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This is the time of the prep football season to shift gears. Non-league play is over or just about to be over. League play is beginning and it’s time to harness the lessons learned and for each team to be their best version, as often as possible.
Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos begin Santa Clara Valley Athletic League play this week while St. Francis opens its West Catholic Athletic League schedule. Menlo-Atherton and Sacred Heart Prep have one more non-league game this week before starting Peninsula Athletic League play. Gunn, Menlo, Woodside and Sequoia have their byes this week.
Here’s a look at this week’s games:
Santa Clara at Palo Alto, Thursday, 7 p.m.
Santa Clara goes into De Anza Division play undefeated and has allowed only 34 points in four games. The Bruins are led on offense by quarterback Aiden Rangel.
“They’ve played really good defense and their quarterback is super quick, moves really well,” Palo Alto coach Nelson Gifford said. “It will be a challenge for us keeping him in the pocket.”
Santa Clara (3-0-1) hasn’t played the kind of schedule Paly (2-2) has. The Vikings lost to St. Ignatius and Serra, before beating Pioneer and Carlmont. Santa Clara’s wins are over Galileo, Del Mar and Los Altos.
Paly’s win over Carlmont took place Saturday afternoon. The game with Santa Clara, originally scheduled for Friday, has been moved to Thursday due to the referee shortage the Central Coast Section is experiencing.
“The short turnaround is a first for me,” Gifford said on Monday. “We’ll put a big emphasis on mental rest and try to get a gauge for how the guys feel, where we are, how much we can do in a short week.”
Running back Josh Butler, who has played in only one of Paly’s first four games, will play this week, Gifford said.
And as far as the De Anza Division goes …:
“Mountain View is playing like nails, Los Gatos, they’re gangbusters, Wilcox gave Pittsburg a scare. It’s shaping up to be a heck of a football season.”
McClymonds at Menlo-Atherton, Friday, 7 p.m.
M-A is accustomed to being the bigger and more athletic team. That won’t necessarily be the case Friday when Mack comes to town.
“They have the biggest offensive line we will face,” M-A coach Chris Saunders said. “Their quarterback (Dreyan Paul) is a very good talent. Their entire receiving corps is fast and explosive.”
McClymonds (3-0) is coming off a 33-22 win over Marin Catholic, a North Bay power. M-A (1-2) beat Pleasant Valley of Chico 34-0 its last time on the field. The scheduled game last week against Placer of Auburn was canceled due to COVID issues at Placer.
The defensive performance in the shutout over Pleasant Valley was in marked contrast to the first two games of the season. M-A gave up a combined 100 points in losses to Bellarmine (56-41) and Tualatin of Oregon (44-33).
“We got after it in practice,” Saunders said. “The first couple weeks we went easy on contact in practice to try to keep everyone healthy. After the Tualatin game we decided we needed to get more physical in practice and if you come out of it with more bumps and bruises, so be it.”
The passing combination of Matt MacLeod to Jalen Moss has been in high gear for M-A with seven touchdown pass connections over the last two games. MacLeod has thrown for 831 yards with 11 TDs and two interceptions. Moss has 21 catches for 417 yards.
The Bears lost starting running back Thomas Taufui on his first carry in the season opener.
Saunders said it’s still another week before Taufui is ready to come back. But in his absence Dane Fifita has performed well, rushing for 221 yards and four touchdowns.
“Fifita’s a special player,” Saunders said. “He’s made some runs where your eyes pop, the way he runs downhill with his rugby background. And Sherrod Smith has been a pleasant surprise with his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.”
But against McClymonds, it will be up to the defense to build on the performance the last time out, and do it against a more talented opponent.
“Mack is a team that thrives on momentum,” Saunders said. “We can’t give them easy ones. It’s going to be a dogfight, a fourth quarter game.”
St. Ignatius at St. Francis, Friday, 7 p.m.
The Lancers are coming off a bye week that followed their history-making victory over De La Salle.
“It was nice to have a bye week,” coach Greg Calcagno said. “We were a little banged up, so we gave them a day or two off.”
The concern now is to have the team looking forward to the WCAL season rather than looking back at what they accomplished.
“That’s our job as coaches,” Calcagno said. “SI beat us the last time we played them.”
That was in 2019, a 35-26 St. Ignatius victory in San Francisco. This season the Wildcats are 2-1 with wins over Palo Alto and Sacred Heart Prep and a loss to St. Mary’s of Stockton.
“They’re not going to beat themselves and they’re battle tested,” Calcagno said. “On offense we’ve got to do what we do, run the ball, mix in some play-action, take care of the ball and be good up front.”
Milpitas at Mountain View, Friday, 7 p.m.
A CCS power for years, Milpitas went 0-5 last spring and is 1-3 so far this fall with blowout losses to three strong East Bay teams, Amador Valley, Las Lomas and California.
“They’re down a little, but when you look at the size of them they don’t look down,” Mountain View coach Shelley Smith said. “They probably average around 285 across the offensive line, they’ve got some athletes and they play aggressive.”
The Spartans have defeated Milpitas the last two times they’ve played.
“They’ll have a chip on their shoulder,” Smith said.
Mountain View is off to a 3-1 start with its one loss by one point to Mitty. The team’s ball control ground game has worked very well, so far.
“On defense we’ve got to eliminate the big play,” Smith said. “On offense we need to be a little more balanced. We’ve done what we wanted to do so far. But someday if someone shuts down the run we’re going to need to be able to throw.”
Fremont at Los Altos, Friday, 7 p.m.
The last time out Los Altos (1-2) played Santa Clara to a 7-7 tie until the Bruins kicked a field goal with three minutes left. A pick-six followed and made the final score 17-7.
Los Altos coach Dave DeGeronimo was not satisfied with his El Camino Division team playing a De Anza Division team close.
“We left points out there, it was a game we should’ve won,” DeGeronimo said.
Fremont is 2-2 with wins over Evergreen Valley and Independence and losses to Homestead and San Mateo.
“They’re a big, strong, physical team, much bigger than us,” DeGeronimo said. “It’s a big game for us, a league opener. We’ve got to get back in the win column. Our guys need to taste some victory.”
The last time the two teams met Los Altos won 21-14 in the final game of the shortened spring season April 21.
“It seems like yesterday,” DeGeronimo said. “A lot of guys are back on both teams. It should be a good game.”
Sacred Heart Prep at Hillsdale, Friday, 7 p.m.
After an exhilarating win with a last-minute touchdown drive in the season opener against Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Gators have been ragged with two close losses to St. Ignatius (13-7) and Mountain View (24-21).
They will look to right the ship in their final tuneup before PAL Bay Division play begins against a Hillsdale team that is 3-1 and a one-point loss to Terra Nova away from being undefeated.
SHP coach Mark Grieb stressed several points of emphasis for his team in practice this week:
“I’d like to see improved reading and reacting to our keys on defense and see us continue to improve at shedding blockers,” Grieb said. “On offense we need to work on pass protection and throwing from the pocket. We need to continue to work on the run game, get more crisp on technique and add some wrinkles to the offense. Use formations that create problems with opposing defenses and use the quarterback more in the run game.”
The Hillsdale ground game, led by Makoa Ah Tou, averages 6.6 yards per carry and 193 yards per game. Quarterback Liam Smith is throwing for another 154 yards per game.
Sacred Heart Prep is also averaging 6.6 yards per carry while rushing for 172 yards per game and passing for 146. Andrew Latu leads the team with 197 yards rushing. Luis Mendoza has rushed for 153 and flyback Zach Freire for 125.