The Abridged version:
- With the victory, Folsom extended its winning streak over Oak Ridge to 26 games.
- The Bulldogs’ scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter and recovered a turnover to seal the victory.
- Both programs have their sights on the postseason.
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When it was over late Friday night, when the MaxPreps National High School Game of the Week concluded in El Dorado Hills, Paul Doherty had his triumphant Folsom Bulldogs take a knee.
The team’s head coach told his group in a hoarse voice that as great as this effort was, the bigger prizes await. And Folsom football is all about grand prizes.
Top-ranked Folsom held off No. 2 Oak Ridge 28-21 in a Sierra Foothill League clash of state-ranked programs, a showdown of the top-two ranked programs in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section. That extended the program’s winning streak over their chief rival to 26 games since 2007.
“This is not our Super Bowl,” Doherty told his crew. “I want you to enjoy it. You should enjoy it with your team. You should enjoy it with your school. It means a lot to have Folsom on the front of your chest and no name on the back (of your jersey).”
Folsom, to be clear, is the Super Bowl for each of the other SFL teams, because to top the Bulldogs has become a priority as the region collectively attempts to close the gap. Folsom extended its SFL winning streak to 26 in winning for the 81st time in the last 83 outings in SFL play. Folsom’s run against Oak Ridge includes the Bulldogs prevailing in each of the last four section Division I title games. Doherty calls section-title games Folsom’s Super Bowl.
Who’s in for a rematch in the finals at Hughes Stadium at Sacramento City College on Thanksgiving weekend? Doherty called Oak Ridge “a damn good team” and senses a rematch is looming.
Folsom always the team to beat
The coach understands the significance of local teams who are bent on upending the Bulldogs. Friday’s crowd was reflective of how big of a game this was with an overflow crowd, including people lined up along the surrounding fence and along the berm on the visiting side.
“It felt like there were 10,000 people here, a great atmosphere and a great high school football game,” Oak Ridge coach Casey Taylor said.
Said Doherty to media, in downplaying the streak a bit: “I grew up in the Bay Area, and De La Salle once won 151 games in a row. That seems way more remarkable than this. So, (Oak Ridge) will get us at some point, I’m sure. If we’re lucky enough and keep playing better, we might seem them again this year.”
Doherty said after speaking to his team that “I hate football.” He doesn’t mean it literally, of course. He enjoys year-round strength and conditioning with the Bulldogs, and weekly practice. But the actual games are a pressure cooker, with a school and a city used to championship success.
Folsom moved to 8-0 on the season and 4-0 in the SFL, the toughest league in Northern California. Oak Ridge dropped to 4-3 with each of the losses down to the wire.
“We were right (freaking) there,” Taylor of Oak Ridge said. “I feel for the kids. We have to score from the 1-yard line.”
Oak Ridge battles
Oak Ridge scored touchdowns on each of its first three drives in looking the part of a streak-ending team. The Trojans long ago stopped being awed by Folsom, the tradition, the scores of national recruits. Oak Ridge had this game in its grasp, until it slipped away against a determined bunch. The Trojans were undone by four turnovers, two of them in the fourth quarter.
Oak Ridge quarterback Nick Johnson appeared to get the ball across the goal line midway through the final quarter, but the referees did not see it that way. The drive ended with an end zone interception.
Folsom overcame a sloppy first half in which players dropped five passes. Oak Ridge also delivered more of the hard hits in the first half. There isn’t a single Trojans player, coach or fan that believes Folsom is the better team. Then again, there isn’t a single Folsom player, coach or follower who believes Oak Ridge is the better outfit.
A rematch will decide that debate.
The rooting sections for both schools were in full spirit mode. Oak Ridge’s “O-Zone” student section offered up chants of “Overrated” in suggesting Folsom’s team was not worthy of its top ranking. That chant ended in the second half.
Folsom comes back
Brody Rudnicki, the one-time Oak Ridge player, scored on three 1-yard touchdown runs for Folsom. The Cal-bound quarterback put Folsom ahead to stay with a TD plunge with 5:46 left to play, and he ran out the clock after Oak Ridge’s fourth turnover. He passed for 234 yards, hitting UCLA-bound receiver Rob Larson nine times for 115 yards.
“The biggest lesson was, ‘Don’t take this for granted,'” Larson said. “Because this can be stripped from you at any moment.”
Larson was giddy in victory, mindful that injuries or losses can derail a season. He played just his second game of the season on Friday, having missed the first half of the season with a hamstring injury.
“We love playing in games like this,” he said.
Nick Johnson, a former Folsom player, made some of the best throws of his life for Oak Ridge. The senior quarterback went deep several times, including a 70-yard scoring strike to Isaac Pierce to tie it 7-7. Johnson passed for 234 yards in the first half and finished with 286.
Osias Bolton rushed nine times for 115 yards for Folsom while Oak Ridge struggled to run the ball in a battle of teams with stout lines and defenses.
There is no rest for the weary in the SFL. Folsom doesn’t do weary much, but even young legs get tired.
Folsom hosts Del Oro of Loomis on Oct. 24, has a bye week, and plays at another regionally ranked team in the Jesuit Marauders on Nov. 6. And then it’s the postseason, where Folsom will set aim on its Super Bowl quest in pursuing the program’s 13th section banner since 2010, a run that includes the school winning six CIF state crowns.
Oak Ridge ends the regular season with games against Jesuit, Granite Bay and Whitney, with an eye on rematch with Folsom.
