De La Salle vs. Pittsburg for NCS football title: Why it’s different this time
The North Coast Section’s top-ranked football teams, De La Salle and Pittsburg, will play Friday night for what is being called the Open Division championship.
It will be the 10th section final between the teams since Pittsburg’s historic victory over De La Salle in an NCS title game at the Oakland Coliseum 30 years ago.
No NCS team has beaten De La Salle since that game in December 1991, a big reason why the matchup Friday on DLS’s home field in Concord won’t be the end of the season for the losing side.
The winner moves into a state game, either a Northern California regional on the weekend of Dec. 3-4 or directly into the Open Division state championship game Dec. 11 opposite Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, or one of Southern California’s other heavyweights.
The loser gets a do-over.
Rather than walk into the off-season, the losing side will play host to the NCS Division I final on Nov. 26 or 27 against the winner of Friday’s semifinal between California and Clayton Valley Charter. California is the fifth seed in the eight-team Open/Division I bracket, Clayton Valley the third.
The Division I champion also will advance to state.
“They finally have this playoff system right,” Pittsburg coach Victor Galli said. “In my 20 years as a head coach, who knows how things would have been? If things would have been different if they had a better system? I am looking forward to this game.”
This new format would have made its debut last fall if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was introduced in response to the California Interscholastic Federation no longer allowing section runners-up to play in NorCal regional games. Three recent runners-up to De La Salle — Freedom in 2016, Pittsburg in 2017, and Liberty in 2018 — advanced to regionals. In Liberty’s case, it won a state title.
But when Pittsburg lost to De La Salle 49-7 in an NCS final in 2019, that was the end of the Pirates’ season.
De La Salle has beaten Pittsburg 31 consecutive times since 1991 and is a heavy favorite Friday even though the Pirates are a talented and confident bunch. Calpreps.com’s computer projects top-seeded De La Salle to win 44-14, which seems a bit off given Pittsburg’s level of talent.
The Pirates, seeded second, beat seventh-seeded Amador Valley 68-7 in the opening round Friday.
Pittsburg quarterback Jaden Rashada, a 6-foot-4 junior, is rated a four-star prospect by 247Sports with multiple Power 5 offers. His top receivers are 6-2 junior Rashid Williams, whom 247Sports also rates a four-star with multiple Power 5 offers, and 5-10 junior Zack Card. Charles Brown Jr., another junior, leads the Pirates in rushing.
“Their quarterback is awesome,” De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “They have probably five Division I receivers. They have a lot of athletes all over the place. I am excited. My coaches are excited. The kids are excited. This is what playoffs should be where you have two teams going against each other where you legitimately don’t know the outcome going into the game, which is the point of playoffs.”
Even at this late date, it’s hard to judge Pittsburg.
The Pirates’ opener against Serra, the most anticipated game leading up to the season, was canceled because of poor air quality brought on by wildfires. Pittsburg also lost its game against McClymonds because of coronavirus issues within the Oakland powerhouse’s program.
Friday, the Pirates will know where they stand. De La Salle has won six in a row since losing to Baltimore powerhouse St. Frances Academy and none has been particularly close. That includes a 31-10 victory in October at Folsom, where Pittsburg began its season with a 38-17 loss.
In fairness to Pittsburg, Folsom had two games before playing the Pirates.
“We’re doing some good things,” Galli said. “But there is so much more. We can be a lot better. We’re going to have to play our best ball. It’s upon us now. We’ve made some strides and we’re doing better, but there are some things that we’re going to have to clean up. Obviously, we have a pretty tall task. But I think our kids are confident and we definitely know what we’re capable of doing.”