Game of the Week: Serra football’s success rooted in Patrick Walsh’s De La Salle days

In his 22nd year as Serra’s head coach, Walsh has his team poised to compete in a way the Padres weren’t quite ready for in 2016, the last time the two teams met, when De La Salle triumphed 47-13 in a Week 2 matchup. Now, Serra, ranked No. 2 in Nor Cal, is coming off last week’s 17-12 victory over Folsom, ranked No. 4.

“Knowing we’re on arguably the highest stage of high school football, being that we are on national TV and playing the last 30 years of prominence in De La Salle,” Walsh said, “it’s a really honor to be there, and we’re just hoping we do our best on Friday night.”

Walsh has a unique place in De La Salle history. As a senior in 1992, he played in win No. 1 of the legendary 151-game winning streak that spanned into 2004. Coming off a loss in the 1991 North Coast Section championship game to Pittsburg, the Spartans manhandled Merced in their 1992 season opener.

“I remember having a big night against Merced just coming out and setting the tone for the entire year,” said Walsh, who went on to rush for over 2,000 yards as an all-state running back. “Our goal was to leave no doubt that year. That was our stated goal and I think we pretty much did that.”

To hear Walsh talk about De La Salle’s approach that season — in which the team avenged itself against Pittsburg with wins in both the regular season and a rematch for the North Coast Section championship — it echoes the philosophies he preaches to his Serra teams week after week, and year after year.

“It was a moment to moment, minute to minute, hour by hour onslaught of doing things the right way,” Walsh said, “and doing things in a very, very deep, spiritual and appropriate way of doing business, and then it led to a win — and another one — and then 13 years of them.”

Friday night isn’t about history though. It’s about the two top teams in Nor Cal looking to prove themselves in 2022.

For the Padres, the test is establishing their defense against the ground attack. Last week’s win over Folsom showed Serra can contain the spread offense. Senior defensive end Sam Goligoski enjoyed a breakout performance in the three-down-linemen look, taking advantage of his freedom to blitz with abandon to log three sacks.

“You get a lot of opportunities to pass rush with them being a spread-type team,” Goligoski said. “Then we’ve been working hard all summer for the pass rush, and it paid off.”

Against De La Salle, the Padres will have to defend the down blocking schemes of the veer offense. In a 36-20 win at Monterey Trail-Elk Grove last Friday, the Spartans totaled 273 rushing yards, including 18 carries and 134 yards by senior Charles Greer, a Fresno State commit.

“They’re a real disciplined team and we’re going to have to stop the run pretty well,” Goligoski said. “And it’s going to be a good team.”

While the Padres scored just 17 points against Folsom, it was the way they scored them that was impressive.

Each of the game’s three touchdowns were scored in the second quarter. The first was by Serra; coming just one minute after Folsom booted a field goal to get on the board, Jabari Mann gave Serra the lead back with a 4-yard TD run to make it 7-3. When Folsom found the end zone with two minutes remaining in the half to take a 10-7 lead, Serra fired right back, scoring on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Maealiuaki Smith to Jayden Weber in the waning seconds of the half to give the Padres the lead for good.

“I think we showed grit all night,” Walsh said. “Perseverance was the theme of the week all week, that the kids chose, and I think that perseverance showed up.”

After Serra lost to De La Salle in 1984 with Nick Carboni at the helm, the Spartans played Walsh’s Padres from 2005-10 with his former head coach Bob Ladouceur at the helm and from 2013-16 headed by current coach Justin Alumbaugh.

As Serra and De La Salle head into a third era of head-to-head play — the teams entered a two-year contract prior to this season, so they will meet again 2023 — it’s an interesting nugget none of these games would have been likely had it not been for Walsh’s roots at the premier Concord private school.

“No, probably not,” Walsh said. “I think just the familiarity with De La Salle, and the athletic directors, and the head coaches, Coach Lad, Coach Alumbaugh and the similar values that we have led to the marriage of game play. The difference is it’s taken us a few decades to be mentioned in the same sentence with them.”

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