MIRAMONTE
    Miramonte has carried on the success of last year's season with two victories over Oakland Tech, 32-12, and Granada High School, 17-7. 

    Last season, things really came together as the season developed for Miramonte, winning the NCS championship and making it to the CIF state championship bowl game. The unfortunate broken collarbone suffered by Carson Blair (now a walk-on at TCU) proved to be a real break for starting junior quarterback Lane Dalton who accepted the challenge and ran with it. 

    With Dalton playing with a broken finger, Miramonte lost a close game to Campolindo and then won three straight games making it to the CIF championship, but Dalton suffered an injury early in the bowl game and Miramonte lost to the ultimate state champion Calaveras High School.

    “Lane never rattled or wavered as he took command of the offense right away,” head coach Nick Safir said. “He has been very dedicated in the weight room and is one of our hardest workers and has spent a lot of time with our offensive coordinator Marcus Hires. We’re very confident that this is going to be Lane’s team the next two years.”

    Dalton was 14 for 19 for 147 yards with three touchdown passes against Oakland Tech. Dalton’s backup is linebacker Tres Buster and the team is also very high on JV quarterback, Gus Millstone who also came in for Dalton in the championship game.

    Prior to the start of the season, senior Jonah Imberg was expected to be the team’s starting running back after a productive junior season but he suffered a pre-season injury. He is making good progress in his recovery and is anticipated to return at some point.

    Safir then called upon senior wide receiver Michael Fagundes to move to the backfield from the receiver position and in the two victories he has led the team in rushing with 205 yards on 32 carries. “Michael really bought into being the guy and he ran the ball hard,” Safir said. “When Jonah comes back, having both of them is going to be super dynamic.”

    Against Oakland Tech, eight different receivers caught passes with Luca Tarantino, Chase Short and Parker Bjornson each catching three passes and Henry Hunt (a starting DB), Tarantino and Tre Murphy each catching a touchdown pass.

    Tarantino starting in the slot for the first time caught a TD pass and showed a great connection with Dalton. George Gilbert the top returning receiver had one reception for 18 yards. “We can go 8 and 9 deep and not see a drop off in our receivers,” Safir said.

    The offensive line is a veteran group that played extremely well. “LT Jack White and Center Brooks Butler are team captains and LG Joe Smith, RG Mason Kawar, and RT Jackson Thompson, Joe Smith's the left guard. “Joe is great pulling out and leading the back, Mason really worked hard in the weight room and is playing great and Jackson give us rare size. They all blocked really well and are way ahead of where we were on the O-line last year.”

    Though the defense came on after a poor opening drive, Safir is still looking for improved play. “We have to work on our tackling. We’ve been in the right spot so we just have to finish the play. There’s a lot of improvement to go on the defensive side. Still, we got the stops when we needed them.”

    Leading the defense is linebacker and co-captain Tres Buster, linebacker Ryan Jones, defensive ends Wyatt Strand and Ben Romweber, and cornerback Henry Hunt. “Tres has turned into a real productive leader and Henry is our shutdown corner,” Safir said. “Wyatt at DE had two sacks and forced a big turnover in the game and Ben has been a real menace at the other end. Our D-line really did well as a whole, flying around and making plays.”

    Miramonte has also increased its public image putting videos out on Facebook. “Our team videographer, Dominic Russo has been creating videos which have been creating more visibility to what we are doing as a program, showing the fun and the hard work and the quality of his videos have been second to none, getting us more visibility in building our brand.”

    Even though Miramonte moved down to the middle league with Northgate, College Park, Mount Diablo, and Los Lomas, they have a very difficult non-league schedule. “We will always have Campolindo and Acalanes on our schedule. As an NCS champion, a number of teams opted not to be on our schedule this year.”

    Safir in his third year at Miramonte has seen a real growth in talent and numbers. “In my first year we had six players going both ways and we have 22 starters now. Maintaining that consistency is going to be big for us and we can’t get down if we fall behind. Our experience last year in the playoffs is going to really lean into that for us as our players get used to playing with each other.”

ACALANES

    Acalanes had a very successful season last year with an 11-1 record and made it to the second round of the playoffs before losing to Cardinal Newman, and has carried that success over to this season with victories over Archbishop Mitty and Menlo-Atherton, outscoring them by a combined 76-27.

    Despite losing nine all-league players to graduation, Acalanes will still have the league offensive Co-MVP, quarterback Tyler Winkles returning along with Finn Rivera who was all-league offense and defense, TE Sean Tandler and defensive lineman Daniel Dunne.

    With Josh Elerts (Pomona) and Deonte Littlejohn (DVC), having graduated, they took with them 83.5% of the team's rushing yards gained on the ground last season. Winkles ran for 356 yards and there was only one other back that gained positive yards.

    This season's leading rusher has been junior Joaquin Bordi with 93 yards on 30 carries. The drop in yards rushing was compensated for by the increase in yards passing by Winkles. averaging 286.5 yards per game with 9 touchdown passes. Winkles has also averaged 40.3 on three punts.

    Acalanes has had 10 different receivers led by senior TE A.J. Del Soto, who had no catches last season, with 16 receptions and 2 touchdowns, Fern Rivera with 15 receptions and 3 touchdowns (and one interception) and Jackson Boselli, utilizing his track speed with 4 receptions and averaging 40.8 yards per catch with 3 touchdowns. 

    The offensive line of seniors Cash Ricker, Oliver MacLeod and Matt Lee and juniors Graham Welton, Gino Rubio, and Grady Branagh only gave up one sack all evening against Mitty.

    The defense has been led Dax Vail with 13 tackles and two TFLs, Luke Dafferner, 11 tackles, 1 TFL, and one sack,  Daniel Dunne with 11 tackles, 1 TfL and 1 sack, and Kyle Sanftner with 9 tackles, 1 TFL.      

CAMPOLINDO

    When you graduate eight all league players and then lose players who transferred and others who got injured, it makes for a difficult beginning to your season and that is what Campolindo and head coach Kevin Macy are facing this year, starting the year with two close losses to Granada, 19-7, and Bellarmine, 17-16.

    Against Granada, Campolindo did show the ability to move the ball behind quarterback Cayden Mulliken. However, with the offensive line still a work in progress, this led to Mulliken being under a lot of pressure which led to heavy pressure, sacks and three interceptions.

    Time of possession also became a real factor in the game. Campolindo did not get to run an offensive play in the 3rd quarter and after a Granada touchdown, Ryan Erickson, the only all-league player for the Cougars who returned this season, had an electrifying kickoff return through the Granada kickoff team for Campolindo’s lone score. In the end, Granada ran 69 plays to Campolindo’s 39 plays.

    “It was a strange game,” Macy said. “We did not get a chance to assess our offense. Our defense at this point is undersized but they played really hard and showed that they will fight.”

    Defensive lineman Jonas Desyatnik and linebackers Owen Pickering and Blake Anderson and defensive back Rai Marchetti were strong factors on the Campolindo defense.

    The running backs that will be getting most of the opportunities will be Colton Willis and Brayden Shin. Along with Erickson at wide receiver, Macy is looking for more production from Gabe Haroutunian and Marchetti. 

    As the defense continues to battle, the key for the rest of the year is going to be the overall development of the offensive line, giving more time for Mulliken to stand in the pocket. “We have to be able to give Cayden more time in the pocket to take advantage of his strong arm,” Macy said.