Bulldogs bite: Folsom beats rival Oak Ridge for record 5th straight section title
In 2019, Paul Doherty sized up perhaps his most crushing loss as a high school football coach.
His Folsom Bulldogs in his first season in charge of the powerhouse program suffered a crushing, 12-point loss to Monterey Trail in a playoff semifinal, as big of a regional upset as anyone can recall, and he said afterward, “We haven’t accomplished anything.”
On Friday night at Hughes Stadium, Doherty said well before kickoff, “This team hasn’t accomplished anything yet. It’s not last year’s team. It’s this year’s team.”
Some three hours later, Doherty basked in the joy of a record achievement, dripping wet from a water-tub dumping. The Bulldogs did indeed accomplish something grand. They stand alone in the remarkable football history of the second-largest section in the state.
With 5-star quarterback star Ryder Lyons accounting for three scores and then running out the clock late with his legs and determination, Folsom muscled past rival Oak Ridge 21-14 to become the first school in the history of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section to win five consecutive Division I, large-school championships.
That’s better by one than the four successive Division I crowns accomplished by the famed Cordova Lancers of the 1970s, a decade in which Big Red led the country in victories.
The section record overall for successive banners belongs to Central Catholic of Modesto, with seven in the 2000s under coach Mike Glines, set in lower divisions. What Folsom has achieved may be the most impressive major-sport feat for sustained staying power in section history, and Bulldogs players and coaches did not take any of it for granted.
Folsom (12-1) has 12 section titles since 2010, including seven under Kris Richardson, who has been Sacramento State’s offensive line coach since 2019. The Bulldogs have a 45-game section winning streak, including 15 in a row in the section playoffs. The Bulldogs find out Sunday afternoon who they’ll play in a CIF Northern California regional championship.
“It’s probably one of relief, more than anything,” Doherty said of this win. “Expectations are high and we’re the better team. We feel like we’re a better team, and that puts a lot of pressure on us and our kids and our coaches. These guys are darn good.”
He added about facing Oak Ridge for the second time this season, the first coming in Sierra Foothill League play in early October when Folsom won 28-9: “It’s always a challenge, always. Beating a good team twice is darn-near impossible.”
It helped to have Lyons, whom Doherty called “the best player in California, the best player in the country.” The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Lyons passed for 195 yards and rushed for 125 more. He capped Folsom’s opening drive with a 25-yard touchdown strike to Isaiah Williams, then pushed the Bulldogs ahead 14-7 with a 2-yard plunge, and then to 21-7 with a 1-yard dive.
Oak Ridge (9-4) battled as the Trojans always do, with Tyler Andujar scoring on a 1-yard run for a 7-7 game and Luke Taber firing a 30-yard touchdown to Jack Granrud on fourth and 6 to account for his team’s final points of the season.
Lyons has faced Oak Ridge six times over three varsity starting seasons, all victories, and he was a member of Folsom’s varsity team as a freshman call-up for the playoffs. He has four section football banners to his credit and one in basketball, having played a key role in Folsom’s Division I section conquest last season.
“That familiarity is making easier and more difficult — I think more difficult,” Lyons said of the teams knowing each other so well. “You definitely have to do different looks. I mean, they’ve played us so much where they’re very familiar with us, which makes it harder as an offense. They know most of your concept, most of your plays, like what you like to do.”
Folsom extends 19-year streak on Oak Ridge
Folsom topped Oak Ridge for the fourth consecutive time in the Division I finals at Sacramento City College. That marks a 19-year, 25-game winning streak for Folsom over the Trojans of El Dorado Hills, located some nine miles up the road on Highway 50. The rivalry was evident as the game had its moments of chippy play, including late hits and personal fouls.
On Monday at a section playoff breakfast, Oak Ridge coach Casey Taylor said being in a fourth successive section final had him feeling like Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach who guided the Buffalo Bills to four successive Super Bowls in the 1990s, only to lose each time. Taylor said that as a joke.
And here’s the thing: No one labels Oak Ridge as a loser, and no one has ever labeled a Casey Taylor-coached team as a loser, including his championship run at Del Oro in Placer County. Oak Ridge played like a champion but came up a bit short. There’s no shame in that.
“I thought our defense played great,” Taylor said. “Took us a while to get going offensively. Our kids played hard; real proud of our effort tonight. We came to win, and I thought our guys played that way.”
Said Doherty, the Folsom coach, “(Taylor) manages the game incredibly well, and he doesn’t lose the game. In high school football, coaches have so much control on the outcome. He;’s been doing it a long time, and he’s not going anywhere. They beat us (this season) at the freshman and (junior varsity) levels. They’ll be back better next year, I’m sure.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2025 at 10:47 PM.