Bulldog bite: Folsom dominates Oak Ridge for a section four-peat and program’s 13th banner
One of these days, perhaps in our lifetime, the Folsom Bulldogs will lose a football game to their chief rival located some eight miles east up Highway 50 in El Dorado Hills.
It hasn’t happened in 18 years, and it did not occur Saturday night at Hughes Stadium in the finals of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I tournament.
Oak Ridge came in healthy, confident, superbly coached and boasting of playmakers as a much better team than the one that lost to Folsom earlier this season in Sierra Foothill League action. But top-seeded Folsom has improved a ton, too, and it overcame 14 penalties in the first half and a team bent on derailing their run with a decisive 41-0 victory on a cold, hazy night that became a foggy affair in the final quarter at Sacramento City College.
The Bulldogs (12-1) won their 23rd consecutive game against the Trojans, including each of the last three section title games, doing so behind quarterback star Ryder Lyons, running back Carter Jackson and a tenacious defense. The Folsom reserves that took over in the second half maintained the pace.
The results led to a section championship four-peat for Folsom, the program’s 11th section crown since 2010 and ninth at the highest classification. Folsom has 13 total section crowns, the first two coming in 1989 and 1990 under coach Tom Doherty, who later became the school’s athletic director who still follows the program in retirement.
Folsom won more section crowns and added some CIF state trophies to the count under coaches Kris Richardson and Troy Taylor, now coaching at Sacramento State and Stanford, respectively, and the Bulldogs continue to stack championships under Paul Doherty.
Doherty, no relation to Tom Doherty, has four section crowns after losing a stunning D-I semifinal to Monterey Trail in 2019, when Oak Ridge last won a section banner on this same field under coach Eric Cavaliere. He has taken on a job with all-manner of expectations in replacing coaching legends in keeping the Bulldogs among the state elite.
“We’re not afraid of them,” Oak Ridge fourth-year coach Casey Taylor said before the game. “When I first got here, I wouldn’t say our teams were afraid of them but there was hesitation. We want to be the team that beats them. We can be that team. We were right there with them (earlier this season) when it was 14-7 in the fourth quarter, but they avalanched us.”
On Oct. 4, Folsom led at Oak Ridge 14-7 after three quarters before the Bulldogs broke it open with an avalanche of plays to post a 35-7 triumph.
The avalanche was more subtle this time as the myriad penalties stalled the flow in the first half as both teams were flagged a total of 16 times.
Lyons, Folsom’s dynamic 5-star junior national recruit and The Sacramento Bee’s 2023 Player of the Year, had a 1-yard touchdown run to open the scoring and had a 6-yard TD strike to Utah Utes-bound tight end Taniela Tupou for a 21-0 lead. Lyons completed 14 of 23 passes for 246 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted twice by Oak Ridge two-way star Jasen Womack. Lyons has 44 touchdown passes and five interceptions this season.
Jackson had TD runs of 41 yards to make it 14-0 and 3 yards to push it to 28-0 late in the half. A senior committed to Nevada, Jackson rushed nine times for 113 yards. Joseph Eyerman capped it in the dense fog with an 11-yard scoring run to cap the scoring.
Bulldogs D shines, again
Folsom registered another tremendous defensive effort a week after shutting down an Inderkum team that was averaging 50 points with a 45-0 effort.
In the middle of the defensive scrum, per his norm, was lineman Theo Greule — a fourth-year starter in the trenches with four section banners to his credit. Relentless and tireless, Greule is believed to be the only player in regional history to start on four section title teams, given the fact that freshmen were not allowed to play varsity for decades until a change several years ago.
Doherty has called Greule “Mr. Folsom.” The coach called his team a “loose” bunch this week.
The Bulldogs didn’t stress this week, not with a 10-game winning streak that now sparkles at 11 games. The loss was Aug. 30 to Bay Area powerhouse Serra of San Mateo, a 22-21 setback that served as a lasting wake-up call.
Doherty implored his team to clean up the penalties, knowing that such miscues would cost them in a CIF Northern California final next weekend. The CIF announced on Sunday afternoon the CIF brackets. Folsom will visit North Coast Section Division I champion Pittsburg on Friday, a rematch of last season’s NorCal finale, won by Folsom.
Doherty said he will continue to challenge his team to grow.
“We hold them accountable,” he said. “We let them know that at Folsom, mature teams wins championships. This isn’t the most mature group we’ve had but we’ve got another week to get more mature.”
He added, “Couldn’t be proud of the growth of this team. We dropped a game earlier this year (to Serra) Lost by one. We had immature behavior: Penalties pregame, post game in game. Know what? That’s how the kids learn. I’m proud of the growth they’ve shown the last 6-7-8 weeks and hope we can mature some more.”
Folsom seeks to repeat as a state champion, having won five since 2010.
This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 10:36 PM.