Sacramento-area prep football notes: Coach reaches milestone; Grant vs De La Salle rematch
Bouncing around the Sacramento-area high school football beat in a forward lean with news and notes, including: Marlon Blanton with a milestone victory at Jesuit, Cordova winning a milestone game, rivals going back and forth in an 82-42 game, a freshman star in the making at Sheldon, Sacramento High’s playmaking Moore, Folsom’s fall in the Northern California rankings and Grant’s rematch with De La Salle in 2025..
175 for Jesuit’s Blanton
Marlon Blanton grew up in the East Bay, where he needed football and structure in his life, the product of a broken home. He was a good running back in the early 1990s for the De La Salle Spartans, steered to that program in Concord by his youth coach from Pittsburg. Blanton was so inspired by DLS coaches, including famed leader Bob Ladouceur, that he got into teaching and coaching after graduating from Saint Mary’s in Moraga.
Blanton was a head coach for 14 varsity seasons in Vallejo and has been head man at Jesuit since 2012, where he has been a rock of class and stability. On Friday, under freshly planted permanent lights for the first time since the school opened in Carmichael in 1963, Blanton basked in the moment. The 56-7 victory over rival Rio Americano was the 175th of Blanton’s career, including his stint at St. Patrick/St. Vincent High in Vallejo.
Said the beaming coach after Friday’s conquest, speaking on the evening in general: “Beautiful, man. Beautiful.”
Cordova’s Big Red at 400
Before Jesuit went by Big Red, Cordova was all about Big Red, towering over the football landscape in the 1970s and ‘80s before the decline.
The Lancers are 2-0 after earning their 400th all-time victory since the school opened in 1963, a last-minute 15-14 effort over Mesa Verde. The revival is a testament to the tireless efforts of coach JP Dolliver, who has his crew engaged and eager in a bounce-back season alums have waited for. Dolliver went for a 2-point conversion and the win, a statement that Big Red is ready for a big season.
Rio Vista, Delta combine for 124 points
This was no typo: Rio Vista beat decades-long rival Delta of Clarksburg 82-42 in a scoring fest down by the river. It was a contest that exhausted players, coaches, stat keepers and scoreboard operators.
Ethan Friedel scored six times for the victorious Rams, including interception and fumble returns. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound freshman ran for four scores as Rio Vista rushed 58 times for 600 yards and eight touchdowns. Emmett Medders rushed for 144 yards and two scores and Amador Arroyo ran for two TDs for Rio Vista. For Delta, Chase Parkinson tossed five touchdowns, four to Max Danila, a week after firing six TD passes.
▪ The highest-scoring game in state history, according to our media friends at CalHi Sports, featured 165 points. Porterville beat Tulare 86-79 in 2012.
▪ The highest-scoring game for a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section game that included Sacramento-area team was 140 points when Rio Linda beat Pacheco of Los Banos 77-63 in 2018.
Sheldon’s QB kid
The Sheldon Huskies of the Elk Grove Unified School District have fielded some pretty steady quarterbacks over the years, including two-time Bee All-Metro all-purpose guy Sean Nixon, son of head coach Chris Nixon and now Sheldon’s quarterback coach.
The new QB? It’s Gavin Workman, a youngster who impressed in Friday’s 26-10 win over River City, completing 19 of 27 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns.
“A freshman!” coach Nixon said in a text. “A 14-year old! He’s proven me wrong every step of the way. I first think he can’t make the throws. He makes the throws. I think no way he lasts in a scrimmage against Oak Ridge. He takes all the shots with a smile. Sean has done a terrific job coaching him.”
Coach Nixon’s other son, Scott, was The Bee’s Player of the Year in 2022 as a do-all marvel. Now a sophomore receiver at Sacramento City College, Scott finds time to coach the Sheldon receivers. And Ryan Robards, The Bee’s Player of the Year in 2015 at Elk Grove High when Nixon was the Thundering Herd head coach, is coaching the Sheldon running backs.
“They tell me, ‘Just go over there to your rocking chair; we got this,’” Nixon said of his staff.
More for Sac High’s Moore
The Sacramento Dragons have a true student-athlete running amok in senior Darius Moore, a 4.0 scholar with wheels and a nose for the end zone.
He rushed 11 times for 210 yards and scored three touchdowns, including two TD receptions from Leon James-Radcliffe, and he sizzled on a 98-yard kickoff return for a score in a 48-21 win over Armijo of Fairfield. Sacramento is 2-0. Moore rushed for 881 yards and three TDs last season and has emerged as his team’s lead back.
Folsom rankings drop
Folsom remained top ranked by The Bee after its 22-21 last-moment loss to powerhouse Serra of San Mateo because no one else locally is taking on Serra, and previous No. 2 Grant lost at De La Salle. But Folsom dipped in other rankings.
Cal-Hi had Folsom ranked No. 1 in Northern California in the preseason, a first for this region since Grant was state-ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks in 2010. Folsom is now No. 3 in NorCal behind De La Salle and Serra. DLS hosts Serra on Friday, so the rankings will sort themselves out in quick order.
NorCalPreps dropped Folsom from No. 1 in Northern California to No. 3 behind Serra and De La Salle.
Grant vs. DLS in 2025?
At long last, Grant and De La Salle faced off in a football game, something that has been talked about for decades. DLS won 42-14 in Concord on Friday and will play the Pacers in Del Paso Heights next fall as part of two-year contract.
Coaches and athletic directors from Grant and DLS decided on this series during last season’s state championship weekend in Southern California as they stayed at the same hotel. The programs do have a unique link.
One of DLS’s all-time greats was 1998 state and national Player of the Year D.J. Williams, a running back and linebacker at DLS whose parents graduated from Grant. Williams’ kid brothers, Gerwin and Worrell Williams, starred at Grant in the 2000s. D.J. Williams played for the Miami Hurricanes and was a first-round draft pick at linebacker for the Denver Broncos in 2004.