Happy Birthday: No. 1 Folsom celebrates 100th year with romp of No. 2 Del Oro
Folsom High School this fall is celebrating its 100th year as a place of learning.
The first class featured eight graduates, and the academic year started in October. Earlier this week, there was a downtown parade on Sutter Street to honor decades of tradition. The festivities included an appearance of the 2022 Bulldogs football team waving to the masses, everyone in jerseys and bearing broad grins.
It’s too early to tell if this year’s Folsom squad is one for the ages, or how it compares to some of its CIF State championship powerhouse teams, but the pedigree is piling up.
On Friday night at Prairie City Stadium, the top-ranked Bulldogs beat No. 2 Del Oro 34-7 in what very well could decide the Sierra Foothill League championship with two games remaining in the regular season.
It was homecoming night, a packed venue with a rocking student section. There were all the bells and whistles that came along with the halftime show as the lights turned off to introduce the royalty court via a spotlight. Just before the second half started, Folsom students belted out a “Happy Birthday” tune for the school.
Folsom wasn’t at its best on the field with enough errors to drive coaches batty, but the skill, power and touchdowns were enough to blast past a tough and physical Golden Eagles team that rolled into the week at 7-0. Del Oro last defeated Folsom in 2009, in a playoff game.
Austin Mack passed for a career-best 410 yards and had five touchdown strikes, while the defense kept a prolific Golden Eagles club in check to move to 7-1 on the season. The lone setback was to Northern California No. 1 Serra of San Mateo, 17-12, in a nonleague affair.
Folsom players had slick new decals added to their helmets that show FHS 1922 with a backdrop of the famed Rainbow Bridge. The team leaders say they take none of this historic stuff for granted or that their town follows their achievements. Their coach wants them to embrace every bit of the experiences.
“I want our guys to enjoy everything there is about high school football,” Folsom coach Paul Doherty said. “One hundred years old, that’s salt of the earth, the fabric of high school football. Have fun. Enjoy it. I lived it as a player at an old school in San Francisco, and I coached at old Sac High and now here, and it’s fun.”
More fun for Folsom would be if it secures the program’s seventh SFL banner since entering the powerhouse league before the 2014 season.
The one miss was last season when Folsom lost its first SFL game, and then its second — ever — down the stretch. The first SFL loss was to Rocklin, which won the league, and then to Granite Bay, which placed second. Folsom was third. The Bulldogs regrouped, won its eighth Sac-Joaquin Section championship since 2010 and reached its fifth CIF State final.
So guess who Folsom has to close out the regular season? Rocklin and Granite Bay.
“We have a lot to prove,” Doherty said.
Mack started last year’s blowout loss at Rocklin, a wide-eyed sophomore filling in for injured star Tyler Tremain. Mack was taken apart by an eager Rocklin defense but he’s an entirely different player now — bigger, stronger, wiser. Typical Mack, the 6-foot-6 junior praised his offensive line and skill players, and he has a lot of them. He said the next two games have been “in the back of our heads.” Mack has been superb this season, passing for 2,135 yards and 27 touchdowns with just two interceptions, one of them off a tipped pass.
Facing Del Oro also meant Mack was facing old friends, guys he grew up playing with. He started his prep career at Del Oro before the switch to Folsom.
“It was great to play those guys, a lot of friends, and I still live over in that area,” Mack said.
Mack’s touchdown tosses were, in order: 1 yard to Julio Garcia, 15 yards to Colin Gallagher, 60 yards to Onterrio Smith, Jr., 1 yard to Donovan Maxey-Parler and a 25-yarder to Rico Flores Jr. on the first play of the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
Caden Pinnick is Del Oro’s superb junior quarterback leader. He showcased his footwork, his escapability and his arm, and he kept competing. Pinnick hit Aaron Unfried with an 18-yard touchdown late in the half to pull Del Oro to within 21-7.
“Del Oro came after us and basically said, ‘OK, Folsom, how good are you? Show us,’” Doherty said. “It’s a nice SFL win, and those are hard to come by. We can get better, and we have to play better.”
Del Oro closes out the SFL with games at Whitney and Oak Ridge. If Folsom were to win out, Del Oro’s goal would, naturally, be to place second. That would mean Del Oro would slip into the Division II playoff field and earn a high seed with a shot to win the program’s 12th section banner since 1989.