Central Coast Section Division IV finals
No. 7 Pacific Grove (11-1) vs. No. 1 Sacred Heart Prep (11-1),
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Independence High, San Jose.
Weather could be a factor tonight. It's expected to drop into the low 30s with a chance of rain, or dare I say snow flurries.
Cold weather aside, there's also hope that a spot in the Northern California Division III bowl game will be at stake, depending on Saturday afternoon's Hilmar-Central Catholic battle.
Both teams are clearly playing at another level in the postseason as Pacific Grove erupted for a CCS tying 77 points in avenging a loss to previously unbeaten Carmel last week.
The defending CCS Division IV champion Gators have made a habit out of eliminating Monterey Peninsula schools in the postseason with wins over Seaside and Monterey.
Running the ball against Sacred Heart's defense is no simple task. Neither is scoring as the Gators have held eight teams to a touchdown or less this year.
Sacred Heart will pound the ball behind a pair of bruising backs, trying to chew up the clock and keep the Breakers offense off the field.
I think the Breakers can move the ball through the air against Sacred Heart, if the offensive line can give quarterback Luke Lowell enough time.
My concern for Pacific Grove is will the Gators physicality wear them down -- particularly with six players going both ways.
John Devine has been writing about high school sports in Monterey County since, well, practically since he was an athlete at King City in the days just after leather helmets. In PrepNation, John has even more in-depth analysis of the latest results and news he's brought to you in The Herald and in his weekly videos.
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1 comment:
PG has a shot at bowl if they defeat SHP. Central Catholic will go down to small school bowl play-in if they defeat Hilmar which Hilmar is huge underdog. Hilmar wins and they probably go with undefeted record and a win over a very strong Central Catholic. West Valley from Northern Section may also be considered ahead of PG at 12-1 with only loss to a very good undefeated Northern Section Enterprise (a favorite for D2 playin slot). If Enterprise gets chosen for DII bowl play-in then maybe they consider PG. SHP has one loss to Terra Nova an open division team, but it can be argued PG defetaed and avenged its loss to Carmel (which defeated an CCS Open team - although this probably not weighted much if at all). This could come down to politics depending on committee (section heads) vote how many teams in Northern Section teams versis CCS. CCS has Serra as definite D1 bowl play in and Saint Francis a shot if they win tonight (long shot for Los Gatos) for D2 and winner of PG v SHP. Aptos which I think is a good candiate as well probably not in but also a shot. If SF loses maybe winner of SHP and PG gets in....I can see committee chosing 2 CCS and 2 Northern section teams (split it instead of 3 CCS and 1 NS. Serra is a definate favorite in CCS to play DelOro in D1 play-in. DLS and Folsom are heavy favorites in tonights games and will probably play for Open Bowl play-in (assuming no major upsets). Whoever wins tonight's PG and SHP game will be a heavy underdog to the NCS D3 champ El Cerrito which is the school's best team ever and can match up with the best of the WCAL at this stage of the season. I think I would take EC over Serra. They are stacked and give SHP or PG a 5% chance of being in that game. Neither team matches up on line or skill or speed with them. They could be the second or 3rd best team in northern CA (behind DLS and Folsom)and maybe ahead of Serra. In any ebent, nice season for PG and also Aptos who could be playing the best football in the Monterey Bay area.
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