Photos: Austin Mack, Folsom rout Oak Ridge 42-13 in Northern California showdown

Mack passes for 374 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. — Austin Mack is growing up before our eyes, and a lot of those eyes may be covered in the Sierra Foothill League with the sense of, "Oh, no. How good can the kid be?"

Answer: Great.

Mack on Friday night passed for 374 yards and six touchdowns without an interception, hitting national recruit receiver Rico Flores, Jr. for three scores, and SBLive Sac-Joaquin Section No. 1 Folsom beat rival Oak Ridge 42-13 in a league opener. 

It marks the 17th consecutive time the Bulldogs have beaten their rivals, dating to 2006.

Mack, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound junior, has yet to throw an interception this season despite defenses scrambling to reach him, and Folsom has played a monstrous schedule. That includes beating De La Salle-Concord 24-20 last week on Mack's 1-yard touchdown leap with 15 seconds remaining.

Folsom's loss this season was 17-12 to Northern California No. 1 Serra-San Mateo.

"He's working his tail off," Folsom coach Paul Doherty said of Mack. "He had a rough sophomore year on varsity, and then we played all these good teams this year - Monterey Trail. Serra, Edison, De La Salle. The quarterbacks here have to do everything. We're a quarterback-driven program, and it's on him and it's on me to make it work. It's hard sometimes and it takes time."

And there's Flores, Jr., any quarterback's dream of a deep threat. The Notre Dame-bound star had five catches for 154 yards and scoring strikes of 23, 62 and 55 yards. The first touchdown made it 7-0 and was the first touchdown allowed by Oak Ridge's starting defense.

The last two Flores touchdowns broke the game open, making it 28-13 and 35-13 in the third quarter.

"Great player," Oak Ridge coach Casey Taylor said of Flores.

Oak Ridge has a great kicker in Carson Nichols, who boomed field goals of 48 and 45 yards. The 48-yarder is a school record.

Mack credited everyone else for his big outing, saying, "it's everybody. It's the line, the defense. I've got Rico. I've got everyone."

Folsom (5-1) visits Whitney-Rocklin next weekend and Oak Ridge (5-1) heads to Granite Bay.

Here are photos from Friday night's game in El Dorado Hills:

All photos by Dennis Lee