De La Salle grinds out old-fashion 14-7 win at Folsom in Northern California game of the night

Spartans turn back the clock and utterly control it with a methodical, bruising nonleague win between the top teams from the North Coast and Sac-Joaquin sections

FOLSOM, CALIFORNIA — Sometimes to get ahead you have to dig backwards. 

The Spartans of De La Salle went to yesteryear — controlling and taking care of the ball, sure, aggressive tackling and no turnovers — to grind out an old-school 14-7 win Friday at Folsom in the Northern California Game of the Week. 

Derrick Blanche Jr. rushed 23 times for 123 yards and Dominic Kelley added 25 carries for 108 yards as the Spartans (3-2) owned the ball nearly twice as long as the Bulldogs (3-2) with a 31: 52 to 16:08 edge in time of possession. 

Blanche scored on a 3-yard run midway through the second quarter and quarterback Toa Faavae snuck it home from the 1 late in the third to give De La Salle a 14-0 edge. 

Derrick Blanche Jr. races to back of the end zone after his 3-yard TD run gave De La Salle a 7-0 lead. Photo: Dennis Lee / Photo: Dennis Lee

Folsom, just like it did in a 21-14 loss at Serra, fought back behind super sophomore quarterback Ryder Lyons, who completed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Abram Woodson early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 14-7. 

NorCal Section scores: Central, Central Coast, North Coast, Sac-Joaquin, Northern, San Francisco, Oakland

But De La Salle ran off a couple first downs and Faavae dropped a perfect punt down to the Folsom 1. 

Lyons (15 of 21, 170 yards, 19 rushes, 72 yards) willed the Bulldogs near midfield, but his long pass down the middle was intercepted by Trisshon Wright at the Folsom 35 with 3:33 left.

• De La Salle 14, Folsom 7: Top takeaways
• De La Salle 14, Folsom 7: Game highlights
• De La Salle 14, Folsom 7: Postgame interviews
• De La Salle 14, Folsom 7: Game story 

Like they did all night, the Spartans grinded the ball down field and ran out the clock from there with Blanche ripping off a 30-yard run to clinch it. 

The winners of 30 straight North Coast Section championships rushed 61 times for 308 yards and attempted just six passes en route to impressive win. Out of all those rushes, they didn't fumble once. 

Just three weeks ago after starting the season 0-2, De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh was searching for more physicality and urgency. The Spartans delivered with wins over St. Francis (35-17), St. Mary's-Stockton (24-10) and Friday's gritty win. 

Senior linebacker Drew Cunningham (11 tackles) and four-star junior defensive lineman Matthew Johnson (seven tackles, two sacks) led the defense. 

Matthew Johnson (56) with one of his seven tackles. Photo: Dennis Lee

"I loved it," De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh, who played on three of the teams that contributed to the program's national-record 151-game win streak. The 11th-year head coach, who replaced legendary Bob Ladouceur, played the line where most of De La Salle's championships have been won. 

"I loved our gritty-ness, I loved our toughness. That looked like a game I could have played in the 90s." 

More updates: NorCal Top 10 Games of the Week

"I don't want every game to be just like this. We have to advance ourselves and get better in many areas, but I know we had the ball a lot longer than they did. And our defense — when you can hold a team as talented as them to seven points — you're doing something right.

De La Salle took the opening drive 65 yards to the Folsom 10. But on 4th-and-1, the Spartans jumped and the ensuing 32-yard field go was pulled no good  

Folsom managed one first down, as did De La Salle the rest of the quarter that ended scoreless  

Folsom's highly-regarded sophomore quarterback Ryder Lyons accounted for 242 yards and his team's only touchdown. Photo: Dennis Lee

The Spartans’ all-ground attack finally hit the end zone on a 3-yard TD run by Derrick Blanche Jr. With 7:29 left in the half, making it 7-0 DLS..

Folsom, which finished with 277 yards, zipped right down field keyed by a beautiful pinpoint 30-yard pass from Ryder Lyons to Daymion Rivera. But on 4th-and-goal from the 7, Lyons was stopped at the 1, keeping DLS up 7-0. That’s the only scoring of the half.

The Spartans grounded out another long drive late in the third quarter capped by a 1-yard TD sneak from Faavae, making it 14-0 with 2:57 left in the quarter.

Kelley broke several tackles on 4th-and-1 play for 10 yards, followed by another tough 5-yard run by Blanche before Faavae’s TD. 

"Our coach told us before the game this was going to be a bloodbath and that's exactly what it was," Cunningham said. "OUr whole emphasis before the game was that we were going to be physical and we were going to wear them down and that's what we did.

"The offense was firing off the ball. The defense was hitting. We made a few small mistakes but when everyone is flying around, those mistakes fix themselves." 

(Photos by Dennis Lee)

Photo: Dennis Lee

Check back here throughout the night for updates on the contest, which pits the No. 15 team (Folsom) in the SBLive Sports California Top 25 and No. 24 De La Salle. 

PREGAME: What started as a green and silver avalanche has turned into one of Northern California's best rivalry high school football games: De La Salle versus Folsom.

The top programs from the North Coast and Sac-Joaquin sections meet again 7:30 p.m. Friday with nothing more than bragging rights and a likely CIF Regional playoff maneuvering at stake.

De La Salle won the first two games in the series, when current Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning was a starter for Folsom, 49-15 and 45-17. But the last four meetings have been split, with the cumulative score De La Salle 95, Folsom 76. The Spartans and Bulldogs have also split the last two CIF Division 1-AA championship games. 

In 2022, Folsom won at De La Salle 24-20 in the regular season (see video highlights/interviews at the top of the page), but the Spartans won the rematch on the road in the Northern California D1-AA playoffs, 17-14. The NorCal powers have split their last four games with the combined score: De La Salle 95, Folsom 76. Both teams feature speedy, athletic quarterbacks in De La Salle’s Toa Faavae, junior, and Folsom sophomore Ryder Lyons. Both teams have lost to Serra: De La Salle 28-0 and Folsom, 21-14.