Mater Dei defeats St. John Bosco in defensive struggle

It’s two hours before No. 1 takes on No. 2 in high school football. Two tickets were re-sold for $254.99 to enter Santa Ana Stadium on Friday night, and there’s an eerie quietness as players from top-ranked Santa Ana Mater Dei and Bellflower St. John Bosco listen to music on headphones, put on uniforms and start to dial in.

You sense the pressure, recognize the respect and feel the anticipation not only on the field but in the bleachers.

“It’s focus,” St. John Bosco defensive coordinator Chris King said.

Soon USC coach Lincoln Riley makes a sideline appearance. It’s clear this is no ordinary high school football game on a warm October night.

The game turned into an old-fashion defensive struggle. Mater Dei prevailed 10-7 on a 22-yard field goal by Andre Medina with 7:10 left. Quarterback Elijah Brown improved to 24-0 as a starting quarterback. As usual, in the fourth quarter, he was Tom Brady-like. He made a critical 17-yard pass completion to set up the field goal.

The first half turned out just as expected, two schools with great defenses not budging much. Mater Dei came away with a 7-0 halftime lead on the strength of a 99-yard, 14-play drive that ended with Brown‘s nine-yard touchdown run at the outset of the second quarter.

St. John Bosco’s passing game was ineffective. Quarterback Pierce Clarkson was sacked three times. He also was intercepted by Zabien Brown at the one-yard line to take away the Braves’ best scoring chance.

Clarkson went into concussion protocol at halftime and will not return to the game.

St. John Bosco finally broke through to tie the score at 7-7 on a fourth-down, six-yard touchdown run by Cameron Jones with 3:42 left in the third quarter.

As good as both teams are on offense, defense wins championships and the early parts of this game showed off the defensive talent. Ty Lee had a sack for St. John Bosco, blitzing from the secondary. Zeus Venegas kept playing like he was some Greek God, taking down Clarkson for a sack and also dropping him for no gain to deny him a first down.

How did it come to fruition that unbeaten Mater Dei and unbeaten St. John Bosco have pretty much separated themselves in Southern California high school football?

People seem to forget that Mater Dei went 17 consecutive seasons, from 2000 through 2016, without winning a Division 1 title. There were actually people calling for Monarchs coach Bruce Rollinson to be let go, that his time had passed.

The Monarchs saw the rise of St. John Bosco under coach Jason Negro and adopted many of his strategies, starting flag football teams for non-high school kids as an introduction to their school while welcoming talent far from Orange County. Vans started picking up athletes along the 91 freeway corridor. The Braves and Monarchs didn’t just become good with first-stringers, their second-stringers and depth propelled them to another level. Rebuilding years never happen anymore because transfers arrive when needed.

The Southern Section can see what these two All-star teams have become with sold-out crowds for their regular-season meetings and come Nov. 25 a likely meeting in the Division 1 final at the Rose Bowl, so who knows how many fans that game could draw if it’s a rematch. They’ve met for the Division 1 title in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

One big remaining question is how many teams will be part of the Division 1 playoff bracket. Last season in its first under a new competitive equity format that places teams based on their season instead of past performance, there were eight teams. Could there be four teams, eight teams, 12 teams or 16 teams this season?

“We don’t fill brackets,” Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons said. “We create brackets based on competitive equity. In football, that’s dictated on final CalPreps points. We won’t know those final points until after Week 10.”

Meanwhile, Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange still have not answered questions regarding a school-wide safety assessment that was authorized by the former school president following a lawsuit filed last November by the family of a former football player alleging a culture of hazing in the football program. A spokesman for the Diocese of Orange said earlier this week that the safety assessment, in its 11th month, “is still in progress.”

Rollinson told the Orange County Register this week that he plans to return as coach in 2023 and new president Michael Brennan endorsed the move even though the safety assessment has not been completed.