louisamestoy: A look at coverage from all 13 CIF-State bowl games

This year marks the second season that the California Interscholastic Federation has conducted its massive statewide football bowl games, and I was curious to see how each of the divisions was covered by local media. Every game was covered by at least one newspaper. In all we found 47 links to content related to the Bowl games. Some of the interesting stats included a pair of current NFL quarterbacks sending positive messages to their alma maters playing for titles, a female kicker booting her way into the record books, a former NFL running back making headlines as a coach and one team with five players with NFL roots. Here's a look at how each of the 13 games played Dec. 16-17.

OPEN DIVISION

Bellflower St. John Bosco 56, Concord De La Salle 33

In a matchup of parochial school heavyweights, this game attracted plenty of attention from the major newspapers around the state because of the national implications of the game. Bosco was playing in its 15th game of the season and had to navigate the rugged Pac-5 Division of the Southern Section in order to reach the Open Division Bowl Game, where perennial power Concord De La Salle was waiting.

The Los Angeles Times Eric Sondhemier summed up Bosco's win: If you want to know why St. John Bosco (13-2) proved itself the best high school football team in California over the six weeks of the postseason, it’s because the Braves could not be stopped running the football.

I really like this piece of context from Southern California Newspaper Group writer Mike Guardabascio uses to sum up Bosco's run to the title game: After the loss to the Monarchs, which saw Bosco (13-2) score a season-low 21 points, the Braves scored at least 42 points in every game the rest of the year. They put up 49 points vs. Corona Centennial in the CIF-SS Division 1 semis, 42 on Mater Dei in the championship in a rematch, and 56 on De La Salle, the most points the Spartans have given up since their run of dominance began in 1979. Prior to Saturday, they hadn’t given up more than 42 in any game.

The San Jose Mercury News uses a quote from De La Salle coach Justin Almaugh to set up the context for the Bosco victory:

“That team is better than we are,” De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “Our margin for error was really small, and we didn’t do the little things that we needed to. We put the ball on the ground six times. We lost three. We moved the ball well. I was happy about that. But our defense, we were just out of position the whole time.“You got to tip your cap. Those guys are really good, and they’re well-coached. That’s a tough combo. We didn’t play well enough tonight.”

Here's the rest of the coverage from the game:

http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/california-86009-salle-john.html

USA Today curated a story: http://usatodayhss.com/2016/no-6-st-john-bosco-scores-56-points-in-winning-cif-open-division-bowl

Max Preps: http://www.maxpreps.com/news/s3UExg1wtU2OiOszhKxMxw/no-5-st-john-bosco-bowls-over-de-la-salle-for-second-time-in-four-years.htm