NationalHSFootball.com
The opening weekend of Trinity League games in California saw three games played to one-score results as five of its six teams are ranked in the HSFB100 and each showed worthy of inclusion.
St. John Bosco (Bellflower, CA) came into the weekend ranked No. 9 nationally and the Braves emerged victorious over No. 10-ranked Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA) by a narrow 28-25 final.
JSerra’s Ethan Aguayo leaps for a touchdown catch. For more on the game visit OCVarsity.com.
No. 68 JSerra (San Juan Capistrano, CA) made the rankings perfect by downing unranked Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA), 35-28.
All five will remain ranked in the HSFB100 come Monday.
St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro told reporters that leaving the field with a win inside league play it is always a good win.
“Any team on any given night can beat anybody in this league,” Negro said. “It’s great to be 1-0.”
St. John Bosco used three fumble recoveries — one of which was taken back for a touchdown — to secure the win.
Braves quarterback Josh Rosen threw for 212 yards while Sean McGrew ran for 123 yards and a score.
For Mater Dei the loss will be tough to watch.
Quarterback Jack Lowary was 20-for-29 passing for 343 yards but he was stripped of the ball for all three turnovers.
The second was returned 69-yards for a score that extended the lead from 21-18 to 28-18 just into the fourth quarter. The third was with 1:48 left in the game with Mater Dei on the St. John Bosco 39 and driving for the winning score.
The team also missed a field goal early in the game and had a costly penalty on fourth down which extended at St. John Bosco scoring drive.
Servite had jumped out to a 20-0 lead less than two minutes into the second quarter with a Travis Waller run and then two touchdown passes to Equanimeous St. Brown and Osiris St. Brown.
Orange Lutheran closed the gap by scoring 14 straight points of its own prior to halftime. Its quarterback, L.J. Northington, hit Hudson Hankins for a 10-yard score and followed it up with a touchdown run of his own to go into the break.
Servite was gifted a safety early in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 22-14 and then followed up with a field goal after the free kick set the Friars with good field position, extending the lead to 25-14.
OLU scored two more times to tie the game with a 4-yard run from Northington and an interception by Taylor Magee which resulted in a field goal.
Servite responded with a game-winning drive which resulted in a 31-yard field goal from Andrew Acosta with just 10 seconds to play.
The tight contest was not unexpected according to Servite coach AJ Glass.
“Whenever you get two teams that are equally competitive and hungry in this league, you’re gonna end up getting a game that comes down to the wire,” he told Devin Ugland of OCSidelines.com.
For JSerra it was the team on the comeback trail as it scored three times in the fourth quarter to earn the win.
The Lions were down 14-0 early but tied the game at the break. The teams were tied at 21 early in the fourth quarter before JSerra added two scores to stretch the lead to 35-21.
The top three teams in the Trinity League are given automatic berths into the Pac-5 playoffs — which is comprised of five leagues — and there are two additional, at-large bids that can be given out to any team in the collection that do not earn a place in the postseason tournament.
The next five weeks will see ranked teams playing ranked teams each week as the group sorts itself in the rankings.
All five programs will remain ranked next week and likely in the same order until play on the field dictates otherwise.
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