San Francisco high school football roundup: Week 4

Seven of San Francisco’s high school football teams took to the field in Week 4, while Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Ignatius and Washington were on byes. Balboa was the lone city team to win, but Lowell kept Dougherty Valley close on Saturday afternoon and Galileo found the end zone for the first time this season.

The Standard has coverage on all of the action, along with some news from other prep sports events around the city and the Bay Area.

The Buccaneers earned their first win of the season despite committing 18 penalties and attempting just a single pass.

“That’s two home games where we made 18 or 19 penalties,” head coach Fred Velasquez after his team incurred 170 yards with of flags. “We’re working on it, but we’re young. We have a lot of guys who have only played at the JV level or never played football before at all.”

Nonetheless, Balboa (1-2) jumped out to a three-score lead, scoring twice in the final four minutes of the first half on rushing touchdowns from Omar Blanco and Dontae Allen-Wilson to take a 12-0 lead. Lauren Salyphanh’s 30-yard run halfway through the third quarter stretched the advantage to 18 before Deer Valley (0-4) made a late push, scoring on Coby Fosselman’s 20-yard pass to Andrew-Chiemka Vixon and Ayanfe Adediran Jr.’s 1-yard run with 4:18 to go. The Wolverines had a chance to tie or take the lead inside the final two minutes after stopping Balboa on downs, but went four-and-out to end the game.

Long passing plays proved to be Galileo’s undoing for the second week in a row, as Berkeley (2-2) scored four touchdowns of 45 yards or more to take the Lions down on Saturday afternoon. Yellowjackets quarterback Drew Henderson threw for four scores before giving way to sophomore Damonte Smith, who connected with receivers on another two touchdowns. Galileo (1-2) did find the end zone for the first time this season on Nate Chynoweth’s 19-yard touchdown pass to Chase Recio. Chynoweth also ran in the ensuing two-point conversion.

It’s probably a good thing the Bears won’t be facing any more Oakland Athletic League (OAL) opponents. Mission (0-3) played two games against Oakland schools and was shut out both times, losing by a combined score of 74 to 0. Castlemont (2-2) led 26-0 at halftime.

The Cardinals fell to 0-3 in a game rescheduled from Friday to Saturday due to the region-wide referee shortage. Much like their season-opening loss to Monta Vista-Cupertino, Lowell put up a solid defensive effort but struggled to move the ball.

After low roster numbers forced the cancellation of their first three games, the Pumas suffered their ninth loss in a row, a streak that dates back to Nov. 15, 2019. Harker (2-1) led 20-0 after a quarter and initiated a running clock with a 35-0 halftime lead in Burton’s lone non-league game of the season.

The Crusaders lost for the first time under head coach Adhir Ravipati, and it wasn’t pretty. Riordan (2-1) fell into a 21-0 hole before halftime and had no answer for Andrew Latu, who ran 18 times for 95 yards and two touchdowns, caught a screen pass for a 47-yard pickup and recorded an interception on defense. Sacred Heart Prep (3-1) led by 35 after three quarters, initiating a running clock for the final period. Charlie Johnson’s touchdown run in the final minutes prevented a shutout, but it wasn’t enough to spare the Crusaders from the worst margin of defeat by a Ravipati team since Sept. 12, 2015, his second game at Menlo-Atherton.

Andre Petrilli’s 38-yard field goal accounted for the Mustangs’ lone score in Sonoma County. Lincoln (1-3) had no answer for Windsor’s passing game, allowing five touchdowns and 240 yards to Judson Anderson, who compiled those numbers across just 12 attempts, 10 of which went for completions. Hayden Anderson caught three of those touchdowns and had seven receptions in all, totaling 174 yards. Windsor (2-2) won the turnover battle 2-1, with Lincoln’s lone takeaway coming on a Deion Solis fumble recovery.

“We played really hard. Now we just have to play better,” Mustangs head coach Phil Ferrigno said. “We’ve been our own worst enemies.”

The Jaguars, currently ranked 17th in the North Coast Section (NCS) by MaxPreps.com and Calpreps.com, will almost certainly be Lincoln’s toughest opponent for the entire season.

“Windsor is a great program, and we need to see how good teams operate,” Ferrigno commented.

Three second-quarter touchdowns sent the hosts into halftime with a 28-3 lead.

Folsom (3-1) maintained its claim as one of the top teams in Northern California, claiming a 23-15 win at Pittsburg (3-1) before a packed crowd on Friday night. The Bulldogs intercepted 5-star Miami quarterback commit Jaden Rashada four times, blocked a punt and returned a blocked field goal 75 yards for a touchdown to overcome the Pirates, who struck first on a highlight-reel catch by Washington commit Rashid Williams.

Perhaps the wildest game of the week was played in Antioch, where California-San Ramon defeated the host Panthers, 36-35. The Grizzlies took the lead with 1:13 left as quarterback Jayden Macedo hit Josh Calcagno for a 45-yard touchdown, then caught a two-point conversion pass from Stavi Booras as California (3-1) called its own version of the “Philly Special.” Charles Brown Jr. ran 33 times for 341 yards and three touchdowns for Antioch (1-3).

In San Jose, Santa Teresa took down host Leland 17-10 in a double overtime thriller to open play in the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mount Hamilton Division, the  league’s top tier. Santa Teresa (2-2, 1-0) blocked a field goal to open overtime, but failed to score as Cody Hardtke came up with a clutch interception for Leland (1-3, 0-1). Joshua Reyes ran for a 4-yard touchdown in the second overtime to put the Saints up for good. Freshman quarterback Brandon Mann, who was originally expected to attend Serra, threw a 30-yard touchdown pass for the Chargers with 45 seconds remaining to send the game to OT.

St. Ignatius boys basketball has its first Division I commitment directly out of high school since 2014 as center John Squire has announced his commitment to Pepperdine. Squire, a 6-foot-7 power forward, averaged 12 points and 11 rebounds per game as a junior. He’ll be the second Wildcat on a D1 roster in Southern California; Darrion Trammell, who played at City College after graduating in 2018 and was First-Team All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in the 2021-22 season at Seattle University, is now at San Diego State as a graduate transfer.

Two days after their Bruce-Mahoney victory, the St. Ignatius Wildcats were back on the court in Las Vegas to compete in the Durango Fall Classic, one of the top volleyball tournaments in the nation. They went 3-4 over the two-day tournament, finishing tied for 38th in the 64-team field. Only two Northern California teams finished higher, with Mitty placing 14th and Marin Catholic tying for 23rd. Cathedral Catholic-San Diego won the tournament, defeating defending state Open Division champion Marymount-Los Angeles in the final. Cathedral Catholic (24-0) is the top-ranked team in the state and second-ranked team in the entire nation according to MaxPreps.com, only behind Marian, a Detroit-area Catholic school power. The Dons have yet to lose a set all season.