Wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. (left) and quarterback Ryan Hopkins (10) are both shown during post-game traditions following every Mater Dei game, which in this case came after a big win vs national No. 1 St. John Bosco. Photo: Mark Tennis.
State’s No. 1 team from St. John Bosco falls in final regular season game to its rivals from Mater Dei on Friday, 36-31, in a matchup that shows the Monarchs (even with two losses on their slate) are very, very capable at full strength to be able to win their third straight CIF Open Division state title. There could be a rematch in the upcoming CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs, but it may not be in the championship game.
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Two years ago when the big-time rivalry between St. John Bosco of Bellflower and Mater Dei of Santa Ana was played at Panish Family Stadium in Bellflower it was the strangest, most bizarre outing by the Monarchs we’ve ever seen. Not only did Mater Dei lose, but the team that would later win the CIF Open Division state title didn’t even score a point.
In this year’s game between the two played on Friday on Halloween night in Bellflower, it was one of the best, most exciting games in the rivalry since it became so important to the state and nation starting in the 2016 season. The visiting Monarchs stormed back from a 24-3 deficit in the third quarter and then held off the Braves for a 36-31 victory.
There were some doubters about the Monarchs since they came into the night with a 7-2 record with losses to Centennial of Corona and Santa Margarita of Rancho SM. But the preseason No. 1 team in the nation had seven turnovers vs the Huskies (loss still was just 43-36) and didn’t have national No. 1 receiver recruit Chris Henry Jr. vs the Eagles (the score was just 7-6).
Linebacker Michael Davis walks off the field a couple of seconds after the final play was made to secure Mater Dei’s win on Friday vs St. John Bosco. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
One of the Monarchs who was on the team two years ago that lost to the Braves 23-0 but who was out there making plays this year was highly regarded receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.
“I feel like our preparation for that last game here was just not good,” he said. “People counted us out for this game, but we made those people re-think that.”
So was it as simple as the big turnovers in the one loss, not having Henry in the other one and just not turning it over as much in this game?
“Yes, it is as simple as that,” said Dixon-Wyatt, who had three TD catches in the game. “We just try to stay close to each other and play for each other.”
There were a lot of doubters even on Friday, especially as St. John Bosco was building its 24-3 lead, but after a final desperation pass into the end zone on the final play of the game was knocked away by the Mater Dei defense the doubt has been replaced by that swagger and confidence that the program is known for almost as much as the jaw-dropping talent it usually puts on the field.
With the win, Mater Dei (ranked behind Santa Margarita at No. 6 in the state) also pulled itself up into a three-way tie for the Trinity League title along with St. John Bosco and Santa Margarita. The Braves had a 28-14 win earlier in the season over the Eagles.
All three teams are expected to be placed in the top six slots of the CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs, which likely will be an eight-team bracket based on everything we’ve heard about, along with Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth, Centennial and Mission Viejo (had a win vs Santa Margarita). With Bosco’s loss, Sierra Canyon (10-0) also could be primed to take the top seed and to be ranked No. 1 in the state for the first time in school history. The Braves also could still have enough computer points to be the No. 1 seed. It will all be revealed on Sunday when the section announces its pairings for all 14 divisions.
In the history of the Mater Dei-Bosco rivalry, the losing team in the regular season has often come back to win in the CIFSS championship. While the two teams certainly could play again, this time the projected seedings show that a rematch may be in the semifinals and not in the finals. If Bosco were to be No. 2 seed, however, and Mater Dei is in a 4-5 game, then a title rematch could still happen.
“Mater Dei is still Mater Dei, and I think people need to understand that,” Mater Dei head coach Raul Lara said. “Yeah, we have two losses but that’s our fault and now we got to correct that.”
Bosco fans were hoping that the trend of the losing team from the previous matchup would be the winner on Friday. Instead, Mater Dei posted a win over the Braves for the fourth straight meeting (2-0 in 2024 and won in the CIFSS D1 final in 2023).
In the last two regular season meetings between the teams, it was a shutout win for the Braves in 2023 and then a rout for the Monarchs last season. It had the markings of a one-sided contest until the third quarter.
The Braves took a 7-3 lead on their second series of the game after a fumble on their first series led to a Mater Dei field goal. They had been backed up to their 22-yard line but on a third-and-13 sophomores Koa Malau’ulu and D.J. Tubbs hooked up for a 78-yard touchdown pass. Malau’ulu ended the night with 285 yards on 21 of 42 attempts but had three interceptions to go with two TDs.
After a three-and-out for the Monarchs, Bosco drove deep into MD territory before settling for a 33-yard field goal by C.J. Wallace and a 10-3 lead early in the second quarter. The advantage pushed out to 17-3 on a 21-yard fumble return for a score by Bosco’s Dillon Davis.
Instead of a fumble return, the Braves’ defense then came up big again with a fourth down run stuff that set up the offense for a 44-yard scoring drive. That one was all Maliq Allen running the ball with the junior scoring on a 2-yard run with 3:23 left before halftime that built the lead to 24-3.
A disappointed Madden Williams of St. John Bosco greets Mater Dei’s Mark Bowman during post-game handshake line. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Things began to work out better for Mater Dei in the final three minutes of the first half. QB Ryan Hopkins had a 26-yard scramble run and then two plays later and after a 15-yard penalty on the Monarchs he hit a streaking Henry coming across the middle, who strided it into the end zone for 43-yard score. Hopkins had his best outing the season, finally showing some speed running the ball when he hasn’t been doing it that much, but had five TD passes. He also ended 11 of 22 for 296 yards.
Bosco wasn’t able to get any points on a last-ditch effort to close the first half and then to start the second half there was an interception as Malau’ulu and All-American Madden Williams couldn’t hook up along the sidelines and the pass was grabbed by Mater Dei’s C.J. Lavender (who had a forced fumble in the first half). The Monarchs made it a one-score game at 24-17 by converting that turnover into points as Hopkins found Kayden Dixon-Wyatt for a seven-yard touchdown.
The Braves answered that first MD score of the second half with one of their own. It was set up on a 25-yard pass from Malau’ulu to Ashton Keyes and two 15-yard penalties on the Monarchs. Malau’ulu connected on a 13-yard TD pass to Williams and the lead was back to 31-17 with 4:31 left in the third quarter.
Two big plays then turned the game around for Mater Dei. First, there was a 70-yard bomb from Hopkins to Henry that cut the deficit to 31-24. Then on the second play for Bosco after that score, sophomore Troy Bishop read a sideline pass perfectly and picked it off. He couldn’t quite take it all the way for a score but was knocked out of bounds at the 10-yard line. The Monarchs then scored on a 10-yard pass from Hopkins to Dixon-Wyatt and although the exta point kick was botched it became a 31-30 contest with the third quarter still not over yet.
The Bosco offense was stopped on downs at the Mater Dei 20-yard line on its next series. With MD the passing game now clicking, Hopkins had a 13-yard completion to tight end Mark Bowman, a 36-yard completion to Henry and then with 8:25 left in the game the Monarchs took the lead at 36-31 on a 24-yard TD pass to Dixon-Wyatt.
With those three players lined up and healthy, it’s hard to describe how hard it is even for a defense loaded with D1 talent all over the place like Bosco to deal with Henry (ranked as the No. 1 receiver recruit in the nation), Bowman (ranked as the No. 1 tight end recruit in the nation) and Dixon-Wyatt (one of the top 10 receiver recruits in the nation). Henry and Dixon-Wyatt are both committed to Ohio State and it’s conceivable they could be catching passes for the Buckeyes from Mission Viejo’s Luke Fahey, also committed to Ohio State, who we saw pass for 564 yards in a game the night before. Bowman has committed to USC.
Still, the Bosco offense seemed up to be up to the challenge of taking back the lead and did so with a time-consuming drive that took up most of the fourth quarter. A 34-yard pass from Malau’ulu to Williams (he’s also one of the top 10 receiver recruits in the nation) really go it going, then with less than three minutes left in the game several short runs and a penalty pushed the ball to first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.
Instead of taking the lead back and putting the Monarchs in a spot where they would have to drive the field for a game-winning touchdown, however, a low snap on the first play from the 1-yard line led to a 7-yard loss. Mater Dei’s Aryn Washington then had a big hit for a 2-yard loss on a sideline pass and on fourth-and-goal from the 10-yard line Malau’ulu was forced into throwing it up for grabs into the end zone. Lavender came up with an interception on the play.
Wide receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt talks to a teammate after win vs St. John Bosco. Photo: Mark Tennis.
With just 1:34 left in the game, the Braves still had two timeouts left and a penalty on Mater Dei after the interception pushed the ball back to the 5-yard line. The Monarchs were not able to get a first down on three running plays and had to punt the ball back to the Braves with 36 seconds left.
After a nice return by Tubbs, Bosco was in position to try to hit a game-winning touchdown. With no timeouts left, though, the only path really for that was to throw it into the end zone where the Mater Dei defense was stationed with plenty of defensive backs waiting to pounce. Henry was even put back there with his 6-foot-5 frame. The last attempt by Malau’ulu that was made with 0:00 on the clock was knocked away by the defense.
“We’re still the best,” shouted Henry just a few seconds later, who had 213 yards receiving on the night and two touchdowns on just five catches.
“Yeah, when he’s out there, we sure are,” Hopkins said while celebrating next to Henry. “He’s like that.”
Lara added later on: “We just didn’t execute big time in those two losses. What helped us out tonight was that we scored right before halftime.”
The closeness of the outcome and the big plays made throughout made it the best Bosco-Mater Dei game we’ve seen. But we can no longer go to CIF Southern Section title games due to family commitments (held on Thanksgiving weekend), so we asked longtime Orange County Register writer Dan Albano about the best MD-Bosco he’s seen. He said this was “one of the best” but the 39-34 win by Bosco in the 2019 CIFSS final in which Bryce Young was playing for MD and D.J. Uiagalelei was starring for the Braves would be his best.
We weren’t able to talk to St. John Bosco head coach Jason Negro, but he gave credit to the Monarchs in talking to John W. Davis of the Long Beach Press-Telegram for their comeback win and clearly knows he has a team as well that is capable of taking it all the way through to the CIF Open Division state final.
“I’m super proud of our kids,” Negro said. “I thought we did a really good job of building that lead, but when you play a really good football team that has a roster as talented as those guys, you can’t give them any room to breathe.”
Bosco’s four turnovers is what gave those breaths to the Monarchs. If there is a rematch, as usual, turnovers will likely decide it. The overwhelming talent on both sides of the ball often cancels each other out.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle.
