Mater Dei upends top-ranked St. John Bosco 17-7 in defensive slugfest

SANTA ANA, Calif. — The Prep Super Bowl of 2022 figured to be a low-scoring tussle. 

But most thought St. John Bosco-Bellflower's vaunted defense would make most of the big hits. 

Instead, Mater Dei filled the gaps, laid the wood and played a near perfect game during a 17-7 slugfest victory Friday before about 10,000 fans at Santa Ana Stadium. 

In a highly-anticipated battle between the nation's top two ranked teams, with college coaches, including USC's Lincoln Riley roaming the sideline, the No. 2 Monarchs recorded five sacks and added two interceptions, one each from Zabien Brown and Daryus Dixson. 

The latter came on the last play of the game to seal the mild upset. 

Then again, with their 24th straight win, coming off a mythical national championship, it's hard to imagine the Monarchs ever being an underdog. See Connor Morrissette column

Jeilani Davis, a junior four-star, flew in constantly from his safety spot to register a game-high 13 tackles, 10 of the solo variety.   

Leviticus Su'a, a four-star senior linebacker, added seven tackles and 1.5 sacks for a defense that beat up the Braves pretty good. They played the second half without starting quarterback, four-star Louisville commit Pierce Clarkson, due to a concussion. 

Asked if the Monarchs took it personal that Bosco's defense received most of the attention coming in, Su'a, the team's defensive leader, didn't bite. Just like he and his teammates didn't bite on play-action or misdirection all night. 

It was sound, hard-hitting, gap defense at its finest.  

"Going into game's we don't really think about the other team's defense," said Su'a, a 4.0-plus student with 15 FBS offers. "We just focus on the their offense and how we're going to game plan for it and execute what we want to get done. I feel if we're able to play gap control defense like we did tonight and everybody does their job, we're unbeatable."

It helped to have a poised, unbeatable junior quarterback and pair of multi-talented running backs. 

Jordon Davison, a fleet and strong 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore running back very much looked like his 5-star billing, rushing 22 times for 114 yards. His 38-yard touchdown scamper with 1:01 remaining to put the game away. 

"It all wouldn't have happened without the support of my offensive line doing their job and our offensive coordinator calling up the play," Davison said. 

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This was the third straight win for the Monarchs (7-0) in the series which dates back to 1966. Mater Dei now owns a 29-11 lead. 

Mater Dei limited Bosco to just a 6-yard touchdown run by Cameron Jones (15 carries, 101 yards) late in the third quarter. 

"Our young guys are coming of age," said Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson, who upped his career record to 334-85-2. He's the active California career leader in wins."

Said Bosco coach Jason Negro: "It was a great high school football game. We played well enough to win on the defensive side. We just didn’t make enough plays when it mattered. We’re just going to have to get better.” 

Bosco (6-1) zipped right down on its first possession, ripping off gains of 16, 4, 16 and 8 yards on its first four plays. 

But Clarkson, rolled to his left, and under-threw a receiver badly in the end zone. Zabien Brown made the interception but was downed at the 1. 

No problem for Elijah Brown. He capped a 99-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter to give the Monarchs a 7-0 lead. A 39-yard completion to 6-foot-7, 235-pound tight end Spencer Shannon keyed the drive. 

Comments above from Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson

The touchdown came on third-and-goal, a brilliant play call by Mater Dei offensive coordinator Taylor Kelly, It looked like the play was going left, but Brown was the only one who went right on the read option. 

"The end crashed and I just kept it myself," Brown said.

He didn't have to do much on the night, finishing 11 of 18 for 119 yards and no touchdowns. But he wasn't intercepted. He managed the game beautifully, especially in the second half. 

He improved to 24-0 as a starter. Amazingly he still has another season-and-a-half to go. 

Mater Dei quarterback Elijah Brown discusses win above

His touchdown run was the only score of the half, which was played between the 20s. Mater Dei finished with 138 first-half yards to 112 for Bosco. 

Worse yet for the Braves, Clarkson was sacked three times in the half, and didn't play a down in the second due to the concussion. He was 3-for-4 for 55 yards and he scrambled for 24 rushing yards not counting the sack. 

"Let's not forget the elephant in the room," Rollinson said. 
"Clarkson not in the second half was a big deal."

That vaulted 6-3, 234-pound junior quarterback Caleb Sanchez into the spotlight. He didn't have to do much during the team's lone scoring drive other than hand the ball to Jones. 

Sanchez had one completion of 16 yards, but Jones, a bullish 6-2, 232-pound junior, broke off a big run of 26 yards and finished it off with a 6-yard TD over the right side on fourth down. 

That tied the game at 7-7 with 3:42 left in the third. 

Mater Dei responded with a methodical 17-play, 88-yard drive behind the the running of Davison and Nathaniel Frazier (9 carries, 59 yards). Three completions from Brown of 19, 11 and 17 yards also helped. 

"I thought our front five was great," Rollinson said. "I thought we could run the ball and we just kept pounding on them." 

The Monarchs rushed 39 times for 176 yards and controlled the clock, holding the ball for 29 minutes, 21 seconds to Bosco's 18:39.

Bosco's defense eventually held, but Andre Medina drilled a 22-yard field goal to give the Monarchs a 10-7 lead with 7:10 left. 

After his team held Bosco three-and-out, Davison put it away with a 38-yard touchdown jaunt with with 1:01 remaining. Jammed up in the middle of the field, found a crease in the middle and wasn't touched the final 35 yards. 

He finished with 22 carries. 

"Once I got on the green grass nobody was going to catch me," Davison said. "I was just trying to pound the rock (tonight) and come out with a W."

Asked about going against a defense that had allowed only 31 points in six games and recorded two shutouts, Davison said. 

"They have one of the best defenses in the country and all the guys are top guys in the country," Davison said. "I felt they were coached well also. But we have a better coaching staff and that showed tonight." 

The Bosco defense features 5-star edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei, 4-star linebacker Kyngstonn Villiamu-Asa and four — yes four — 4-star cornerbacks including Louisville bound Aaron Williams and Stanford commit Jshawn Frausto-Ramos.

Braves' linebacker Deven Bryant had 10 tackles including two for loss. Uiagalelei and Villiamu-Asa combined for 13 tackles and the Braves had eight tackles overall for losses. 

Even giving up 295 yards, they did their part. 

But Davison stuck up for his defense. 

"We got the best defense in the country," he said.  

Mater Dei entered on a 23-game win streak, two of those wins over St. John Bosco. The team's last loss was 39-34 to the Braves in the 2019 Southern Section Division I title game.

The previous 39 games largely went in Mater Dei's favor with the Monarchs winning 28 of them. 

Since Negro took over 13 years ago, the series has drastically evened out. 

Since 2011, when Bosco started a six-game win streak in the series, the teams have met 16 times with the Braves winning nine. Mater Dei had won the last two season, 41-21 in 2021 and 34-17 in the pandemic-shorted spring season of 2021. 

Both those games were largely won via the turnover battle and what Negro called Mater Dei's ability to win 50-50 balls. 

Seems like a simple concept with four interceptions of Bosco passes compared to none by Elijah Brown, the Monarchs took advantage and control of each game. 

Mater Dei LB Leviticus Su'a, Jordon Davison interview above

"We gotta win the 50-50 balls," Negro told John Davis of the Long Beach Press-Telegram before Friday's game. "That's something we have not done and didn't do (in the last two games). At the end of the day, those were the difference why we didn't win." 

Unfortunately for the Braves, that trend continued on Friday.

Though Friday's result was huge, it's really only a midseason reading. The teams will almost assuredly meet up again for the Southern Section Division I title game in November at the Rose Bowl. 

"I don't think this will determine the best high school team in the country," Negro said this week. "It's going to be the complete body of work. Hopefully we can play 15 games and regardless of this outcome we could potentially play them again on November 26." 

Mater Dei hosts Orange Lutheran, No. 9 in the SBLive Top 25 Southern Section rankings, and Bosco hosts No. 13 JSerra Catholic, next week in Trinity League action. 

SBLive Sports preview story on the Mater Dei-Bosco game. 
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More pre-game, game highlights above

Here are photos from Friday night's game in Santa Ana:

All photos by Heston Quan