Vanden is victorious, Sutter loses late to unbeaten Hughson in CIF section championships
New coach, same old tradition of success.
The Vanden Vikings of Fairfield beat top-seeded Oakdale 49-35 to win the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division V championship on Saturday night at Hughes Stadium for the program’s sixth blue banner in as many title game appearances.
Kalani McLeod completed 22 of 28 passes for 452 yards and six touchdowns, three to Logan Bailey, who had 14 catches for 243 yards. McLeod also hit Caleb Jones for two scoring plays as the Vikings held off the section’s leading rusher who led the state’s top rushing team.
Wes Buford rushed for 211 yards and three scores, giving the junior 2,670 yards and 32 touchdowns to cap a 9-4 season.
A senior, McLeod has passed for 3,596 yards and 32 TDs for the Vikings, in a section final for the third time in four seasons. Vanden previously won section titles in 1975, 1984, 1995, 2021 and 2022.
Oakdale played in its 18th section final, winning five, including in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
All section champions advance to a CIF Northern California regional championship on Dec. 6-7. The CIF announces those brackets on Sunday afternoon.
Division V: Hughson 30, Sutter 29
Robert McDaniel hit tight end Max Mankins for the winning 2-point conversion with 14 seconds left to lift the Huskies of Stanislaus County to their seventh section championship and third in succession in moving to 13-0 for the first time since finishing state-ranked No. 1 in D-III in 1997 by Cal-Hi Sports in a battle of teams that go by Huskies.
An Arizona Wildcats verbal commit, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound McDaniel engineered the winning drive in passing for 230 yards against the stout Sutter defense. Mankins, headed to the Air Force Academy on scholarship, McDaniel and a host of others Hughson players are the sons of parents who grew up in the rural town in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley.
Coach Shaun King is a 1998 Hughson graduate who played linebacker on the famed 1997 Huskies team. He spoke afterward Saturday of remembering his father, Joe King, who died nearly a year ago this weekend.
“He’s been with me all year, and this one is for my Mom (Pam),” coach King said.
Sutter (11-2) took a 29-22 with 1:59 left to play on a 65-yard touchdown sprint by Marcus Meras. Sutter won 13 section championships in the CIF Northern Section before the move to this section three years ago.
Hughson will advance to a CIF NorCal final for the third consecutive season, having won a CIF state crown in 2022.
Sutter’s other loss this season was at D-VI finalist Bradshaw Christian in a nonleague game Sept. 13. Bradshaw Christian engineered a 99-yard drive to win that game.
This story was originally published December 1, 2024 at 5:00 AM.