De La Salle or St. Francis? Bishop O’Dowd or McClymonds? Pittsburg or Archbishop Riordan?
The Bay Area News Group’s high school crew is back for another week of football predictions.
Christian Babcock, Nathan Canilao and Joseph Dycus join long-timers Mike Lefkow and Darren Sabedra to see who can pick the most games correctly each week.
All in good fun, of course.
In our video roundtable, the crew discussed St. Francis’ odds of defeating De La Salle for the second time in four years.
The Lancers routed McClymonds 34-14 last week, with Kingston Keanaaina rushing for 336 yards and three touchdowns behind a mammoth offensive line. They looked like vintage St. Francis.
Now the Lancers will take on the Bay Area News Group’s No. 1 team – a DLS unit fresh off a 39-10 victory over Serra – in Concord. The Lancers famously snapped the Spartans’ 318-game unbeaten streak against NorCal opponents in 2021.
Four of the panelists went with DLS.
You already know who decided to go against the grain and predict that St. Francis would beat De La Salle.
“Kingston Keanaaina is on another level,” Joseph Dycus proclaimed. “I think they execute the strategy that Serra was trying to do in that first half, and they do it a little bit better. And they’ve got the offensive line to play with De La Salle.”
That wasn’t the only surprising prediction of the show. Nathan Canilao is firmly on the Bishop O’Dowd bandwagon. After watching the Dragons defeat Monte Vista 24-20, he thinks O’Dowd has what it takes to be the first Oakland team to defeat McClymonds since 2012.
“I went back and forth on this, but I’m going with O’Dowd,” Canilao said. “I’m buying all the Hardy Nickerson stock right now. I think they’re on a roll and they believe in themselves, and they believe in themselves when no one else does.”
Pittsburg and Archbishop Riordan’s Week 3 showdown is expected to go down to the wire as the Bay Area’s other matchup of Top 5 teams.
“Pittsburg’s been rolling right along as expected, and you know, there’s going to be a lot of college talent on that field,” Sabedra said.
The Pirates and Riordan have some college talent, but Serra’s opponent on Saturday is essentially a high-level juco team.
On Saturday, Serra will play host to St. John Bosco-Bellflower in a rematch of the 2022 Open Division state championship game.
The Trinity League giant won that game 45-0, and the encore probably won’t be any closer.
But even if winning isn’t even a remote possibility, Christian Babcock sees value in the Padres playing the SoCal juggernaut.
“As much as football coaches hate to talk about moral victories, if you’re trying to grow a young team, you might as well throw them out there against the best,” Babcock said.
Be sure to check out the video.
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On to the picks …
WEEK 3 PICKS
Friday
Clayton Valley (1-1) at San Ramon Valley (2-0), …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
