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Clovis West, Los Gatos win one-point thrillers; Top 10 NorCal football game roundup; Sights, sounds, highlights, more

Los Gatos fights back from a 34-14 deficit to beat Liberty 35-34 and Clovis West fights from behind to edge Lemoore 27-26 in Central Section action; Escalon holds off Windsor, 42-38

Mitch Stephens, SBLive Sports

Here's a quick look at the Top 10 games from Northern California from games 8/31/23 to 9/2/23. 

Check back throughout the night for updates on these and other newsworthy events. Check here for all the scores throughout the weekend.

SCORES 8/31-9/2

Central Section schedule/scores: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Central Coast Section schedule/scores: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
North Coast Section schedule/scores: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Northern Section schedules/scores: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Oakland Section schedule/scores: Friday, Saturday
Sac-Joaquin Section schedule/scores: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
San Francisco Section schedule/scores: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

These are from feeds from reliable sources and  reporters throughout the state. 

10. Clovis West 27, Lemoore 26

Lonnie Franks needed a second effort to score from the 1 with 25 seconds left, lifting Clovis West to a wild win. An 18-yard reception by Tytus Khajavi set up the score to the 1-yard line. Washington State-bound Landon Wright, who had three TD catches last week, hauled in a 50-yard bomb from Tyler Patrick to go up 14-7. Lemoore's Kobe Green had two interceptions and an 85-yard kickoff return to put his team up 26-22 with 3:33 left. All info courtesy of Gabe Camarillo. 

9. Los Gatos 35, Liberty-Brentwood 34

They'll be talking about this one all season as Los Gatos (2-0) fought back from a 34-14 deficit early in the third quarter behind four touchdowns by Boxwer Kopcsak-Yeung, whose 3-yard run with three minutes to go put the Wildcats up 35-34. Earlier Kopcsak-Yeung had TD runs of 2, 2 and 70 yards, the latter on a kickoff return. The whirlwind comeback spolined the performance of Sage Robertson who completed five touchdown passes, two to Ryan McKendry of 70 and 24 yards and one each to Zaire Calhoun (25 yards), Jaxon Bell (37) and Ryder Steen (70). The only missed extra point of the game proved decisive.  Liberty dropped to 1-1. 

8. Cardinal Newman 27, Vacaville 7

Vacaville losing to perennial North Bay power Cardinal Newman isn't perhaps a surprise, but the lopsided score is. The Cardinals raced to a 20-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and even highly-touted quarterback Brody Fortunati could bring the Bulldogs back. According to Harold Abend of Prep2Prep and CalHiSports, Zack Homan rushed 25 times for 161 yards and touchdown runs of 33 and 56 yards. 

7. McClymonds 40, Bellarmine 0

At San Jose City College, McClymonds had simply too much speed and braun to overpower the Bells behind 186 yards rushing and three touchdowns from Ta'jir Golden, a converted receiver. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Bellarmine finished with all of 12 yards of total offense. 

6. Clovis East 42, Sanger 21

Junior quarterback Ty Miller had another big game throwing for 195 yards and three touchdowns, Caleb Slocum added 65 yards rushing and two touchdowns, but it was the play of Harold Duvall who had most shaking their heads. He had three catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns and he added a 70-yard pick 6. He's only a junior. Very impressive. Clovis East is definitely approaching state Top 25 rankings. 

5. Escalon 42, Windsor 38

Well, that's one game we didn't miss the boat on. Another great game in Northern California. Great reporting here from Gus Morris of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Despite 361 yards passing and five touchdowns from Judson Anderson and 12 catches for 148 yards and two scores by his brother Hayden, Windsor fell short. That's because Windsor couldn't stop Escalon's great running attack, led by Josh Graham (24 carries, 161 yards, two TDs), Jasmin Miller (15, 81, 2) and Talan Reider (13, 70, one receiving TD). According to Morris, the Cougars ran for 315 yards on 53 carries. 

4. St. Mary's-Stockton 44, Manteca 7

The host Rams used big play prowess to race past Manteca and Samson Hunkin completed three touchdown passes, two to highly-regarded sophomore receiver Kenneth Moore for 55 yards and 46 yards. Asante Carter also scored his seventh and eighth TDs on the season with runs of 53 yards and 5 yards. It was the third straight home victory over a ranked opponent. Manteca dropped to 2-1. 

3. Pittsburg 41, Granite Bay 21

For the second straight week, the Pirates, under first-year head coach Charlie Ramirez, recorded an impressive win on the road. The Pirates fell behind 7-0 early in the second quarter but responded with 41 of the game's next 55 points. 

2. Santa Margarita 34, Liberty (Bakersfield) 14

What started tight, turned into a rout, as sophomore Trent Mosley took over the game. He hauled in touchdown passes of 80 and 10 yards from Hunter Melton and added two TD runs as the here was visiting Eagles scored the last 27 points of the game. Sean Embree also had a 46-yard touchdown catch from Melton as Santa Margarita improved to 3-0. Liberty, the defending state 1-AA champions, took a 14-7 lead on a 77-yard touchdown pass from Cole O'Brien to Davari Degraffenreid.

Liberty quarterback Cole O'Brien races for yardage. Photo: Joe Bergman

1. Serra 28, De La Salle 0

The game was much closer than the final score when the top two teams in Northern California met Saturday as the host Padres scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win going away. The hitting was hard. The competition deep. Ultimately, Serra's defense was too much to overcome. Combined with a 99-yard scoring drive late in the second quarter was a recipe for the Padres' second straight win over the Spartans after 10 consecutive losses. 
Serra 28, De La Salle 0: Game story
Serra 28, De La Salle 0: Game highlights
Serra 28, De La Salle 0: 2-minute drill, Joseph Bey
Serra 28, De La Salle 0: Photo gallery

The Padres held De La Salle to 131 total yards. Photo: Dennis Lee

Other games/notes/highlights

  • NorCal's No. 4 team San Ramon Valley got 227 yards passing and two touchdowns from Luke Baker and 3-star 2025 linebacker Marco Jones added 14 tackles in a 44-21 win at Acalanes. See story
Luke Baker fakes a handoff to John Paul Mendoza Friday in lopsided win over Acalanes. Photo: Dennis Lee / Photo: Dennis Lee
  • After a 1-9 season, Valley Christian is playing at the level it's known to after a 16-8 win at Salinas. Ekiah McLemore rushed for two scores. 
  • Mt. Diablo's highly touted tailback Herschel Turner was at it again, rushing 12 times for 260 yards and four touchdowns, while contributing 15 tackles on defense in a 40-12 victory over Mission of San Francisco. Turner also caused two fumbles and recovered one, his third fumble recovery of the season. In two games, he's rushed for 637 yards and 10 touchdowns.
  • Riordan fell behind 7-6, then scored four straight touchdowns to gain control in a 60-29 win at Moreau Catholic. 
  • According to the Bay Area News Group, three-star recruit Kamani Jackson for El Cerrito scored on a 60-yard pick 6, a 75-yard kickoff return, a 21-yard reception and a 50-yard run in a 63-14 win over Freedom. 
  • Lenny Vandermade won his first game as a head coach as St. Ignatius (1-1) went on the road to upend Jesuit-Carmichael 28-27. Soren Hummel threw for 160 yards and Jarious Hogan ran for two scores. Linebacker Suitulaga Gallegos-Hunkin had a team-high nine tackles and Daniel Leupold recorded two sacks. CJ Lee had 118 yards rushing and two touchdowns for Jesuit (1-1). 


Published
Mitch Stephens, SBLive Sports
MITCH STEPHENS, SBLIVE SPORTS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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