fifth in the country, when it faced Folsom earlier this campaign. The Spartans are back in a familiar groove with a seven-game winning streak in which they have outscored teams by an average score of 44-12.
DLS coach: ‘We beat them a couple of months ago. Big deal.’
That DLS did not get the prestigious CIF Open Division nod through a voting of section commissioners surprised some, including DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh and Doherty. The coaches cited DLS’ body of work, with three wins over state-ranked programs. Serra of San Mateo got the Open bid, meaning it goes straight to the CIF state finals to face national No. 1 Mater Dei of Santa Ana. Serra got the nod because it beat Saint Francis to win the Central Coast Section. If the Division I-AA NorCal final is a secondary prize to the Open invite, then what a whopper of a bonus prize.
The last time DLS did not play in the CIF State Open was in 2008, when Grant of Sacramento was picked instead. The Pacers backed it up with a victory over national No. 2-ranked Long Beach Poly, placing Sacramento football on the map. Folsom has added to that legacy with its own state championship success.
Doherty said he took note of what DLS did especially well in the Oct. 8 meeting: returning the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown; blocking a punt and recovering it inside the 5 to set up a score; a quick-strike running touchdown; a touchdown run with power; an over-the-top touchdown pass to salt it away.
Said DLS coach Alumbaugh: “They always say it’s hard to beat a great team twice for a reason, because it’s true. They’ll have extra motivation, no doubt.”
As for the confidence of his team to beat the Bulldogs again, Alumbaugh countered with: “We beat them a couple of months ago. Big deal. I think their defense is playing better than when we saw then.”
DLS knocked Folsom’s star quarterback Tyler Tremain out of the game, a clean hit that sidelined the gritty senior leader down the stretch of the season. He led Folsom to a 3-0 showing in the section playoffs, punctuated by Friday’s 20-3 effort over Rocklin, which decked Folsom 40-7 a week after the DLS setback, halting Folsom’s regional-record 11-year, 54-game league winning streak.
Tremain is 15-1 as a varsity starter. There’s a clear sense of calm when he’s leading the show. He did not lose a game on the freshman or junior varsity levels, so he’s 36-1 as a Bulldog. And he’s ready for another shot at the Spartans.
“It’ll be exciting, fun, and we’ll do our best,” he said, adding that one has to play darn-near perfect football to beat the Spartans.
Added Alumbaugh: “He’s just a great quarterback and I told him that after the game. He has a ton of guts, a bunch of moxie.”
Both teams got off the deck from crushing losses. Let’s call it the Moxie Bowl.