MD 35 - DLS 21 (F)

[AztecPadre]

I was planning on heading down Saturday, but my daughters Club Volleyball team just announced a practice game for this Saturday!!!!!!  I went to CIF site and it looks like its only on for Spectrum customers?  What the heck is Spectrum?

[PrepGridiron]

3 minutes ago, Blueliner said:

True. BUT Matt did beat LBP as a soph! Or was he a junior? 🤔 do you recall?

Senior, I believe. Let me think. Padilla's last year was 98. That means Gutierrez started in 99 as a soph and the Poly/DLS game was 01, so yes, Senior. 

[Blueliner]

13 minutes ago, HawgGoneIt said:

A lot of it is just believing. If the coaches believe, and the fans believe, the kids will believe. 

I'm sure that the coaches have pointed out this MD team isn't some unbeatable monster. I don't think there have been any DLS coaches or fans telling DLS they are supposed to go to the ship and lose. 

Go down and pop the three stripers in the mouth and play DLS ball on them. 

I just crack backed my secratary as she was at the copier just now. You da man, Hawg!👊

[Blueliner]

4 minutes ago, PrepGridiron said:

Senior, I believe. Let me think. Padilla's last year was 98. That means Gutierrez started in 99 as a soph and the Poly/DLS game was 01, so yes, Senior. 

I stand corrected. Thanks. Bastinelli, Padilla, Hale!!!

[Sammyswordsman]

5 hours ago, 1DayPGA said:

 

I like your enthusiasm. A lot of press. on the QB and the OL to hold their blocks but if they can sustain their drives and keep the clock moving keeping the Monarchs O. off the field that will be a good thing. After a slow start Hale and rest of the O. started looking sharp against Liberty. He made some nice runs showing good speed. Will need all of that and more come Sat. 

The quick pop to the TE was wide open vs. Liberty but MD will be expecting it.  Hale will be punished by MD ends if he tries to keep or pitch on the triple option.  They may punish him even if he hands off as well.

[HawgGoneIt]

4 minutes ago, Blueliner said:

I just crack backed my secratary as she was at the copier just now. You da man, Hawg!👊

Haha. If you can't be excited for the state championship game when your team is in it, Idk what to say. It's one thing to be objective, professional, grown up and all, but, bros! This is the damned big one! 

Suck in that stomach and bottom lip and put the game face on! There ain't no time for no defeatist mess just 3 days before the game! Don't listen to these debbie downers on here. Get Crunk! 

 

 

[Blueliner]

2 minutes ago, Sammyswordsman said:

The quick pop to the TE was wide open vs. Liberty but MD will be expecting it.  Hale will be punished by MD ends if he tries to keep or pitch on the triple option.  They may punish him even if he hands off as well.

The Stache will have those DEs in punish life for sure. Even if they take a penalty or two early it may be worth it in the long run. Sad but true.

[Blueliner]

2 minutes ago, HawgGoneIt said:

Haha. If you can't be excited for the state championship game when your team is in it, Idk what to say. It's one thing to be objective, professional, grown up and all, but, bros! This is the damned big one! 

Suck in that stomach and bottom lip and put the game face on! There ain't no time for no defeatist mess just 3 days before the game! Don't listen to these debbie downers on here. Get Crunk! 

 

 

Rocky playing in the background.

[PrepGridiron]

9 minutes ago, Sammyswordsman said:

The quick pop to the TE was wide open vs. Liberty but MD will be expecting it.  Hale will be punished by MD ends if he tries to keep or pitch on the triple option.  They may punish him even if he hands off as well.

Way to find a pop warner photo with a guy named ricks playing DB (technically DE, but I'm trying to give you points here)! I tipped my non existent hat to the screen to acknowledge the display of quality.

[Bestcoast]

15 minutes ago, Blueliner said:

Rocky playing in the background.

DLS will pull off the upset and win by exactly 17. 

The city of Folsom will have a parade!

[Sammyswordsman]

2 minutes ago, Bestcoast said:

DLS will pull off the upset and win by exactly 17. 

The city of Folsom will have a parade!

You got that right.  Depending on what happens in the DLS game, the devil will end up either being ranked in the Top 10 Nationally or #73

[On2whls]

DLS can beat MD the same way MD beat SJB.  Keep MD offense off the field as much as possible. 

Run off tackle and around the end. You aren’t going up the middle consistently.  MD had some trouble in the second half against Cen 10 with pitches and designed option.

DLS has to be very careful when they do throw, and if they do, avoid sideline routs.   Deeper middle crossing routs a better choice.

You can’t cover McCoy the whole time.  He’ll get his, but they simply can’t allow Martinez clean releases.

Every time Young runs, put a helmet on him.  He’s elusive but not a tough runner. Gotta make him stay in the safety of the pocket.

 

 

[Eddyr2]

1 hour ago, HawgGoneIt said:

31-28 DLS. 

i have a quote from MD to DLS:

[Ararar]

It’s settled DLS is winning 

 

CONCORD — The feeling was much like the previous December, of disappointment, emptiness and self-promises. De La Salle does not lose by scores like this, not two years in a row, not with the state’s premier championship on the line.

But here the Spartans were, in the chill of a Sacramento night, painfully watching another Southern California superpower raise a trophy De La Salle has won seven times since the California Interscholastic Federation added state football championships in 2006.

It wasn’t just a loss. It was another really bad loss.

“I just thought to myself, ‘Never again,’” linebacker/running back Henry To’oto’o, a four-star college prospect, said this week. “Never disappoint my family or the tradition that’s been going around here ever again. I just wanted to carry that De La Salle pride everywhere I went, on and off the field. We kind of made a promise to each other, the senior group, to never let that happen again.”

The Spartans aim to redeem themselves Saturday night when they play defending champion Mater Dei-Santa Ana for the Open Division state title at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Redemption is an oft-heard battle cry in sports. Lose one year, find atonement the next. De La Salle is no different. When St. John Bosco-Bellflower blitzed the Spartans 56-33 for the Open Division state championship in 2016, the rallying mantra was 56. Remember the 56 points Bosco scored. Never allow that to happen again.

One year later, an all-time great Mater Dei team — led by quarterback JT Daniels and receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, both now at USC — scored 21 first-quarter points against De La Salle and rolled to a 52-21 victory for the state’s Open crown.

The bar clearly had been raised, well beyond De La Salle’s reach. The Spartans could not remain status quo. Their defense had to become more athletic. Their veer option offense had to become more diversified.

The changes have not been subtle. In the season opener against high-powered Folsom, De La Salle senior Amir Wallace had the toughest assignment of the night, defending 6-foot-3, 210-pound Clemson-commit receiver Joe Ngata on corner’s island. Ngata caught six passes for 50 yards but did not score. Neither did any of his teammates. De La Salle won 14-0, a tone-setter for a season that has included victories over Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas, Buchanan-Clovis, St. Francis, Pittsburg and Liberty.

Quarterback Dorian Hale, who played some late last season as a freshman, has added a much-needed passing element to the offense, developing a downfield rapport with receiver Grant Daley. But Hale also is an explosive threat at the controls of the triple-option, as he showed against Liberty last week with two breakaway touchdown runs.

A year ago against Mater Dei, De La Salle believed it needed to play a near flawless game to have a chance, which it did not. The Spartans had five turnovers.

This time around, De La Salle doesn’t believe the odds are as steep.

“There is no way,” coach Justin Alumbaugh said Monday. “Hopefully it shows like that when we come out and play. But we’re a far better team than we were last year. We’re better basically across the board, and our results have shown it. We’re not a perfect team. Obviously, on paper, we’re the underdog, understandably and rightfully so. Those guys have done a great job.

“But the entire feel of our team this entire year has been completely different. That’s why we scheduled so hard. That’s why we played Folsom right out of the gate. Almost every team that we played is playing for a divisional title or a state title. We did that on purpose for a game like this. If we did make the state title game, we knew what type of team we were going to be playing.”

De La Salle’s Grant Daley (26) reaches back to catch a pass and runs in for a touchdown against Liberty in the second quarter of their North Coast Section Open Division championship game at Dublin High School in Dublin, Calif., on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

The wheels of change for De La Salle were put in motion last December in Sacramento — after Daniels threw for three touchdowns, two to St. Brown, and ran for two — and have kept rolling through off-season conditioning that started in January and the games this fall.

“We were going to need to be more complete defensively,” Alumbaugh said. “We were going to have to cover the pass and stop the run. We’ve always been pretty stout at stopping the run. Teams throw the ball more than they did even just a couple of years ago.

“Offensively, we run the option. We run the veer. We’re going to continue to do that. But we need to have different wrinkles. We still run the ball, but there are some nuances that we’re doing that are a little bit different. We have the quarterback and the running backs and the wide receivers who have the ability to kind of spread the team out a little bit.”

Quitting is not a word anyone likes to be associated with, especially in sports. But that’s what Alumbaugh said he saw from his team last season against Mater Dei and in a one-sided loss in Las Vegas against Bishop Gorman, a defeat De La Salle avenged this season.

Not tap-out, walk-off-the-field quitting but rather the drive to keep playing hard no matter the score. Against Mater Dei last season, Alumbaugh did not see motors at full throttle, did not see the energy it takes to win one of these games.

“We just didn’t have the physicality,” he said. “We didn’t have guys flying around. We didn’t totally tap out or anything like that. But that team was able to impose their will on us. They were better than us. There is no doubt about it. They deserve to win. We knew we were going to have to play near perfect in order to beat those guys last year.

“Rewatching that game, we didn’t play aggressive. We were letting them catch easy balls — 50-50 balls they came down with every one. We let them run the ball more effectively than most teams are able to. We fumbled the ball all over the place. People go, ‘You run the option. You’re going to fumble the ball sometimes.’ They weren’t option fumbles. They were just fumbles. That’s indicative of guys that weren’t really as dialed in as they should have been. We have to rectify that this year.”

De La Salle has been locked in all season. It tested itself early and cruised through the best its section has to offer late, all building toward the state championship game Saturday night.

“I am anticipating a better showing,” Alumbaugh said. “We’re not going down there fingers crossed, hoping that we can hang tight. We’re going down there to win. We have the ability to do it. Those guys are a great team. Like I said, we’re the underdog. But we’re going down to make some things happen.”

[Sammyswordsman]

If The Stache get 50+ again, Butter is gonna start throwing things.

[PrepGridiron]

That article is great. It’s how I feel about this team. To speak to the mistakes, I was watching the first drive in last year’s game and the fumble wasn’t an option fumble. It was literally because the RB had his hands reversed from what you are taught in junior pee wee. This team has had a much more concerted effort in reducing mistakes. I know there’s the argument that pressure forces mistakes but this team seems much more focused on the details. 

[PrepGridiron]

4 minutes ago, Sammyswordsman said:

If The Stache get 50+ again, Butter is gonna start throwing things.

Either that or he’ll strap one on and GATA

[Mjd33]

52-27 MD...... Monarchs take foot off the gas in second half. 

[Blueliner]

18 minutes ago, PrepGridiron said:

That article is great. It’s how I feel about this team. To speak to the mistakes, I was watching the first drive in last year’s game and the fumble wasn’t an option fumble. It was literally because the RB had his hands reversed from what you are taught in junior pee wee. This team has had a much more concerted effort in reducing mistakes. I know there’s the argument that pressure forces mistakes but this team seems much more focused on the details. 

Yes. Great article. ‘Baugh’s a good dude. I love his candor, humility, and confidence all rolled into one. I’m starting to think that maybe Sparty, for one game, one night, may have a better shot than we give them credit. 🙏

[Blueliner]

Just now, Mjd33 said:

52-27 MD...... Monarchs take foot off the gas in second half. 

I wouldn’t be too surprised if this is the final score. But I see it more like MD pulling away late to get it rather than them “taking their foot off of the gas” and coasting to 52. 

[Ararar]

I see 38-21

[Blueliner]

So here’s my take. How does Sparty give themselves a chance?  Pass. Pass. Pass.

...at least early on. ‘Baugh has gotta know that MD is going to stack the box with a bunch of kids with 4-5* after their names. He knows that he can’t just run into the teeth of this defense and expect results. Constant 3rd and long situations will be their demise. They’ve GOT to get up early somehow. They can’t play from behind. 

I see DLS psssing early to accomplish this.    High percentage passes like slants, sprints outs (dragging TEs and RBs), and screens etc. THEN establish the run after (hopefully) they spread out the MD defense. Then ball control via the veer down the stretch. Easy peasy🤣

[Eddyr2]

52 minutes ago, PrepGridiron said:

That article is great. It’s how I feel about this team. To speak to the mistakes, I was watching the first drive in last year’s game and the fumble wasn’t an option fumble. It was literally because the RB had his hands reversed from what you are taught in junior pee wee. This team has had a much more concerted effort in reducing mistakes. I know there’s the argument that pressure forces mistakes but this team seems much more focused on the details. 

If MD #75 gets and push on the DLS center...any like and inch...game over...MD will line up in cover zero and load the box...ever since MD moved their strong side OLB to FS their defense has been lights out...

[Eddyr2]

3 minutes ago, Blueliner said:

So here’s my take. How does Sparty give themselves a chance?  Pass. Pass. Pass.

...at least early on. ‘Baugh has gotta know that MD is going to stack the box with a bunch of kids with 4-5* after their names. He knows that he can’t just run into the teeth of this defense and expect results. Constant 3rd and long situations will be their demise. They’ve GOT to get up early somehow. They can’t play from behind. 

I see DLS psssing early to accomplish this.    High percentage passes like slants, sprints outs (dragging TEs and RBs), and screens etc. THEN establish the run after (hopefully) they spread out the MD defense. Then ball control via the veer down the stretch. Easy peasy🤣

How did that work out for Cen10? 🤔

#picksixrix

[On2whls]

13 minutes ago, Ararar said:

I see 38-21

I think that might even be a little high.  MD offense 20 and 17 in the last two games.  It won’t get much easier with DLS.   It’s going to be close.