At last, they are back. Following a year off due to the pandemic, the 2021 CIF Regional Football Championship Bowl Games return this week with 26 regional playoff games between 52 section champions.
The 10 section commissioners met Sunday morning to slot the matchups and pick the two teams from the north and south to square off in the Open Division championship Dec. 11 at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
In a bit of a surprise, the commissioners chose Central Coast Section champion Serra (San Mateo) to represent Northern California — over De La Salle (Concord) — to face Mater Dei (Santa Ana), the No. 1 ranked team in the MaxPreps Top 25 and the pick from Southern California.
Those two squads bypass the regional and move into the ultimate championship bowl game at 8 p.m. Dec. 11, finishing off a five-game weekend at Saddleback, featuring the five top divisions, including 1AA, 1A, 2AA and 2A. Regional Bowl winners in Divisions 3AA and lower face off Dec. 10-11 at Northern California venues.
Mater Dei won the 2017 and 2018 Open Division title with wins over De La Salle 52-21 and 35-21, respectively. The Monarchs won their eight Southern Section championship under coach Bruce Rollinson and third since 2017 with a 27-7 win over Servite (Anaheim) on Friday.
On Friday, Serra earned a tough 16-12 CCS Division I title win over Saint Francis, a squad that beat De La Salle 31-28 on Sept. 10. However, St. Francis also soundly defeated the Padres 44-21 in a regular-season finale. Serra won the rematch Friday.
De La Salle, winners of 29 straight North Coast Section titles, hosts Folsom in the 1-AA North Regional final on Friday. The Spartans beat Folsom 31-10 on Oct. 8. This is the second time since the bowls began in 2006 that De La Salle isn't playing in the highest division. The other time was in 2008 when Grant (Sacramento) shocked Long Beach Poly in the top (then Division I) title game.
Read on to see the Northern and Southern regional pairings in each classification.
The Serra football team after celebrating a Central Coast Section Division I championship Friday against Saint Francis.
Photo by Sam Stringer
Open championship
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) (11-0) vs.
Serra (San Mateo) (11-1) at Saddleback College, Dec. 11, 8 p.m.
1AA
NorCal —
Folsom (10-3) at
De La Salle (Concord) (10-2), Friday 7:30 p.m.
SoCal —
Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) (9-2) at
Orange Lutheran (Orange) (10-4), Friday 7:30 p.m.
1A
NorCal —
Pittsburg (9-2) vs.
Liberty (Bakersfield) (10-2) at Bakersfield College, Saturday, 6 p.m.
2AA
NorCal —
Bullard (Fresno) (9-4) at
Central Catholic (Modesto) (12-1), Friday, 7:30 p.m.
3AA
4A
5AA
NorCal —
San Marin (Novato) (12-1) vs.
Sutter (10-1) at River Valley HS, Friday, 7:30 p.m.
