Who had the biggest high school football win in Sacramento-area history? Grant? Folsom?
Football has been played in these parts forever, or shortly after the Earth cooled, we believe.
The Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs didn’t start until 1971 and the CIF State finals were introduced in 2006. Over the decades, this region has produced a number of powerhouse teams and memorable moments. Here are 10 games that especially resonated.
Pacers pounce, 2008: It was either going to be Grant or De La Salle that was going to get the prestigious CIF State Open Division spot through a selection process by the 10 state CIF commissioners. Grant got it at the urging of then-Sac-Joaquin Section commissioner Pete Saco, who assured that not only would the Pacers compete, a concern expressed by the CIF brass, but they would win it. Grant won it, beating national No. 2-ranked Long Beach Poly 25-20 with a late drive for coach Mike Alberghini to cap a 14-0 season. That triumph officially stamped Sacramento prep football as a thing, and it has been on the state map ever since.
Thunderous goal-line stand, 2009: The defending CIF State Open Division champion Grant Pacers and their 25-game winning streak reached the Rocklin goal line in a section D-II semifinal, needing just a yard to extend the season. They never got there. Rocklin staged a dramatic goal-line stand to win by a point, and Rocklin later reached the CIF State final to cap a 14-1 season with star player Jackson Cummings leading the charge. Said Grant coach Alberghini afterward, “Their best stopped our best, on the goal line. They earned it.”
When titans meet, 2014: Many deemed this Grant’s greatest team, a 14-0 juggernaut, and no one disputed that Folsom had perhaps the region’s all-time greatest club. Folsom won this NorCal Division I-AA title game 59-21 in front of a full crowd at Sacramento State as Jake Browning accounted for four scores. Folsom went 16-0, with a running clock in every game, in what Bulldogs coaches Kris Richardson and Troy Taylor deemed, “The Perfect Storm” of a season.
Grizzly grit and march, 2012: Grizzlies coach Ernie Cooper knew getting off the bus that his spirited bunch was ready to take on national superpower Long Beach Poly in the CIF State Division-I final, and he was right. It took a late rally to win it 21-20, on a John Cooley touchdown run, a crowning moment for the coach, the school and the section.
Golden (Eagles) recovery, 2016: Del Oro stumbled out of the gates at 2-6, and it nearly unraveled when teammates challenged each other in heated postgame moments before the rebound. The Golden Eagles won eight straight to cap the season, most of them elimination games, to win the CIF State Division I-AA title game, a 16-13 effort over a 15-0 Camarillo team, as Camrion Davis rushed for 202 yards and the clinching touchdown for coach Casey Taylor and a football-proud community of Loomis in Placer County.
Thunder bolt, 2021: It took 11 seasons before Folsom met its match in league play, and when Rocklin rolled the Bulldogs 40-7 in a Sierra Foothill League game on Oct. 15, the regional-record 54-game league streak was over. This was significant also in that Rocklin and the rest of the SFL in 2018 pushed to have Folsom removed from the league, deeming them too good. Instead, Rocklin closed the gap, though Folsom got revenge in winning the section D-I title game over Rocklin 20-3.
Lancers lore, 1975: Of all the great Cordova teams over the decades, and there’s a list that hits the floor, this is the greatest of them all because it remains the only local team to finish No. 1 nationally in this sport. Coach Dewey Guerra’s team beat Highlands 36-6 to cap an 11-0 season in winning the Capital City Football Championship, before the section playoffs started and 31 years before the start of the CIF state playoffs. Those Lancers were led by Scott Jenner, Max Venbable and Reggie Young.
Warriors will, 1987: The Johnson Warriors scored one for every underdog and for every badly beaten city team when coach Don Dillon’s bunch used a late rally behind Derrick Miller and Kyron Vandell to stun mighty Cordova. That halted an 11-year, 56-game Lancers winning streak against Sacramento City Unified School District teams. Johnson won the Metro League for the first time in 20 seasons. Said Dillon after that game of deflated Lancers fans, “They looked like wilted cabbage.”
Dragons fire, 2016: Sacramento stunned Folsom 32-27 in a September nonleague game under coach Justin Reber, knocking the Bulldogs out of The Bee’s No. 1 ranking for the first time in 64 weeks, or five seasons, with three interceptions, two returned for touchdowns. It also halted Folsom’s regional-record 48-game regular-season winning streak and vaulted Sac High to The Bee’s No. 1 ranking for the first time since 1968.
Lancers gold, 1985: Cordova led the nation in victories in the 1970s and were nationally ranked No. 1 in 1975, and then along came this group to set its own historical mark. Cordova with fiery and fun coach Max Miller and Bee Player of the Year quarterback star Troy Taylor beat Vacaville 17-7 to win the D-I section championship to become first team in section history to go 14-0.