St. John Bosco ruins Mater Dei’s bid for third straight CIF title with 39-34 comeback victory

Mater Dei football coach Bruce Rollinson accepts the runner-up trophy Saturday night. (Photo courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone).

Mater Dei’s football team, riding a 12-game winning streak, appeared invincible all season and for the first half of Saturday’s CIF Division 1 championship game, the Monarchs pretty much were.

The highly-favored Monarchs had a comfortable 28-12 lead over Trinity League rival St. John Bosco at halftime of the final Saturday night at Cerritos College and looked on their way to a third straight CIF Division 1 title.

But St. John Bosco wasn’t about to quit and battled back in the second half to top the Monarchs, the No. 1 team in the nation, 39-34 in a wild and entertaining Division 1 final in front of 9,933 fans, who were roaring for their respective teams much of the night.

St. John Bosco was led by quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei who completed 26 of 41 passes for 444 yards and five touchdowns. Logan Loya hauled in 10 catches for 161 yards and two touchdowns and Kris Hutson had eight catches for 105 yards and two TDs for the Braves (12-1) who move on to face De LaSalle in the state tournament open division.

It was sweet revenge for St. John Bosco, which lost to Mater Dei in the Division 1 final the last two years and in this year’s Trinity League game, 38-24, on Oct. 25 at St. John Bosco.

“We just came together, we believed in the game plan and believed in the coaching staff,” Uiagalelei said as he was congratulated by fans on the field.”We’re proud of the team. The defense balled out. It was just a whole team effort tonight. It means everything, especially us seniors. We haven’t won a title for ourselves and we wanted to win one tonight.”

Mater Dei quarterback Bryce Young, in his final high school game, battled too, completing 25 of 41 passes for 405 yards and five touchdowns. But he was intercepted three times, sacked four times and turned the ball over on a fumble on Mater Dei’s last serious opportunity to go ahead.

“In the third quarter, we had some drops and then there were some turnovers,” said Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson. “We came back into it. That’s a good football team over there and I thought we had it at the end and unfortunately it just wasn’t there, so what do you say,” said Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson. “Attrition caught up to us. We had some kids go in banged up and they couldn’t go for a full four quarters. Their injuries flared up and we had to pull them out.

“But I’m not going to make any excuses. This was a great team and a great group of kids. Bryce Young did everything he was supposed to do and it was a great effort on our kids’ part and I’m proud of them, I’m proud of them.”

St. John Bosco, on a fourth and one late in the game on its own 29 yard-line opted to go for a first down. But Mater Dei made a big stop giving the Monarchs a chance to go ahead one more time.

Mater Dei took over on the St. John Bosco 29 with 3:02 left and advanced the ball to the 13. But on a first down play, Young was pressured, retreated and fumbled and St. John Bosco recovered. The Braves were able to work the clock down to 30 seconds left and the game ended when Kristopher Hutson intercepted a pass.

“It was a combination of things,” Rollinson said. “On the last drive, we got into the wrong protection. It was one of those nights. Bryce did everything he could. You know what’s fascinating, Bryce called the last three quarters all on his own. We hardly made a play call because we felt he would question it. I commend him for that. His leadership at the end, his calmess, it’s incredible to me. We’re going to miss that guy.”

St. John Bosco moved ahead 39-28 when Uiagalelei connected with Logan Loya on a 26-yard TD pass with 8:52 remaining. But Young hit Ware-Hudson on a 23-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 39-34 with 8:52 left. The Monarchs missed the extra point.

It was a great start for Mater Dei. Young connected with Quincy Craig on a 62-yard TD pass on the Monarchs third play of the game to set the tone.

He then hooked up with Kyron Ware-Hudson on a 6-yard TD pass to put Mater Dei (13-0) ahead 14-0.

But then St. John Bosco, victimized by two turnovers in the first half, settled down and came charged up in the second half, outscoring Mater Dei 27-6.

“I just challenged our kids,” said St. John Bosco Coach Jason Negro. “I told them they were going to have to be reslilient in the second half to be relentless in their pursuit to win a CIF title. We wanted to put pressure on them in the second half because they haven’t played too many second halves the entire season (with regulars). I’m proud of my group.”

“I begged them to block that first half out,” Rollinson added. “Forget about that and go out and play like it’s zero-zero. We had opportunties and unfortunately for all those games in a row we always capitalized on those opportunities and we didn’t turn the ball over. We did in the third quarter. We didn’t drop passes. We did in the third quarter. It’s high school football and yet we had a shot at it at the end and unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.”

Mater Dei also got strong efforts from CJ Williams, who had nine catches for 108 yards and a touchdown; Ware-Hudson, who had seven catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns, Cristian Dixon, who had three catches for 74 yards.

Marceese Yetts had four catches for 54 yards and was also Mater Dei’s leading rusher with 26 yards.

A dejected Young, through a Mater Dei athletic offical, said he was too upset to be interviewed after the game.

All the Mater Dei players lined up on the field and watched as St. John Bosco received the championship trophy before they headed to the locker-room.

The game, televised by Fox Sports, ended at 11:06 p.m. and took three hours and 36 minutes to complete.

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-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com