Despite loss, St. John Bosco finds itself in familiar territory – in control of destiny

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Not a lot went St. John Bosco's way on Friday at Santa Ana Bowl, home of the defending national champion Mater Dei Monarchs. 

In their 17-7 loss for essentially a Trinity League title, the Braves struggled to find an edge in any phase of the game. There were miscues, missed opportunities, visible nervousness, and injuries to key players. 

On offense, there was an overall lack of rhythm.

And yet, Bosco came within striking distance of beating the team that on Monday will be ranked No. 1 in the country.

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The Braves, who have held that position since the preseason,  now find themselves with their backs against the wall relative to their massive expectations: State/national title or bust.

But they've been there before and still came out on top. While Mater Dei's win was momentous, the Braves should have optimism about their chances of avenging this game in the playoffs.

The Southern Section Division I championship is slated for Nov. 25 at the historic Rose Bowl. 

One of the main reasons for hope is that they just put on an elite defensive performance. They don't need to be better on that end than they were Friday in order to beat Mater Dei.

Until Friday, the Monarchs hadn't been held to 17 points or less since 2014. 

If not for a nifty 38-yard touchdown jaunt by 5-star sophomore Jordon Davison, Bosco would have held the high-powered Monarchs to 10 points. 

On the other hand, it may be discouraging that the Braves played a defensive gem and still lost by two scores. It's valid. But it's hard to imagine that they can't play significantly better on the offensive end.

Braves head coach Jason Negro didn't seem down on his team – or their future chances – after the game. His players were disappointed and frustrated, but didn't appear demoralized.

"I told you [earlier] that whether we won or lost, my message was going to be about the same: this doesn't mean a whole lot," Negro told his team after the game.

"We've got to go and battle, and we're going to see them again. Next time it'll be at the Rose Bowl. Our season is still intact."

History points, in fact, to the losing team having an edge in the rematch.

• In 2016, the Monarchs pulled out a 26-21 in league play but fell 42-28 in the playoff rematch. 

• In 2018, they turned the tables, losing relatively lopsidedly (41-18) in the regular season only to shock Bosco 17-13 for all the marbles. 

• The Braves continued the trend in dramatic fashion in 2019, losing 38-24 in the regular season meeting before coming back from down 28-5 to win 39-34 in the section finals. 

In all of those seasons, like now, both were top-three teams in the country, if not the two very best.

Do those results magically confirm that the Braves will get the last laugh in 2022? 

Of course not.

In 2017, Mater Dei was one of the best high school teams of all time, and beat the Braves by 25 in the playoffs after beating them by 10 in the regular season. 

Last fall, the Braves failed to return to the finals, falling to Servite in the semifinals.

But this game was the closest that Bosco has played Mater Dei in the last three seasons. It was closer than it played the Monarchs in 2019 as well. SJB looks poised to return to the finals without another top-five team in the country looming in the semifinals. And this Mater Dei team, thoroughly elite and possibly on its way to yet another undefeated national title run, isn't quite the same animal as it was in 2017.

While the Braves had some stretches of success around the line of scrimmage, it was where Mater Dei made its biggest mark on the defensive side of the ball.

"We've got seven weeks until we play them again. We've got to get... in our weight rooms," Negro said to his team. 

"That's what really shifted in the second half. We couldn't really stop them, we just couldn't get movement up front."

"That's a 3-point ballgame with a minute to go," Negro continued. 

"We were right there. But now you see what we need to [do next time], and we can't just go through the motions. We've got to get a lot better in a lot of areas... we've got to get healthy over the weekend."

Mater Dei's pressure up front was outstanding as Bosco quarterback Pierce Clarkson was held to perhaps the most challenging night of his career. 

He was sacked three times in the first half and rarely had much time to sit in the pocket, and then took a seat at halftime due to a concussion. 

Clarkson finished the game with under 70 passing yards and no touchdowns, while throwing one interception that Zabien Brown snagged at Mater Dei's 1-yard line.

Negro said after the game he didn't have an official word from the doctors but it seemed that "Pierce should be fine".

Caleb Sanchez took over in the second half, and helped lead Bosco's only touchdown drive. It was run in by Cameron Jones on a 5-yard jaunt on fourth down to tie the game at 7-7 with 3:42 left in the third quarter.

That would be all the scoring for the Braves though. 

Sanchez and Clarkson combined for 12 completions for 104 yards. Jones was one of the few bright spots for the Braves' offense, running 15 times for 108 yards. 

The Braves' offensive line had substantially more success in creating seams to run through than it did in pass protection.

St. John Bosco only recorded one sack of Mater Dei QB Elijah Brown, but it pressured him while generally keeping his targets nearly blanketed. 

The Braves held him to pedestrian numbers: 11 completions in 18 attempts for 119 yards and no touchdowns. He did run for a score, a 9-yarder on third-and-goal on the first play of the second quarter. 

SJB's solid pass-rush would likely be a bigger talking point had MD's pass-rush not proved to be even more effective.

There's no doubt that the Braves will have to find a way to overcome a small but noticeable size disadvantage in the trenches if they want to win the rematch.

After Jones' touchdown tied the game, the Braves finally controlled the momentum for the first time. But they couldn't follow it up by simply making enough plays. 

Mater Dei hit a 22-yard field goal with 7:10 left in the game that would prove to be the game-winner. The drive was highlighted a few minutes before that by a sharp completion from Brown to Marcus Harris through tight defense on a 3rd-and-8.

The field capped a massive 17-play drive and chewed up close to nine minutes. Mater Dei held a 29-minute to 19-minute edge in time of possession. 

At the end of the day, is there a lot for St. John Bosco to build on looking ahead to a rematch?

"I think so," said Negro. "I told our kids all week long, we're going to be in a dogfight, we're going to play against a team that's equally as talented as us. We're just going to have to go out there and make enough plays to win, and unfortunately we didn't do that."

"We can't come out with eight minutes left and go three-and-out, and put our defense right back on the field," Negro said. 

His team managed to remain within striking distance despite Mater Dei controlling the ball. 

"I think that was really the turning point in the game – our inability to get a first down or two, or at least flip the field position a little bit, get the ball to midfield and kick it," Negro said. "You gotta give [Mater Dei] credit though."