By Mark Tennis, Executive Editor

If anyone witnessed the portion of San Mateo Serra's game back in September when the Padres scored 28 straight points against De La Salle of Concord, something that may not have ever happened since Bob Ladouceur began coaching the team in 1979, then you know this was a team more than capable of doing something special.

Well, on Friday night at San Jose City College, that's what the Padres did when they knocked off nationally-ranked Bellarmine Prep, 31-23, in a West Catholic Athletic League game.

Bellarmine came into the contest fresh off a 27-16 win from the week before over Valley Christian of San Jose, a team that had edged Serra, 23-21, the week before that. The Bells were 6-0 and were No. 1 in the CIF Northern California Div. I bowl rankings, No. 3 overall in the state (both by CalHiSports.com) and No. 23 in the ESPN RISE FAB 50.

According to early newspaper reports, it's not as if the Bells were overlooking the Padres. This also was an opponent that beat them in the regular season a year ago and is a team the Bells edged by just 20-19 in the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs.

Both our own Harold Abend, who covered the game for us as well as the San Francisco Chronicle, and Dennis Knight of the San Jose Mercury-News, focused on the play of Serra quarterback Cody Jackson, a three-year starter who rushed for three touchdowns, passed for nearly 100 yards and displayed grit and leadership by coming back from an ankle injury.

Serra entered the night at just 3-3, but in addition to the 29-28 loss to De La Salle and the one by 23-21 to Valley Christian the other one was to McQueen of Reno, which is the top-ranked team in Nevada. The McQueen loss (24-7) wasn't as close as the other two but it was on the road and occurred the next week after playing De La Salle when the Padres obviously were still trying to recover emotionally.

Bellarmine almost staged a dramatic comeback when quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels completed a series of passes to set up a one-yard dive by Usua Amanam with 39 seconds left. The Bells then recovered an onside kick but Samuels couldn't get closer than the Serra 27-yard line where the game ended on three straight incomplete passes.

With the loss, Bellarmine will have to drop behind several other NorCal teams in next week's rankings. De La Salle (6-1) won in its game on Friday, 34-14, over Amador Valley of Pleasanton and will move back up to No. 1 in the region. Defending CCS Open Division champion Oak Grove will be pushed up from No. 3 to No. 2 and although the Eagles haven't played a schedule nearly as tough as Serra and Bellarmine they are the defending champs. Oak Grove won on Friday, 45-20, over Lincoln of San Jose.

Two Sac-Joaquin Section teams that had to be happy to hear about Bellarmine losing would be Granite Bay and Grant of Sacramento. Granite Bay improved to 7-0 on Friday with a 41-13 win over Rocklin, while the Pacers (7-0) had no trouble with Kennedy of Sacramento in a 61-0 win. Granite Bay and Grant figure to play each other in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Div. II final and if one of those two is unbeaten and bowl eligible it's now pretty much a lock that that team would be ahead of Bellarmine even if the Bells come back and don't lose the rest of the way.

In fact, if you are a Granite Bay or Grant fan, you should now be a Bellarmine fan and hope the Bells do indeed bounce back from their loss and win the CCS title. This would also essentially clear out Oak Grove and potentially Gilroy from being unbeaten and on the board for the bowl game.

Monte Vista of Danville has to be higher than Bellarmine as well. Not only did the Mustangs move to 7-0 on Friday by rolling over Livermore, 51-16, but they will play De La Salle next Friday night. That game also will now be for sole possession of first-place in the East Bay Athletic League since San Ramon Valley, which was No. 6 this week in Northern California, was defeated on Friday, 24-21, by California of San Ramon.

The Bellarmine loss also has some ramifications for Southern California. If De La Salle were to now run the table the rest of the season and win another North Coast Section title, the Spartans now look like the open division pick out of the north instead of Division I. This in turn makes the Long Beach Poly vs. Corona Centennial debate in the south a little more spicy since playing DLS is the team everyone in the south wants to face.

This isn't a knock against Bellarmine, Oak Grove, Granite Bay or Grant, but the Long Beach Polys and Centennials of the world have no history against those teams. They've both played and lost to De La Salle in recent years and would love nothing more than to get a crack at the Spartans once again. Now, that crack is more likely to be in the CIF Open Division bowl game instead of the CIF Division I bowl game.

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