Weekly Football Previews: St. Francis, Cathedral finally collide for Angelus League title
Months before the 2017 season even began, all eyes were already locked upon this Friday and what many prognosticated would be a showdown for the Angelus League title between St. Francis High and archrival Cathedral at Friedman Field.
Seemingly on a collision course all season, the two Angelus League undefeateds will finally collide on Friday at 7 p.m. with the league crown for the taking before the two embark upon the playoffs the following week.
St. Francis (9-0, 4-0 in league) is the fifth-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division III, while Cathedral (8-1, 4-0) is the No. 8 team in Division II. With Friedman Field no doubt set to be a packed house, fans can also watch the game on FOX Prep Zone.
Since the Angelus League returned to the Southern California high school football landscape in 2014, the Golden Knights and Phantoms have won at least a share of the league every season (Harvard-Westlake shared it with Cathedral in 2015 and is the only other league team to win a title).
Alas, St. Francis has not tasted league glory since an undefeated run in 2014, while Cathedral is the two-time defending champion.
Still, the Golden Knights have won the head-to-head battle two out of the three seasons with the Phantoms’ 24-17 win last year no doubt leaving a bad taste with St. Francis’ returners.
Dating back to when the teams were members of the Mission League prior to taking over the Angelus League, St. Francis owns the head-to-head series, 5-2.
This year’s crop of Golden Knights seems to be coming together offensively after quarterback Darius Perrantes suffered an injury earlier in the season. Perrantes (72 for 124 for 1,607 yards with 17 touchdowns and five interceptions) seems to have rediscovered his early season form and, in the process, receiver Greg Dulcich (22 catches for 596 yards and five touchdowns plus three rushing scores) has started to dominate again and the rushing attack of Elijah Washington (111 carries for 740 yards and 16 touchdowns) and Kevin Armstead (58 rushes for 447 yards and nine touchdowns) has continued its onslaught.
St. Francis defeated Salesian, 69-0, on Oct. 20 and is coming off a 77-27 destruction of Harvard-Westlake.
But while the offense has been spectacular, the defense, which to its credit has been staunch for much of the campaign allowing 13.8 points per game, proved susceptible to short passes, quarterback scrambles and big plays against Harvard-Westlake, which gained nearly 500 yards of offense.
While the Golden Knights are averaging 49.5 points per game, the Phantoms are scoring 41.1 a contest and giving up just seven following Friday’s 46-0 drubbing of Salesian.
Sophomore quarterback Bryce Young is back leading the Phantoms, who have won five straight. Young has completed 188 of 268 passes for 2,598 yards and 35 touchdowns to three interceptions in the Phantoms’ pass-happy offense. He’s also rushed for a team-high five touchdowns. Seven Phantoms have caught 10 or more passes, led by Ahmad Lipscomb (29 catches for 443 yards and seven touchdowns) and Josiah Zamora (23 receptions for 467 yards and six scores).
Cathedral has won 11 consecutive Angelus League games, its last loss on Oct. 23 at St. Francis.
St. Francis has won five straight Angelus League games, its last loss last season at Cathedral.
A winning streak will fall and a league titlist will rise as the Golden Knights-Phantoms long-anticipated showdown finally arrives on Friday night.
La Cañada at Crean Lutheran, 7 p.m. Thursday: One chance and one game remains for La Cañada to avoid a winless 2017 campaign.
With a young and inexperienced squad, first-year coach Jason Sarceda’s team has shown improvement little by little over the last few games of Rio Hondo League play.
Originally, the season finale was to be against Blair, but Blair moved down to the eight-man ranks and the Spartans (0-9) will now finish their season with a nonleague game in Irvine against Crean Lutheran (5-4).
Crean Lutheran is part of the four-team Academy League and had an open week 10. It is coming off its worst loss of the season to St. Margaret’s, 54-2, though all four of its losses have come in blowouts.
Still, the Saints have a winning record and the Spartans are searching for their first win to end a troubling season.
Coming off a 33-13 loss to Temple City on Friday that was far and away the closest and best performance of the season, the Spartans are trending in the right direction. However, the numbers do not lie and they’ve allowed 50 or more points six times this season and the 33 allowed to Temple City was a season-best. Offensively, the Spartans are averaging just 7.1 points per game (excluding a forfeit loss).
Twitter: @TCNGrantGordon
