St. John Bosco defeats Serra in state football bowl game

Joseph Latu took the first quarter handoff, charged toward the line of scrimmage and disappeared.

Poof. Gone. Lost. His bright yellow pants drowned in the gray sea of ​​Bellflower St. John Bosco, the San Mateo Serra runner stood up again. And like divers diving into a pool, members of the undefeated Braves defense almost comically jumped in one by one to bury Latu. No place to turn.

They blinked. They twitched. They veiled themselves. Saturday night was the latest relentless effort by the defenders for a St. John Bosco unit that stands atop any unit in California high school history, a defense that operates two and three steps ahead of every offensive attack. And with their 45-0 dominance of Serra at Saddleback College, the Braves secured the program’s fourth CIF Open Division state championship and put the final stamp on the claim they’ve made since the start of the season.

This is the best Bosco defense, senior defensive back Jshawn Frausto-Ramos said earlier in the week, we’ve ever had.

Yes, better than the championship unit in 2019. Better than the 13-2 team in 2016. Better than the undefeated 2013 team that started it all at Bosco.

There is nothing like our team, junior defensive back Peyton Woodyard said.

The secret to historically dominant high school football defenses? It’s not high school defense.

In 2018, Bosco moved to a system that resembled the systems run by university powers Georgia and Alabama in almost every aspect.

St. John Bosco running back Cameron Jordan finds room to run against San Mateo Serra in the first half of the CIF Open Division football championship game Saturday.

(Craig Weston)

And it lasted this season with a defensive concept called simulators, according to defensive coordinator Chris King. It’s almost a trick: a safety or linebacker is brought up to blitz, giving the quarterback the impression that the Boscos defense is pressuring, except only four players rush as the others drop back into coverage.

King said in simulators this season, the Boscos held offenses to less than two yards a game.

They run it in college, so just imagine running it in high school,” Frausto-Ramos said. Offensive coordinators don’t know what’s going on. So we definitely feel like we have an advantage.

Forget the edge. The gap between Bosco and Serra, who went 13-0 on Saturday, can only be described as a gap.

“We have an army of believers, we have hearts of gold, that’s right, tonight on a night like this, the talent it blew away,” Serra coach Patrick Walsh said.

Serra alumnus Tom Brady paid for the Padres to travel to Southern California, but it’s unlikely that even he could save Serras’ offense; The Padres gained minus-six yards in the first quarter against a stifling Bosco front.

Bosco had three turnovers in the first half and a fumble early in the third quarter.

Cameron Jones ran for two short scores and quarterback Pierce Clarkson passed for 184 first-half yards and a long touchdown to DeAndre Moore to put Bosco up 35-0. Late in the third quarter, junior Marcelles Williams made his second pick of the game, Khalil Warren took a 57-yard handoff for another touchdown, and Clarkson blew a kiss to the crowd.

That was it. And the gap Bosco and Santa Ana Mater Dei locked in the dance, as the rest of California struggles to catch up, only widens.