The Pioneer’s high school football scores update, Nov. 20, 2022

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (Nov. 20, 2022) — De La Salle won its 30^th consecutive North Coast Section football championship Friday night in a hard-fought 30-23 battle with rival Pittsburg at Dublin high earning the Spartans a spot in the Northern California Regional Bowl game Dec. 2 against an opponent to be determined.

Clayton Valley Charter also won its second successive NCS game last Friday 21-13 over Liberty of Brentwood at Gonsalves Stadium. That means the Ugly Eagles and Pitt will matchup for the second year in a row in the new Division playoff format with a berth in the NorCal Regionals on the line. CVCHS and Pitt will play on Black Friday at Heritage High in Brentwood.

Northgate’s season came to an end when unbeaten and top seeded El Cerrito leveled the Broncos 47-6 in the NCS Division 3 playoffs, leaving the two Concord schools as the final local teams alive in the Section tournament. Northgate trailed El Cerrito 16-6 at halftime but the Gauchos scored 33 unanswered points in the second half to move into the Division 3 championship game this Friday against second seed Windsor, which had eliminated College Park in the opening round of the playoffs.

All the pre-game chatter about Friday’s matchup of Clayton Valley Charter and Pittsburg will revolve around the two starting quarterbacks. In last year’s Division I championship game, Christian Aguilar stood in for injured Jaden Rashada and threw for three touchdowns, leading Pitt over Clayton Valley 28-14 for the school’s first NCS title since the historic 1991 title win over De La Salle at the Oakland Coliseum.

This Friday, Aguilar will again start the championship game but he’ll be wearing the colors of CVCHS rather than the iconic black and orange of Pittsburg. Rashada will be leading the talented Pitt offense as they seek a second straight NCS title.

Clayton Valley Charter has rebounded from a 1-3 start to win seven of its last eight games with the lone loss to De La Salle in the regular season finale. The Ugly Eagles have four NCS Division 2 titles under the leadership of coach Tim Murphy since 2012 and their coach is looking for his 10^th overall CIF Section championship, which also includes the 1999 East Bay 3A title with Ygnacio Valley.

After the close Open Division championship game in Dublin with Pitt, who the Spartans had defeated 42-14 last year, De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh told the media, “That was a physical, hard-fought game. Neither team played great, but both teams played really hard. The speed in that game and the hitting in that game, that looked like a championship game.”

The two schools have met 33 times since that 1991 win by Pittsburg, usually in the top NCS playoff flight, and the Concord school has won every matchup as part of a 264-0-1 mark against North Coast Section opponents. The only game they didn’t win was a 17-17 tie with Clayton Valley in 2004. Ironically both the Spartans 1991 loss to Pitt and 2004 tie with Clayton Valley came against teams coached by Clayton resident Herc Pardi.

NCS Playoffs – Nov. 18

Open Division – De La Salle (8-3) 30, Pittsburg (10-1) 23

Division I – Clayton Valley Charter (7-4) 21, Liberty (8-3) 13

Division 3 –El Cerrito (11-0) 47, Northgate (7-4) 6

NCS Playoffs – Nov. 25

Division I – Clayton Valley Charter (8-4) vs Pittsburg (10-2) at Heritage High-Brentwood

De La Salle (9-3) will play in a NorCal Regional Bowl Game Dec. 2

2022 Season Schedules

Clayton Valley Charter 8-4, 4-0 (Open Div./Div. 1) – 8/26 Salinas L 14-21, 9/2 Del Oro-Loomis L 27-31, 9/9 at Canyon Springs-North Las Vegas W 42-6, 9/16 Turlock L 35-37, 10/1 at Jesuit-Carmichael W 35-21, 10/7 at Amador Valley-Pleasanton W 47-14, 10/14 at San Ramon Valley-Danville W 42-28, 10/21 California-San Ramon W 49-14, 10/28 at Monte Vista-Danville W 55-6, 11/4 De La Salle L 6-42, 11/11 California-San Ramon W 42-21, 11/18 Liberty-Brentwood W 21-13, 11/25 vs Pittsburg at Heritage.

College Park 7-4, 5-0 (Div. 3) – 9/2 at Foothill-Pleasanton L 12-28, 9/9 Oakmont-Roseville W 21-13, 9/16 Hercules W 44-6, 9/23 at Northgate L 14-28, 9/30 at Livermore L 8-35, 10/7 Concord W 34-28, 10/15 at Berean Christian W 42-25, 10/21 Ygnacio Valley W 84-0, 10/28 Mt. Diablo W 54-6, 11/4 at Alhambra W 47-6, 11/11 at Windsor L 15-41.

Concord 9-2, 4-1 (Div. 4) – 8/26 Newark Memorial-Newark W 14-7, 9/2 Alameda W 30-8, 9/9 at San Lorenzo W 37-0, 9/16 at Richmond W 2-0, 9/23 Arroyo-San Lorenzo W 28-6, 10/7 at College Park L 28-34, 10/14 Ygnacio Valley W 54-8, 10/21 at Alhambra W 14-7, 10/28 Berean Christian W 34-12, 11/4 at Mt. Diablo W 42-7, 11/11 at Acalanes – Lafayette L 0-42.

De La Salle 9-3 (Open Div./Div. 1) – 8/26 at Monterey Trail-Elk Grove W 36-20, 9/2 Serra-San Mateo L 21-24, 9/9 Saint Francis-Mountain View W 35-3, 9/16 at Cathedral Catholic-San Diego W 28-20, 9/23 Folsom L 20-24, 10/7 at St. Mary’s-Stockton L 35-45, 10/14 at California-San Ramon W 41-7, 10/21 Monte Vista–Danville W 41-3, 10/28 at Amador Valley-Pleasanton W 27-7, 11/4 at Clayton Valley Charter W 42-6, 11/11 James Logan-Union City W 40-14, 11/18 Pittsburg W 30-23, 12/2 NorCal Regional Bowl TBA.

Mt. Diablo 3-7, 1-4 (Div. 4) – 8/26 Lathrop L 0-56, 9/9 at American-Fremont L 0-48, 9/17 at Arroyo-San Lorenzo L 0-28, 9/24 at San Lorenzo W 27-6, 9/30 at Richmond W 35-14, 10/7 at Ygnacio Valley W 35-28, 10/14 Alhambra L 0-35, 10/21 Berean Christian L 20-49, 10/28 at College Park L 6-54, 11/4 Concord L 7-42.

Northgate 7-5, 1-4 (Div. 3) – 8/26 Deer Valley W 29-8, 9/2 at Ukiah W 28-6, 9/9 Fremont-Oakland W 9-0, 9/16 at Bethel-Vallejo W 38-0, 9/23 College Park W 28-14, 10/7 Miramonte-Orinda L 35-43, 10/14 Las Lomas L 7-34, 10/21 at Campolindo-Moraga L 7-50, 10/28 at Benicia W 9-7, 11/4 Acalanes-Lafayette L 14-33, 11/11 at Las Lomas W 24-21, 11/18 at El Cerrito L 6-47.

Ygnacio Valley 0-10, 0-5 (Div. 6) – 8/27 at Washington-San Francisco L 14-49, 9/9 Justin-Siena – Napa L 0-42, 9/16 at Kennedy-Fremont L 12-50, 9/23 Bradshaw Christian-Sacramento L 0-48, 9/30 Stone Ridge Christian-Merced L 6-38, 10/7 Mt. Diablo L 28-35, 10/14 at Concord L 8-54, 10/21 at College Park L 0-84, 10/28 Alhambra L 12-31, 11/5 at Berean Christian L 6-47.