By Mark Tennis, Executive Editor 

Losing in the opening round of last year's CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Div. II playoffs looks like a distant memory for the Grant High of Sacramento football team.

These Pacers, who improved to 3-0 with a 35-28 win at home on Saturday night over Utah powerhouse Alta, are much more like their unbeaten team from two years ago that was one of the best in the state and among the best in the nation.

Coach Mike Alberghini doesn't have a frontline standout like Onterrio Smith, Donte Stallworth or Worrell Williams or for that matter the superstar quality of fellow NorCal power Bellarmine of San Jose, but this could be his deepest team. There is sideline-to-sideline speed and it's a team that hits about as ferociously as any he's had.

Grant's depth was evident on both sides of the ball. On offense, senior quarterback Kipeli Koniseti threw two touchdown passes; junior running back Devontae Butler helped ice the win with a 44-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter; senior running back Howard Warren made a spectacular 42-yard touchdown catch; senior tight end Damon Jones caught a 17-yard touchdown pass; and junior running back Antonio Bumpers scored on a 11-yard run. On defense, four different Pacers came up with interceptions.

"This team plays harder than last year," said Alberghini, whose team beat Highland of Pocatello, Idaho (the No. 1 ranked team in that state at the time) in its previous outing. "That's the big difference. It's a team that will come out and hit with anybody. And I think we'll get better. We have to. We did make a few too many mistakes tonight."

Alta also came into the game as the No. 1-ranked Class 5A team in Utah. The Hawks were 4-0 and are coming off a state championship they won last Thanksgiving weekend. Last year, Alta hosted Grant and rolled to a 55-32 victory.

"Hands down, no question they are much better than last year," said Alta head coach Les Hamilton, a fourth-year head coach who is a 1990 graduate of California's Petaluma High. "We won't see a team with that kind of speed the rest of the year.

Committing six turnovers didn't help the Alta cause and the team also had three touchdowns called back on penalties. The Hawks were led by Div. I quarterback prospect Ammon Olsen, who completed 18 of 28 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for one score.

Grant's players were celebrating their big win by chanting "State, State, We're going to state."

This refers, of course, to the CIF state bowl games coming up in December. To get there, Grant will have to go unbeaten and probably will have to beat Sacramento area rival Granite Bay in the Sac-Joaquin Section Div. II playoffs. Granite Bay, the defending champion in that division, is currently ranked No. 1 by the Sacramento Bee and has been higher than the Pacers in the CalHiSports.com rankings.

After witnessing the way the team plays on Saturday, Grant does look better than Granite Bay's section title team from last year. Whether Granite Bay's own squad this year is better than last year remains to be seen.

The irony of the Granite Bay vs. Grant debate is that it will eventually get settled on the field in the playoffs. That's ironic because Grant fans and Alberghini himself have been so critical of their team being placed in Division II instead of Division I. If the Pacers were still in Division I, they wouldn't get a chance to play Granite Bay and that would leave it up to Sac-Joaquin Section commissioner Pete Saco to essentially pick between them in the case of both being unbeaten section champions. Being able to potentially play and perhaps beat Granite Bay also could strengthen Grant's case to be chosen for either the CIF state open division bowl game or the CIF Division I state bowl game.

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