Tag: DJ Uiagalelei

No. 4 St. John Bosco scores 34 consecutive points to conquer No. 1 Mater Dei in comeback

St. John Bosco has done it. The Braves went on a 34-0 run to mount an epic comeback over No. 1 Mater Dei and win the CIF-SS Div. 1 championship.

Mater Dei (Santa Ana, California) which looked unbeatable through the first 14 weeks of the season, led St. John Bosco 28-5 in the first half of the CIF-SS Div. 1 championship game on Saturday night.

It was going to be a runaway victory. The No. 1 team was going to win again and play in two weeks for its third straight National Championship.

Then St. John Bosco scored 34 points in a row. The Braves fought back in the second half and took down the two-time reigning champions 39-34.

[lawrence-related id=101411403]

Wide receiver Logan Loya, who transferred to St. John Bosco from Orange Lutheran (California), scored the final two touchdowns for the Braves.

After taking the lead, St. John Bosco went for a fourth-down conversion needing one yard with a five-point lead and about three minutes remaining. The ball at their own 29-yard line, the Braves needed just one yard to convert.

It was an aggressive move, but it made sense. The only proven way to stop Monarchs quarterback Bryce Young from scoring was to keep it out of his hands.

St. John Bosco did not convert. Mater Dei got the ball back with great field position.

But St. John Bosco found one more way to prevent Young from scoring and keep the ball out of his hands: Knock it out of them.

Ma’a Gaoteote stripped Young at the 13-yard line, getting St. John Bosco possession back with about 1:30 left in the game. The Braves could not ice it and had to punt, leaving Mater Dei 23 seconds to drive without any timeouts remaining.

It was not enough time.

[lawrence-related id=101411531,101411452]

The Monarchs have been a first-half team throughout season, but the primary reason was because they so often took insurmountable leads in that half and used the second half to run out the clock and stop playing aggressive.

Against Centennial (Corona, California) in the opening week, Mater Dei led 35-0 at the break. Against St. Frances Academy (Baltimore), the Monarchs took a 31-6 lead early in the third quarter. Against Mission Viejo (California) last week, they led 28-3 at the half.

St. John Bosco is better than all those teams. Its defense was phenomenal in the second half and quarterback DJ Uiagalelei showed what made him the ALL-USA Offensive Player of the Year last year, finishing the game with 444 passing yards and five touchdowns.

For much of the year, it looked like the only way the Monarchs could lose was if they beat themselves. In the first matchup against St. John Bosco this season, Mater Dei nearly allowed a comeback largely due to penalties.

This time around, turnovers in key situations did them in. Wide receiver Kyron Ware-Hudson, fumbled late in the third quarter with a nine-point lead, which led to a St. John Bosco score. On the next drive, Young threw an interception. He also fumbled on the potential game-winning drive.

Whatever self-inflicted wounds Mater Dei had with turnovers this season, it was never a turnover-prone team. The receiving corps has great hands. Young escapes pressure better than any other quarterback in the nation. The running game was good enough to keep defenses on their toes.

But St. John Bosco found a way to execute and force Mater Dei to give up the ball. With the sound defense forcing turnovers, Uiagalelei could get enough chances to get the ball to his play makers.

Give the Clemson quarterback commit, ranked No. 1 at his position in the country, enough opportunities, and he will do that.

That’s just what he did, leading St. John Bosco to an epic comeback over the top team in the country.

[lawrence-related id=101411432,101411390]

Now, Uiagalelei has one more game to secure his high school legacy. With the Player of the Year award last year but two losses in the CIF-SS Div. 1 title game to Mater Dei, he was just missing that championship.

He has finally taken them down. He earned the Southern Section trophy. Now, one win against De La Salle (Concord, California) in the California Open Division title game will send him out on top.

Mater Dei’s defense, so sound this season, could not stop him long enough. The offense, so explosive, could not maintain control.

The team, so unbeatable, could not hold on.

St. John Bosco got the victory. The Braves took down Mater Dei.

DJ Uiagalelei, Bryce Young to face off for championship as top 2 quarterbacks in class

DJ Uiagalelei and Bryce Young will be the first QBs ranked at the top of their class to play for a title when St. John Bosco plays Mater Dei.

A championship game between two juggernauts featuring the two top quarterbacks in their respective class.

This doesn’t happen in high school football.

On Saturday, No. 1 pro-style and No. 1 overall quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and St. John Bosco (Bellflower, California) will play against No. 1 dual-threat and No. 2 overall quarterback Bryce Young and Mater Dei (Santa Ana, California).

The two have played against each other four times overall and once already this year.

“We’re almost kind of used to these guys competing in close proximity for so long now, but now that this moment has arrived, it truly is kind of the last head-to-head battle in high school with these two, it is pretty startling how rare this is,” said 247Sports Director of Scouting Barton Simmons.

Last year, though Young was regarded as one of the top quarterbacks, he wasn’t a widely-held No. 1 dual-threat quarterback. That changed as he tore through this year’s schedule.

The first Mater Dei vs. St. John Bosco matchup of the season, a 38-24 Monarchs win on Oct. 25, was the first time two quarterbacks ranked No. 1 and 2 in the class faced off in the modern recruiting era, based on 247Sports Composite Rankings.

“I don’t think there’s (been) anything (like) the magnitude of these two,” said co-founder and editor-and-chief of High School Football America Jeff Fisher.

[lawrence-related id=101380887,101380876,101380161]

Fisher recalled Kyler Murray vs. Shawn Robinson in the Tom Landry Classic in 2015. Murray ended high school as the No. 1 dual-threat QB in 2015, but Robinson was the No. 6 dual-threat in 2017 and not as well-known as a sophomore in that matchup.

Current USC quarterback JT Daniels, No. 2 pro-style in the Class of 2018, faced off against highly-touted prospects including 2016 No. 3 pro-style KJ Costello (Stanford), 2018 No. 2 dual-threat Dorian Thompson-Robinson (UCLA) and 2019 No. 2 pro-style Ryan Hilinski (South Carolina). Hilinski had a tough run, also facing Young, Uiagalelei and 2018 No. 3 pro-style Tanner McKee (Stanford).

But none of those fit the specifications of the top two quarterbacks. And none were in the championship game.

Future NFL quarterback Carson Palmer played against future NFL running back DeShaun Foster for a title in 1997, Fisher remembered. But that was simply a matchup between stars, not a battle between ranked quarterbacks.

[opinary poll=”mater-dei-st-john-bosco_usatodayhss-5EWZ” customer=”usatodayhss”]

Expanding to players in different classes, maybe the closest to come to it was Uiagalelei two years ago, his first championship game vs. Mater Dei.

“Since he’s been the guy that everybody’s had marked for greatness … he really started it in the Mater Dei rivalry in ’17,” Fisher said. “That was against JT Daniels.”

Time and location might be the defining reason – beyond talent level, of course – that Uiagalelei and Young are facing off for a title game as the top quarterbacks. It’s not a coincidence so many players named in this article are from California, a QB hotbed with many teams able to travel around and play the likes of other national powers.

But even so, proximity doesn’t define if two teams will play. Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, the No. 1 pro-style and dual-threat quarterbacks in 2018, respectively, both lived in Georgia. Neither faced off in high school.

As early as Johnny Unitas, western Pennsylvania was home to future legends at quarterback. Joe Montana and Jim Kelly, both in the 1983 NFL Draft Class, grew up in the area. It doesn’t appear they ever matched up at the high school level, though, and even if they had, there were no championships, let alone player rankings.

[lawrence-related id=101369900,101363035]

“I think it’s more of a modern day thing, because if you think about it, ratings haven’t been around for a long time,” Fisher said. “The Elite 11 only dates back to what, the late ’90s? So, where anybody kind of put things in perspective to say somebody’s one, somebody’s two, is more modern.”

Today, high school ranks are shared widely, much more so than in the ’70s or even the ’90s. As high school transfers become more prominent, rankings more advanced and schedules developed to satisfy the crave for national matchups, Fisher thinks may be more and more games between top QBs.

With Young rocketing up recruitment rankings in his dominant senior season, this matchup is set.

For the second year in a row, Young and Uiagalelei will play for the championship. It’s their fourth game overall against each other. The stakes are higher than ever.

If No. 1 Mater Dei can pull off the win, it would be the Monarchs’ third straight CIF-Southern Section title and put them one win away from a three-peat as state and potential National Champions. If that does happen, they would be just the fourth group to accomplish this feat since USA TODAY joined the list of selectors in 1982.

As for No. 4 St. John Bosco, Uiagalelei enters his third straight championship appearance after losing the last two to Mater Dei. He has the individual accolades, being named ALL-USA Offensive Player of the Year last year, but the Braves ultimately fell short of their title aspirations both of the last two years.

A win here would put them in position to play in the California State Open Division title game and cap off a historic career for the Clemson quarterback commit.

“Going back through not only my brain but my record book, don’t see anything like this so people should just sit back and enjoy it,” Fisher said.