SJS Bowls: Kids Just Want to Play

Will the first-ever bowl games played at the CIF section level in the state help with competitive matchups in the early round of playoffs? Some but not that much. Will they feel the same as a playoff game? It had elements of it, but we didn’t think so. They are like college bowl games in that the more motivated team does the best. We have details of a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section bowl game attended in Stockton involving D1 section teams Lincoln and Turlock in a win by the host Trojans that was not close.

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The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Bowl Series was enacted for this season by its member schools in an attempt to decrease the odds of an early-round blowout in this year’s section playoffs. The concept is that there still are eight-team brackets in every division but that instead of participating in 12-team or 16-team brackets those teams seeded from outside of the top eight positions would instead play each other in a winner-take-all bowl game. It’s the first time in the state that any CIF section has tried it, beyond the old San Francisco vs Oakland Trans-Bay matchups from before there were CIF state playoffs.

As the section stated above a listing of each one of the 29 bowl games played on Friday night: “Win or lose, every program here represents the best of what high school sports stand for. 29 Bowls. 58 Teams. 1 Unforgettable Finish. Welcome to the Bowl Games — where champions compete and communities come together!”

The teams that played on Friday were not listed according to division, but the game we picked to check out involved two D1 schools: Lincoln of Stockton hosting Turlock.

In the end, it wasn’t so much about competitiveness as it was the sense that any kid and especially any senior is always going to be grateful to play at least one more game with his friends. And it also appeared to be similar to the many college bowl games played each year involving teams that aren’t in the national championship playoffs: the more motivated team is going to do better.

Lincoln was motivated by the bowl game as a team loaded with younger players, led by sophomore QB Julian Perez. The Trojans also had just lost 54-41 to St. Mary’s of Stockton, which is a lot of points to score against one of the teams that has been inside the State TOP 50 rankings all season long. Lincoln not only beat Turlock on Friday but did it by a 54-15 score with a running clock in the fourth quarter.

Turlock actually looked like it might be the better team coming into the game based on comparative scores. But it’s been a tough year for the Bulldogs with injuries (sophomore QB Scout Silva has missed most of the season with a shoulder injury and is going to have Tommy John surgery on his elbow this week), ineligibility issues and a close 29-26 loss to Downey of Modesto that decided the league title. This also is a team that was in the SJS D1 semifinals just last season.

“I’m super proud of them,” said first-year Lincoln head coach LaTef Grim about his players, who has been a head coach at several other schools in the Stockton/Tracy area. “Everybody was excited to be in this game. We were locked in all week. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to get better?”

“It definitely felt like playoffs,” said Turlock head coach James Peterson. “There was no JV game and the crowd was not here until later on. We came in a little flat, but that’s a good football game. They played a great game against St. Mary’s and they are a lot better than their record.”

With the win, Lincoln’s final record will stand at 5-6. For Turlock, it also will be 5-6.

So what about the concept of the winning team in a first playoff game not moving on to the next round of the playoffs?

“It did feel like a playoff game and it was a good way to play one more game in my senior year,” said Lincoln senior linebacker Rylan Tuuaga, who was in on several hard tackles early in the game. “I wouldn’t have been scared of the challenge to play a top seeded team next week.”

The last touchdown of the game was scored by Turlock lineman Braxton Durkee, a 6-foot-3, 275-pound senior who plunged in for a 1-yard TD that was his first and only high school touchdown.

“Obviously, we knew it was not really a playoff game, but it was still something to play for,” he said. “I like the idea, but it eliminates the underdog story. We were one of those teams two years ago when we beat St. Mary’s (in an upset) and then had a chance the next week (at Oak Ridge).”

The section hands out blue banners and a plaque after its championship games in each division. Each team like Lincoln on Friday didn’t get a blue banner and didn’t get a plaque, but there was a smaller banner with a different color that each winning team did collect.

Before the game, Lincoln athletic director Brian Gray, who was the school’s head football coach when it had standouts such as Brandin Cooks and Justin Davis (later teammates for the L.A. Rams in the Super Bowl), said he understood why schools voted for the proposal but added that it’s not going to eliminate that many blowouts.

Looking ahead to the D1 and D2 section quarterfinals, which will be next week, top seed Folsom in D1 (also the four-time defending champions) is projected to have little difficulty with No. 8 Downey of Modesto and unbeaten top seed Manteca in D2 will be the same with No. 8 Tracy.

Several of the other bowl games played on Friday also were one-sided: Marysville was in a running clock in the first half of a 58-6 win vs Esparto; Bella Vista of Fair Oaks beat Del Campo, 58-15, in a matchup of longtime San Juan Unified School District rivals; Argonaut of Jackson beat Ceres, 44-6; West Park of Roseville dominated Pleasant Grove of Elk Grove, 33-0; and Union Mine of El Dorado had a 78-30 victory over Highlands of North Highlands.

On the other hand, three of the section’s bowl games were decided by one point and we noticed that Johansen of Modesto pulled out a 27-21 win over Gregori of Modesto on a 90-yard interception return in the final minute by Chauncy Conley.

Lincoln scored on its first series on Friday on a 12-yard TD pass from Perez and junior Kyle Munoz. The Trojans then got a break when Turlock’s punter took a low snap with his knee on the ground that set up a 28-yard scoring drive. After an interception, Perez made 20-0 on the final play of the first quarter on a 4-yard TD run.

Turlock finally scored on a nine-play drive in the second quarter on 2-yard run by senior RB Kaleb Guinn, but the Trojans then went on one of the strangest drives we’ve ever seen in almost 50 years of going to Friday night games. Starting at their own 35, the first play of the drive was a 65-yard touchdown that was called back on a 15-yard penalty. Lincoln kept getting penalties, but kept picking up big chunks of yards. They had a 1st and 35 and a 1st and 30 on the same drive. After seven penalties were marked off at different points of the series, the Trojans scored on a 12-yard pass from Perez to senior Taylor Orn.

Leading 34-7 at halftime, Lincoln scored again on the first series of the second half and the rout was really on. Perez had another touchdown pass to Orn and he ended the night with five TDs in the air and one on the ground. Final stats were not available but Perez (who had more than 2,800 yards and 28 TDs in the regular season) had 305 yards passing through the second series of the second half). Orn finished with three TD catches.

“It was a good way to end the season and my senior year,” Tuuaga said. “We capitalized on some mistakes and played well.”

Our guess is that is isn’t going to be viewed as a mistake by the schools to add these bowl games to the SJS system. The section schools are not likely going to be in favor of a competitive equity based playoff system like there is in other CIF section and this is their way of addressing the same concerns that caused competitive equity based playoffs in the first place.

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.