California highschool soccer supremacy comes down to an enormous Tremendous 25 matchup between No. 3 Mater Dei (Santa Ana) and No. 17 Serra (San Mateo) on Saturday.
The CIF State Open Division championship recreation at Saddleback Faculty (Mission Viejo, Calif.) can be a ultimate probability for each groups to showcase their top-tier expertise synonymous with California highschool soccer whereas considerably impacting the ultimate Tremendous 25 within the weeks forward.
For Mater Dei, it’s an opportunity to shut out the yr on prime within the Golden State, a playoff finale that included a big-time win over No. 9 St. John Bosco within the CIF-SS championship.
Stanford commit Elijah Brown leads the offensive assault at QB, with key skills like 4-star working again Jordon Davison and two-way risk Marcus Harris serving to the Monarchs put up 42 factors on common in 2023.
The protection beneath first-year head coach Frank McManus has continued to offer a virtually unattainable situation for offensive coordinators, a staked group from the road to the secondary that has solely surrendered a median of simply over 10 factors per recreation.
Briefly, maintaining the Monarchs from profitable state title No. 4 can be a tall process.
However don’t rely out/overlook/dismiss Serra.
The Padres haven been rolling in 2023, together with an enormous win over perennial energy De La Salle (Harmony, Calf.).
Oklahoma State commit Maealiuaki Smith is a formidable pro-style QB who has the arm expertise (and at 6-4, the peak) to deal with the torment from the opposite facet of the road. Three-star tight finish Cole Harrison supplies choices inside the Padres’ offense, whereas sophomore working again Nano Latu can add parts of a balanced assault.
Nonetheless, for Serra to finish the upset and safe state title No. 2, it’ll take an impressive efficiency by the protection, with a few of that target taking machine and San Jose State commit Jabari Mann.
Can the Padres flip the script on the 2021 assembly that led to a 44-7 Monarchs win?
Highschool soccer followers across the nation who need to watch the Tremendous 25 matchup can reside stream the sport on the NFHS Community.
(Picture by Meg Oliphant/Getty Photos)
Notice: We sometimes suggest attention-grabbing merchandise, companies, and gaming alternatives. Should you make a purchase order by clicking one of many hyperlinks, we might earn an affiliate charge. USA TODAY HSS operates independently, although, and this doesn’t affect our protection.