Mater Dei captures 14th CIF title with hard-fought win over league rival St. John Bosco

Mater Dei players, coaches and supporters celebrate after Friday’s CIF final. (PHOTO: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Mater Dei High School’s football team is once again atop of the football world by virtue of a 31-24 victory over St. John Bosco in the CIF Division 1 championship game Friday night at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach before a crowd of 7,407.

The Monarchs, the No. 1 ranked team in the nation by Maxpreps and Calpreps, earned the program’s 14th championship title. Mater Dei has reached the championship game in eight of their last 10 seasons. Friday’s contest marked the seventh time the Monarchs and Braves have met in the championship game since 2016. Mater Dei (12-0) holds a 4-3 edge over their Trinity League rival.

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Monarchs running back Jordan Davison rushed for 196 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead Mater Dei to its 18^th consecutive victory.

“I don’t like to lose; I’ve only lost two games in my high school career and I’m hoping at the next level it will be the same way,” said Davison, who carried the ball 28 times and is committed to Oregon. “The O-line played a great game, and I don’t mind helping to carry our team.”  

Mater Dei defeated the Braves 59-14 earlier this season during Trinity League play and beat the Braves (11-2) in last year’s a CIF Division 1 final at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Friday’s win was the first game this season Mater Dei had not won by double digits. St. John Bosco made its 10^th CIF finals appearance. The program has four CIF championships.   

It started well for Mater Dei.

Mater Dei took advantage of a St. John Bosco turnover on the opening drive of the game to take an early lead. Defensive back Daryus Dixson returned an interception 33 yards to the Braves 8-yard line. However, the Monarchs had to settle for a Dominic Zante 28-yard field goal and took a 3-0 lead.

In the second quarter both offenses picked up the pace as the two teams combined to score four touchdowns.

Early in the quarter, the Monarchs marched 84 yards in 14 plays for a touchdown to increase their lead. Davison capped the drive with a four-yard TD run. The Monarchs added a 2-point conversion and led 11-0 at the 9:38 mark.  

The Braves countered with an 11-play, 71-yard drive, aided by two roughing the passer penalties on Mater Dei. St. John Bosco quarterback Koa Malauulu competed a 9-yard TD pass over the middle to Madden Williams to cut the lead 11-7.

The Monarchs responded in just over 90 seconds, moving the ball 80 yards in six plays to take a 17-7 lead. Davison scored his second TD of the game and completed the drive with a 3-yard TD run with 2:14 left in the half. The drive was sparked by a 42-yard pass play from quarterback Dash Beirly to wide receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.   

With 1:15 remaining in the half, Malauulu tossed his second TD pass of the game as he completed a short pass over the middle to Darren Tubbs Jr. who cleverly outmaneuvered the Mater Dei secondary and darted 53 yards for a touchdown to cut the score to 17-14 at halftime. Malauulu completed 14 passes for 297 yards and two TD passes to lead the Braves.  

Midway through the third quarter, Davison scored on a 14-yard TD run, his third TD of the game, to give Mater Dei a 24-14 lead.  

The Braves hurt themselves throughout the game by committing 13 penalties for 101 yards.

However, St. John Bosco continued to battle.

Backed up to their 7-yard line, Malauulu completed a short swing pass to Carson Clark who zig-zagged across the field 89 yards to the Monarchs two-yard line.

On the next play, Maliq Allen scored on a two-yard run to cut the lead to 24-21 with 2:11 left in the quarter. Moments later early in the fourth quarter, Mater Dei nearly scored again but St. John Bosco linebacker Justin Coach stripped Beirly of the ball near the goal line. The ball rolled out of bounds in the end zone and the Braves were awarded the ball, but they were unable to sustain a drive.

Mater Dei responded by driving 47 yards in five plays, capped off by Beirly’s 7-yard TD pass to Marcus Harris, upping the Monarchs lead to 31-21 with 6:15 left to play.

The Braves got the ball back but could only muster a 48-yard field goal by Chris Wallace, cutting the lead to 31-24 with 2 minutes left in the game. Mater Dei was then able to run out the clock and secure the win.

“We stayed calm and collected on the sidelines as things were getting tight and we trusted the process,” said Lara. “We haven’t really been tested this season, but we faced adversity tonight and we handled it. Davison and our offensive line were awesome. Give Bosco a lot of credit, they battled and fought hard.”

“We played as a team and never backed down,” said Monarchs defensive back CJ Lavender. “We were faced with adversity but remained calm and kept playing hard.”

“After beating them by a lot the first time we played them this season, we may have taken them a little too lightly, but we stayed locked in and focused,” said defensive back Chuck McDonald III, who is committed to Alabama.

Braves coach Jason Negro said his team played well.

“We made them earn it,” said Negro. “We were stringing together first downs, moving the ball and we played hard. I’m proud of our guys. We had a good week of preparation, and our team has exceeded my expectations this year. We have a lot of young and inexperienced players, but they have played well.”

NOTES:

—-Mater Dei coach Raul Lara won his 12^th CIF championship as a coach. He has won six as a head coach and six as an assistant. At Long Beach Poly, Lara won five CIF championships as a head coach. His first championship was as a defensive coordinator at Poly in 1997 when the Jackrabbits defeated Mater Dei. “You never forget your first one; it’s really special,” said Lara. “You’ll have to wait a few years and ask me about this one. It will take a while for it to sink in.”

—-“I sat out the 2019 season and didn’t coach,” said Lara. “I thought I was going to hang it up. However, during that season my wife and I went to games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and I saw how poorly coached a lot of these kids were, so I decided to come back, and I went to coach at Servite under Troy Thomas as an assistant before taking over as the head coach at St. Anthony’s.”

“We only played nine regular season games this year (at Mater Dei),” said Lara. “I’m already working on next year’s schedule, and we have eight games scheduled, but I expect us to have 10 regular season games schedule for next season. This season we’ve had too many byes and each time we came off a bye our offense was out of sync. Our offense needs be in rhythm, and we were out of rhythm in every game when we came off a bye this year. However, we did benefit from the kids being able to heal because of byes.”

—-Jason Negro has served as a high school analyst on Sunday evenings this season for NBC Channel 4 in Los Angeles. “I get nervous before I go on the air each week,” said Negro, who indicated he was offered the analyst job last summer by NBC.  “I want to make sure I represent our school and every team respectfully and provide quality information.”

—-Mater Dei reached the finals by defeating Sierra Canyon and Corona Centennial. The Braves beat Santa Margarita and Orange Lutheran in their first playoff games.