Mater Dei won the CIF-SS championship by taking down St. John Bosco by 28 points -- the same differential as the regular-season shutout.
It hasn’t been since 2017 that the winner of the regular-season game between Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) also won the championship game between those two teams. Over the last five years, the teams have rematched in the title game three times; the result was flipped all three times.
This year, the sixth season since 2017, it looked like there could be a flip in the script. No. 5 Mater Dei was shut out in the regular-season contest, and if No. 3 Bosco had truly figured out the Monarchs, the regular-season winner would wrap up the title game.
It was not to be. Mater Dei rolled over St. John Bosco 35-7 on Friday night, defeating them by the exact same margin in which the Monarchs lost to the Braves a month and a half ago. The Monarchs are back at the top of the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) as champions for the second time in the last three years.
Mater Dei’s defense set the tone early with a first-quarter pick-six when three-star linebacker Abduall Sanders returned an interception 52 yards for the first points of the game.
Abduall Sanders with the BIG PLAY for Mater dei#picksix #football #materdeifootball #rivalrygame pic.twitter.com/IIGfUqH0Uq
— Football US (@hungba789) November 25, 2023
St. John Bosco was unable to move the ball efficiently in that first half, recording negative-one rushing yards, according to the Los Angeles Times. Mater Dei held the Braves to just one touchdown, a reception by four-star linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa while tacking on a pair of scores from four-star RB Jordon Davison and WR Kayden Dixon-Wyatt to take a 21-7 lead into the break.
Defense and special teams carried the Monarchs through the second half, as a muffed punt in the fourth quarter gave Mater Dei the opportunity for four-star defensive lineman Tomu Topui, lined up at tight end, to score a 14-yard touchdown. On the first play of the next drive, four-star cornerback Zabien Brown had a pick-six of his own to put the game away.
Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa & Tomu Topui the two best players on the field tonight @MDFootball leads Bosco 35-7 with 8:47 left to play @On3USC pic.twitter.com/k6kzX6YZO2
— Scott Schrader (@Scott_Schrader) November 25, 2023
The LA Times reported that first-year Mater Dei head coach Frank McManus took a more active role in managing the defense during games after the defeat against Bosco in October. He succeeded in helping the unit prepare for this game, and the players put away the Braves. McManus has gotten through the beast that is Bosco, and Mater Dei is set to place its claim as the top team in California once again.
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