Who are Sacramento-area prep football powerhouses? Don’t sleep on Oak Ridge
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Oak Ridge returns 16 starters and aims to break Folsom's recent dominance.
- Coach Casey Taylor leads all levels, fostering continuity and retention.
- Granite Bay, Rocklin and Inderkum remain key challengers in Section competition.
So it’s the Folsom Bulldogs and the Grant Pacers on top of the Sacramento-area high school football pecking order, and who else?
Asked that question during a recent practice, Casey Taylor offered an emphatic reply in championing the Oak Ridge Trojans of El Dorado Hills.
“What about us?” the Oak Ridge coach said with a laugh. “We’re up here busting our butts. We may not be on ESPN this season but we’re right there, right there in the mix.”
The coach speaks truths and facts. Oak Ridge is every bit in the mix.
Folsom is the top dog, having one the last four CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championships. Grant is also right there, a three-time defending section champion in Divisions II and III, and the Pacers are also a three-time defending Northern California champion with two CIF State crowns in the last three years.
Grant hosts Folsom on Aug. 23 in a season opener on ESPN.
Oak Ridge? Thanks for asking. The Trojans have been a force in regional circles since the 1980s. They have been in the Sierra Foothill League championship hunt for years, often putting forward the area’s second-best team, though Folsom has won the section’s toughest and deepest league nine times since joining the conference in 2014.
Folsom defeated Oak Ridge in each of the past three section finals. Oak Ridge won the D-I section banner with a win over Monterey Trail in 2019 under coach Eric Cavaliere, now the school’s athletic director.
Oak Ridge this season figures to have its best team since the 2019 edition with an army of returning starters — 16 to be exact — with a lot to prove.
“We’ve been right there and we’re trying to get over the hump,” Taylor said. “We have a great group. They’re hard working, a fun group to be around, and we think we can be really good.”
The offensive line returns five key players: Brody Cadden, Troy Fleming, Max Gredvig, Brett Roberts and Andrew Werly.
The defense returns nine of its top 14 tacklers, and two linebackers look the part of stoppers in Justen Womack and Ben Rivas, both in the 6-foot-3 and 220-pound mode. They also both play tight end.
Two of the team leaders are returning two-way veterans Jasen Womack, who can run the ball, catch the ball and defend the ball as one of the section’s top talents; and Isaac Pierce, who excels at receiver and as a defensive back. Defensive end Javon Joseph is another college prospect who figures to be a matchup problem for opponents.
Another problem for rivals will be the booming leg of Kyle Boeker, whom Taylor calls “the best kicker in the section.”
Who starts at quarterback?
With the graduation of Joaquin Graves-Mercado, the quarterback job is down to junior Nick Johnson, a transfer from Folsom; and Luke Taber, who led Oak Ridge’s freshman team to an 8-2 season. The junior varsity team went 9-1, so it’s football in full go-motion in El Dorado Hills.
Taylor helps coach the freshman and junior varsity teams, and all three levels practice at the same time on the same field in an effort to accelerate the learning process. This tactic, Taylor said, also helps prevent younger players from transferring out as freshmen, and JV players have the unique luxury of getting coached by one of the section’s all-time great winners.
An Oak Ridge graduate, Taylor is a 212-game winning coach with no visions of quitting any time soon. He led Del Oro of Placer County to six section titles and to four CIF State finals, winning it in 2015 and nearly repeating in 2016. Taylor later led Capital Christian to a section crown. He is in his fifth season at Oak Ridge.
Taylor is 56 and appreciates the challenge as much as he did as a first-year coach.
“Coaching kids keeps me young,” he said. “I’m not ready to step down. Too much to do, too much to accomplish. We’ve been close, and well get there.”
