High School

Riordan, Serra on collision course for second meeting over two weeks after impressive CCS wins

Possible Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Ignatius rematch still possible after decisive first-round CCS D2 wins; Palma, Los Gatos, Santa Teresa and Menlo School are other first-round winners

Mitch Stephens

Tommy Tofi (77) is a standout even on Riordan's massive offensive line. The Bay Area's top recruit has committed to Oregon. He leads the Crusaders into a rematch with Serra in next week's Central Coast Section Open Division final after both teams won decisive semifinal games on Saturday.
Tommy Tofi (77) is a standout even on Riordan's massive offensive line. The Bay Area's top recruit has committed to Oregon. He leads the Crusaders into a rematch with Serra in next week's Central Coast Section Open Division final after both teams won decisive semifinal games on Saturday. / Photo: Eric Taylor

Rarely does the same thriller present itself so soon, but the high school football teams at Riordan and Serra created the possibility with impressive Central Coast Section playoff wins on Saturday.

Riordan, the top seed, absolute hummed for the first 27 minutes en route to a 42-9 Open Division semifinal home win over Salinas, while second-seed Serra also rolled, over a more familar opponent, West Catholic Athletic League rival Mitty, for a 29-13 home win.

The teams, that just battled last week with Riordan prevailing 42-35 for the West Catholic Athletic League championship, now face off for the CCS Open crown Friday at San Jose City College. The loser of that game will drop down and face the winner of the fourth seed Palma-Salinas (11-0) at third Los Gatos (8-3) for the CCS Division 1 championship on Nov. 29.

Riordan (11-0) will be after its second CCS championship after Michael Mitchell threw for four touchdowns, two to Oregon State-bound Cynai Thomas, and Adonyae Brown scored two more touchdowns in an easy victory over the Cowboys, who scored a touchdown on the last play of the game from sophomore Raymond Guiterrez (2-yard run).

Mitchell, who threw for more than 300 yards, how has 43 touchdowns on the season and more than 3,000 yards. The fourth-year starter headed to Vanderbilt is approaching the 10,000 career mark with 120 touchdowns, both are CCS records.

His 48-yard bomb to Kyle Welch keyed a 92-yard opening drive that was capped on a 1-yard run by Brown, his 20th of the season in only his eighth game. That made it 7-0 with 10:20 left in the first quarter.

After two touchdowns were nullified on their next drive, the Crusaders persevered and Utah-bound Perrion Williams hauled in an 18-yard touchdown from Mitchell, making it 14-0 with 5:48 left in the quarter.

Evidently, just for practice, the Crusaders pulled off a perfectly executed onside kick and on the very next play, Mitchell fired an absolutely beautiful 49-yard touchdown bomb to Thomas, who never broke stride, increasing Riordan's lead to 21-0.

After Mattheus Masical drilled a 37-yard field goal to close to 21-3, a 32-yard pass from Mitchell to Brown set up a 1-yard touchdown run by freshman Chase Elzey to make it 28-3 just before the end of the first quarter.

A 22-yard screen touchdown pass from Mitchell to Brown in the second quarter and a 23-yard Mitchell to Thomas TD in the third closed out the scoring for the Crusaders, who will now go after their top division title in CCS. Their 2007 crown was at the Medium Division with a 54-19 win over Live Oak.

They'll face a Serra program that has won nine CCS titles, eight under current coach Patrick Walsh who took over in 2001. The Padres have never loss in a CCS championship game. They go after their fifth top-division crown (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) in six seasons (there was no title games in 2020).

The Padres (7-4) looked sharp, especially freshman quarterback William Orr, who threw two touchdown passes to Charlie Walsh (the coach's junior receiver son). The Padres also got a 100-yard rushing day from Iziah Single, a 35-yard rushing touchdown from Andrew Takapautolo and three field goals from Saul Marks, including a school-record tying 53-yarder.

It's the third time Marks has booted a 53-yarder this season. He has three Division 1 offers.

Mitty (6-5) didn't score a touchdown until Joseph Engin connected with Lucca Edwards on an 87-yard touchdown with 1:46 remaining. By that time, the Monarchs were down 29-7.

More CCS playoffs

Top 2027 running back recruit Eli Dukes rushed 25 times for 235 yards and four touchdowns as Palma remained unbeaten with a 28-0 Division 1 win over Soquel, which finished 9-2. The teams had just met on Halloween with Palma pulling out a 28-21 win. In that game, Dukes went for 225 yards and three touchdowns. ... Palma will now travel to a Los Gatos team that knocked off St. Francis 14-7 on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Callum Schweitzer to Nico Flores with five minutes remaining to break a 7-7 tie. Schweitzer had earlier connected with Beau Musser on a TD to give Los Gatos a 7-0 lead. ... In D2 play Saturday, second-seed Sacred Heart Cathedral knocked off No. 7 Wilcox-Santa Clara 34-21 at Kezar Stadium. Down 14-12, SHC (5-6) took the lead on a 1-yard TD run by quarterback Michael Sargent early in the third quarter. A Sargent 20-yard TD pass to Germaine Powell made it 24-214 and a two-point conversion run by Sargent, made it 26-14. An Elijah Vallejo 1-yard TD run closed the game to 26-21, but SHC pt it away on another short TD run by Sargent with four minutes to play. ... SHC will now host Santa Teresa, a 21-14 winner over North Salinas. Santa Teresa is 11-0. ... On the other side of the D2 bracket, top seed St. Ignatius (5-6) won four the fouth time in five outings with a 49-7 rout of Alisal and now host the Menlo School-Atherton, a 17-7 winner over the King's Academy. San Francisco fans are hoping for a SHC vs. St. Ignatius championship game, a repeat of the 2011 game won by St. Ignatius 21-14. The longtime rivals have played games dating back to 1893. St. Ignatius just defeated Sacred Heart Cathedral 23-14 on Nov. 7 in the Bruce-Mahoney Classic.

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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