Mt. Diablo celebrates 1st league championship since 1972 as football playoffs begin this weekend for five local teams

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (Nov. 15, 2024) — A long-time observer of local high school sports as an athlete and then Hall of Fame coach, Lou Adamo remembers his freshman year at Mt. Diablo High watching varsity football players celebrate their Diablo Valley Athletic League championship by jumping into the school’s swimming pool following the last home game.

That was in the fall of 1963 when a British rock band, The Beatles, were yet to be getting much exposure in America. It is also the last time Red Devils football won an outright league football championship.

Now, second-year coach Fetuao Mua’s squad enters the 2024 North Coast Section Division V playoffs as Diablo Athletic League Mountain Division champions after outscoring its three league opponents 161-19.

The 1963 title wasn’t unusual for Concord’s oldest school coached by Hart Fairclough which also won DVAL football titles in 1958-59-60 and a co-championship in 1962 in the pre-high school playoffs era. The swimming pool experience Adamo observed was a tradition at Diablo.

The last time MDHS tasted any football championship was the 1972 season when the Red Devils and Antioch shared the DVAL title, just as they did 10 years earlier. Since then, Mt. Diablo only had an undefeated 4-0 record in the spring 2021 Covid season when they could claim an unofficial DAL crown.

The Red Devils are one of five local teams entering NCS football play this weekend including Concord power De La Salle seeking its 32nd consecutive Section title. In addition, three girls flag football teams are in the first-ever NCS playoffs for their second-year sport.

Football Playoffs

• Open/Division I: De La Salle is top seed and hosts 8th seed San Marin-Novato Friday at Owen Owens Field.
• Clayton Valley Charter is 7th seed and faces No. 2 Pittsburg at Pirate Stadium Friday.
• Division III: Northgate is No. 3 and hosts sixth seed San Leandro in Walnut Creek Friday.
• Division IV: No. 7 College Park visits second seed American Canyon Friday.
• Division V: Mt. Diablo is seeded seventh and travels to Richmond to face No. 2 Salesian College Prep Saturday afternoon at 1 o’clock.

Flag Football Playoffs

• No. 5 College Park takes on 12th seed Freedom-Oakley Tuesday at Thompson Field in Alameda.
• 13th seed Clayton Valley Charter faces No. 4 Alameda Tuesday also at Thompson Field.
• No. 7 Las Lomas meets crosstown rival Northgate, No. 10, at California High in San Ramon on Tuesday.

Northgate on a roll

Northgate started the 2023 football season with seven straight defeats before winning its last three games. This season, Coach Ben Ballard’s team was 1-3 before rolling through their last six opponents to finish 7-3 overall and DAL Valley champions.

Last Friday they finished the regular-season defeating Mt. Diablo 63-26 in a game matching the DAL’s Mountain and Valley division champions.

That victory will long be remembered in the Ballard household. Senior Blayne Ballard caught three touchdown passes, which wasn’t that unusual as he has 16 scoring receptions. But the coach’s son also had a pick six interception for a TD and a strip and score on defense. To top it off, he converted seven of eight extra point kicks and threw a two-point conversion pass to outscore Mt. Diablo by himself.

The Broncos host San Leandro Friday to open the D-III playoffs.

De La Salle posts 10-0 record

De La Salle ran through 10 opponents undefeated and figures to make that 11 this Friday when they host San Marin, which finished fifth in the Redwood Empire League. The Novato school was slated to be the top seed in NCS Division II until El Cerrito was disqualified from the playoffs and thus was moved up to Open/Division I and a meeting with top seed DLS.

Coach Justin Alumbaugh’s team took care of Concord rivals Clayton Valley Charter 49-3 in their regular-season finale. Senior quarterback Toa Faavae made history in the game by crossing the 2000-yard mark rushing, the first Spartan quarterback to achieve that distinction. He is part of the De La Salle 4×100 State Meet track relay team in the spring.

NorCal prep football fans are already looking ahead a week when Pitt and DLS are expected to meet once again in an NCS championship game. In 1991 the Pirates were the last team to defeat the Spartans for the Section title and the long-time rivals have been on a collision course to meet again since the beginning of the season as each posted weekly lopsided wins with high-powered offenses.

The only loss between the two powers was Pitt’s early season defeat to USA Top 10 team Saint John Bosco in Southern California.

Ygnacio Valley broke its state longest losing streak in the second game of the season and were 4-2 heading into the last month of games. Then the remarkable Wolves hit a wall and were outscored 192-12 in their final four games to fall out of playoff contention.

College Park was winless after six games but the Falcons won three of their final four games and were a surprise pick for the Division IV field as the seventh seed.

Flag Football history

Flag football was recognized one year ago as an official sport in the state. There were no official playoffs after the highly-successful 2023 season but four East Bay leagues got together and hosted a Tournament of Champions where Clayton Valley Charter emerged as the Division II champs in overtime.

This year, College Park and Northgate posted 8-2 records to share the DAL championship. CVCHS was third at 5-5 and also made the historic playoff field.

Final regular season results

Clayton Valley Charter (6-4) – 8/30 Spanish Springs-Sparks, NV L 0-17, 9/6 at College Park W 55-7, 9/13 at San Ramon Valley L 15-31, 9/20 Northgate W 34-17, 9/27 at Liberty-Brentwood W 21-17, 10/11 at Las Lomas W 29-22, 10/18 Acalanes L 27-28, 10/25 Campolindo W 20-12, 11/1 at Miramonte W 35-0, 11/8 De La Salle L 3-49.

College Park (3-7) – 8/30 San Marin-Novato L 20-52, 9/6 Clayton Valley Charter L 7-55, 9/13 Salesian College Preparatory Pride-Richmond L 21-26, 9/20 at Acalanes L 37-41, 9/27 at Las Lomas L 21-44, 10/4 at Miramonte L 37-41, 10/18 Alhambra W 34-7, 10/25 at Northgate L 12-36, 11/1 Benicia W 44-7, 11/8 Concord W 42-7.

Concord (6-4) – 8/30 Newark Memorial-Newark L 15-28, 9/6 Alameda L 14-48, 9/13 at San Lorenzo W 37-7, 9/21 at Archie Williams-San Anselmo W 45-14, 9/27 at Mt. Eden-Hayward W 16-13, 10/4 Encinal-Alameda W 29-22, 10/18 at Mt. Diablo L 13-63, 10/25 Ygnacio Valley W 35-0, 11/1 Berean Christian W 47-40, 11/8 @ College Park L 7-42.

De La Salle (10-0) – 8/30 Grant-Sacramento W 42-14, 9/6 Serra-San Mateo W 39-10, 9/13 Saint Francis-Mountain View W 42-7, 9/20 at St. Mary’s-Stockton W 38-35, 9/27 at El Cerrito W 35-14, 10/8 at NFL Academy, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium-London W 31-9, 10/18 San Ramon Valley W 42-14, 10/25 Monte-Vista-Danville W42-7, 11/1 at California-San Ramon W 48-10, 11/8 at Clayton Valley Charter W 49-3.

Mt. Diablo (7-3) – 8/30 at Deer Valley-Antioch W 42-35, 9/6 at Acalanes L 7-48, 9/13 at Vallejo L 6-7, 9/20 at Alameda W 34-26, 9/27 at Mission-San Francisco W 43-0, 10/4 Castlemont-Oakland W 55-32, 10/18 Concord W 63-13, 10/25 Berean Christian W 49-0, 11/1 @ Ygnacio Valley W 49-6, 11/8 @ Northgate L 26-63.

Northgate (7-3) – 8/30 Dougherty Valley-San Ramon W 15-7, 9/6 at Campolindo L 23-31, 9/14 @ Bishop Diego-Santa Barbara L 16-35, 9/20 at Clayton Valley Charter L 22-29, 9/27 Lincoln-San Francisco W 39-12, 10/4 Las Lomas W 35-21, 10/18 Benicia W 42-0, 10/25 College Park W 36-12, 11/1 at Alhambra W 37-14, 11/8 Mt. Diablo W 63-26.

Ygnacio Valley (4-6) – 8/30 at Alameda L 0-73, 9/6 Redwood Christian-San Lorenzo W 26-20, 9/13 at Kennedy-Richmond L 16-28, 9/20 Pinole Valley-Pinole W 20-15, 9/27 at Richmond W 44-0, 10/4 San Lorenzo W 42-18, 10/19 at Berean Christian L 6-52, 10/25 at Concord L 0-35, 11/1 Mt. Diablo L 6-49, 11/8 @ Alhambra L 0-56.