Football: St. John Bosco wins Open Division bowl

St. John Bosco held on to beat De La Salle, 20-14, in the CIF state Open Division championship bowl game at StubHub Center in Carson.

De La Salle had a 4th-and-7 at the Braves’ 31-yard line when junior defensive lineman Gavin Windes tipped and intercepted a screen pass with 2:15 left to give St. John Bosco the ball back, then Josh Rosen ran 37 yards on a quarterback keeper to pick up a crucial first down with 1:28 left that allowed the Braves to run out the clock.

Rosen completed 12 of 17 passes for 200 yards, including a pair of touchdowns to Jaleel Wadood, Sean McGrew rushed for 143 yards in 24 carries and Reid Budrovich kicked field goals of 35 and 25 yards for St. John Bosco, which became the second California team to win 16 games in a season, joining Corona del Mar, which won the Division III bowl game earlier in the day.

“They’d only thrown the ball 26 times in four playoff games before tonight so our goal was to make them pass more than they wanted to,” St. John Bosco Coach Jason Negro said. “We were a little frustrated with all the penalties but we got the victory and that’s all that matters.”

Wadood caught five passes for 113 yards and Shay Fields added five catches for 58 yards for St. John Bosco, which led 17-7 at halftime and prevailed despite committing 11 penalties for 101 yards. In fact, yellow flags negated two Braves scores.

De La Salle saw its 40-game winning streak come to an end and suffered its first loss to a California team since a 21-16 defeat to Corona Centennial in the 2008 state Division I bowl game. Marquis Morris caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Chris Williams to pull the Spartans (14-1) within 20-14 midway through the fourth quarter.

St. John Bosco is the first Southern California team to win the Open Division game. Sacramento Grant won the inaugural Open game in 2008 and De La Salle won four in a row from 2009-12.

Southern California schools won four of the five games this weekend and the South holds a 23-13 lead over the North since the bowl championships began in 2006.