Xavior Jones (left) & Relando Jefferson both found the end zone on TD catches from QB Jelani Dippel during Central East’s 42-12 win Friday vs Grant of Sacramento. Photo: Mark Tennis.
With one of the state’s top returning receivers sidelined for the season with a knee injury, the offense at preseason state No. 10 Central East of Fresno didn’t miss much of a beat in its 42-12 win on Friday vs preseason state No. 18 Grant of Sacramento on its home field. The Bengals looked like a team that could challenge for the CIF Northern California Open Division berth. We also have first reactions to big wins on Friday from state No. 2 Santa Margarita over No. 3 Centennial of Corona and for De La Salle of Concord over Serra of San Mateo in a NorCal showdown.
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Perhaps the top returning wide receiver in all of California for the 2026 season was senior Bayon Harris from Central East of Fresno, who had 86 catches for 1,768 yards and 26 TDs last year (all totals going into the state record book). Unfortunately, he won’t have a single catch this season as the Fresno State commit had knee surgery earlier this week to repair a torn right knee meniscus that popped on a non-contact play during a scrimmage the previous week.
While that is a huge loss for the Central East program, which won last year’s CIF D1-A state title and finished 14-1, the Bengals showed in their first big test of the season playing Friday against a Grant of Sacramento squad that was the only opponent last year that handed them a loss that their offense will remain as potent as ever.
Central East took advantage of a fourth down touchdown by the offense and then a fourth down stop by the defense to take an early lead against the visiting Pacers and went on to post a 42-12 victory. The Bengals (1-0 and No. 10 in the preseason State TOP 50 rankings) had an earlier game two weeks ago in Henderson, Nevada, against Pinecrest Academy that ended in the second quarter due to lightning that was not completed and ruled a no contest.
Junior Titus Thomas should see his D1 recruiting interest pick up now that he’ll likely get more opportunities in the Central East passing attack. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
“We have a lot of talent, but we’re just 36 guys and not much after that with the injuries so far,” head coach Kyle Biggs said. “We’ll be battling with what we’ve got and I’m proud of how the kids played tonight.”
Harris is not the only injury for the Central East squad that is concerning. One of the top defensive backs in the CIF Central Section, senior Jontae Della, missed the Friday game with an ankle injury but is expected to return in upcoming weeks. Senior running back/linebacker Andrew Garcia also went out of the Grant game with an ankle injury and may miss some time. It also was hard not to miss senior quarterback Jelani Dippel getting his shoulder wrapped in ice on the sidelines when he came out of the game in the fourth quarter, but it did not appear serious.
“It just adds fuel to the fire,” said Clovis West transfer receiver Relando Jefferson about the injury to Harris. “We know what we can do and just have to go out there and do it. We had to come out and execute. It was all about the details after a great week of practice.”
The Bengals scored on their first drive of the night, but the Pacers had forced them into a fourth down and 13 play from the 15-yard line. Dippel went back to pass and just before getting smacked he threw a pass into the end zone in which Jefferson was able to come down with the ball even though he was interfered with by a Grant defender.
The Pacers responded with a long drive of their own, which was highlighted by a 27-yard run from running back Jayson Williams. Then they were faced with a fourth down from the Bengal 4-yard line. Instead of a touchdown like Central East had scored on its fourth down, Grant quarterback Blake Nycum was sacked for 10-yard loss.
Then just two plays after that defensive stop and on the first play of the second quarter, the Bengals struck on a 68-yard touchdown pass from Dippel to senior Xavior Jones.
Grant went 3-and-out after Central East’s second touchdown and then fell further behind when the Bengals drove 73 yards in nine plays to take a 21-0 lead. Dippel again got a TD pass, this time going to junior running back Ehis Idoni (a key transfer from Roosevelt of Fresno).
The Pacers finally scored with 2:59 left in the second quarter as Nycum connected on passes of 18 yards to sophomore Zyaire Brookins and then 19 yards to senior DeAngelo Knight to put them in a good spot. Nycum then threw a 13-yard TD pass to Brookins, who was a revelation and was greatly needed as Grant’s standout senior tight end/receiver, Zo Edwards, missed the game with a hip injury. Unlike Bayon Harris with the knee, Edwards is not expected to miss much more time.
The only problem with the first Grant score is that it left too much time on the clock for Dippel and the Central East offense to score before halftime. He went to junior Elijah Ball twice for gains of 16 and 33 yards, which set up Garcia to score on a 4-yard run with 48 seconds left in the second quarter.
Grant had one chance to cut the lead to two scores in the third quarter on a drive that started at the Central East 39-yard line after a short punt. The Pacers had three tries to score from the 4-yard line, but the final push from the 1-yard line was stuffed. You could guess what happened next. The Bengals started from their own 2-yard line and went 98 yards in eight plays. Jones had the big play in the drive on a 59-yard reception from Dippel. The TD that made it 35-6 came on a 27-yard pass from Dippel to junior receiver Titus Thomas.
A three-year starter, Dippel has a slight build (which is why his college opportunities are not great) but he clearly can spread the ball around to all of the receivers and he can take off for scramble runs. He slides sometimes but when he doesn’t it brings up the heartbeat for his head coach and anyone else who cares about him. He weighs just 155 pounds.
Sophomore Zyaire Brookins already is getting some fans at Grant of Sacramento. He caught his first varsity TD pass on Friday. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Unofficially, we had Jelani going 18 of 27 passing for 296 yards and four TDs in what will go down as his first game (not counting the Nevada contest). He added 10 rushing attempts for 46 yards. Jones, more known for defense coming into the season, appears to be the one who is stepping up the most with Harris being out. He had four catches vs Grant for 157 yards with one TD and he scored the team’s final touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run in the Wildcat formation. Jefferson ended with six catches for 70 yards, Thomas had six for 66 and junior Kevin Cooks had three catches in what for him was a quiet night, but anyone who saw the team’s state title win over Pacifica of Oxnard knows what he can do.
The returning players all admitted there was some extra juice on playing Grant in such a big preseason matchup since it was against a team that they lost to in Sacramento a year ago.
“It’s been on my mind ever since that loss and when I saw it on our schedule,” Jones said. “A lot of us wanted to start strong with the goal to beat that team bad.”
For Grant, it’s the second straight season that it has lost big in a much publicized first game after it fell a year ago in a ESPN televised matchup to Folsom, 51-13. The Pacers bounced back to get the win over Central East, lost later games but played better against both De La Salle and Lincoln of San Diego and were playing well in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 playoffs, which ended with a close 9-7 loss to Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills in the semifinals.
“Yeah, that’s what we’ll hope for now,” co-head coach Carl Reed said after Friday’s game. “We just have to execute better. We just made a ton of mistakes and when you play a talented team like that they are going to make you pay. They stopped us twice deep inside the red zone and were obviously the better team in this game.”
We had Nycum 13 of 26 passing for 181 yards and two TDs. Brookins led the receivers with five catches for 85 yards. When Edwards comes back, that will give the offense much more firepower as he and Brookins working together should be very tough for defenses to handle.
The Pacers are hosting Cathedral of Los Angeles in their first home game next week and are not playing either De La Salle or San Diego Lincoln this season. Central East is traveling to play preseason state No. 17 Oak Ridge next week. The Trojans won their season opener on Friday, 27-26, at Argyle, Texas.
Santa Margarita Tops Corona Centennial Again
After preseason state No. 1 St. John Bosco dropped its first game of the season last week (although it was in a No. 1 vs No. 2 national game to Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas), the stakes grew just a bit more for this week’s matchup on Friday between preseason state No. 2 Santa Margarita and No. 3 Centennial of Corona. Both teams also won in their season openers.
Friday’s game in the Inland Empire also was a rematch of the 2025 CIF Southern Section D1 championship. And while it wasn’t like the 42-7 victory by Santa Margarita in that game, the Eagles came out on top over the Huskies on Friday, 21-20, and now may be back to the No. 1 spot in the state where they were in after last year’s CIF Open Division state championship.
The two plays that were the difference in the game, according to newspaper reports, was a 30-yard interception return touchdown on the final play of the third quarter by junior Ca’ron Williams and then a deflection on a point after kick in the fourth quarter that would have tied the game.
After Williams’ score, Centennial drove the field for a touchdown on a 11-yard run by Braylin Drake with 7:33 left in the game. The PAT miss then held up as the final score with the Santa Margarita defense getting a fourth down stop with 2:42 remaining and then the offense being able to run out the clock behind sophomore Adrian Petero. He was reported with 110 yards rushing on 23 carries and one TD. Jaion Smith had the other Eagles’ score on a 5-yard run.
Centennial trailed 14-0, but tied the score in third quarter on a 24-yard TD pass from Jaden Jefferson to Kennie Leggett.
De La Salle Wins In Night Game at Serra (San Mateo)
There’s always one night game every season at Brady Family Field in San Mateo, which is where Serra High plays its home games. That one game this season was on Friday as perennial NorCal Open Division contender De La Salle of Concord headed to over to the peninsula for a season-opener for both squads. In fact, since 2008, the CIF Open Division team from the north has been either the Spartans or Padres.
De La Salle took a leg up on getting its third straight NorCal Open bid with a 35-25 win over Serra. The Padres had a 17-14 lead at halftime, but the Spartans’ defense got more stops in the second half and then the offense took a 21-17 lead on a 31-yard TD catch and run by Duece Jones-Drew in the third quarter. After a short Padres’ punt, DLS stretched the lead to 28-17 on a 27-yard TD run by Jones-Drew.
Serra wasn’t quite done toward the end of the game. QB Caleb Bandel tossed a 41-yard TD pass to Hugh Ford with seven minutes left. The Padres then got the ball back with a chance for a go-ahead score but were stopped on downs. Jones-Drew then iced the win for De La Salle on a 17-yard run with two minutes left.
New DLS QB Jaxon Loftin was credited with a TD pass on the 31-yard play involving Jones-Drew. He also had TD passes to junior speedster Damari Dean and to senior Dylan Scott.
The Spartans will open their season at home next week vs a Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa squad that just lost on Friday in overtime, 26-23, to Folsom (which was generally one spot higher than De La Salle in preseason NorCal rankings). Serra is hitting road big time next week to the island of Oahu in Hawaii to play north shore powerhouse Kahuku.
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: @CalHiSports
