{"id":461381,"date":"2026-09-12T06:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461381\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T06:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:38:11","slug":"california-high-school-nicco-kovacs-turn-back-no-18-santa-teresa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461381\/","title":{"rendered":"California High School, Nicco Kovacs turn back No. 18 Santa Teresa"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN RAMON \u2013 The Santa Teresa High School<\/a> football team methodically marched down the field on a 14-play, 95-yard drive in the second quarter of its game against California on Friday night, with Richard Arechiga\u2019s short touchdown run bringing the Saints to within one score.<\/p>\n

Then junior Jake Hamilton<\/a> took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards to the house \u2013 mostly untouched \u2013 to help the Grizzlies restore their two-touchdown lead.<\/p>\n

That was the case throughout the game: every time Santa Teresa grabbed momentum, No. 15 California<\/a> took it back as it posted a fairly convincing 31-14 intersectional win.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Nicco Kovacs threw touchdown passes to Hamilton and Darius Brown, and the Grizzlies defense created two turnovers to help end the Saints\u2019 17-game regular-season<\/a> winning streak, which began with a 34-28 victory over Branham on Oct. 11, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cHats off to (Santa Teresa). They do a tremendous job with their program. They\u2019re well coached. They\u2019re disciplined,\u201d said California coach Danny Calcagno, whose team has won two straight since a season-opening loss to Liberty. \u201c(Creating) turnovers have been big for us this year, and then being able to execute on the other end of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good win for us. Our kids needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"California'sCalifornia’s Nicco Kovacs (10) passes the ball over Santa Teresa’s George Rodriguez (24) during the first half of a high school football game at California High School in San Ramon, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Thien-An Truong for Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

California took control in the second half.<\/p>\n

Down 21-7, No. 18 Santa Teresa forced a Grizzlies punt and took over at its own 20-yard line with 5:28 left in the third quarter. But on 3rd and 3, California recovered a Saints fumble on what would have been a first-down reception.<\/p>\n

On the next play, Kovacs had time in the pocket before he found Brown open deep down the middle for a 43-yard touchdown for what would become a 21-point lead with 4:21 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Often using a run-pass option with a runner in motion on fly sweeps to keep Santa Teresa\u2019s defense off balance, Kovacs completed 11 of 17 passes for 161 yards. His favorite target was Hamilton, who had six catches for 85 yards.<\/p>\n

Kovacs also made a big play on 4th and 12 in the second quarter on the Saints\u2019 20-yard line, as he eluded a sack, escaped the pocket, and started toward the sideline before he cut back toward the middle. He was downed just short of the goal line, setting up Robert Cardwell\u2019s one-yard touchdown run for a 13-0 lead before the extra point.<\/p>\n

\"California'sCalifornia’s Noah Jemo (14), middle, reacts after intercepting a Santa Teresa pass during the first half of a high school football game at California High School in San Ramon, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Thien-An Truong for Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the big plays, Calcagno would like his offense and defense to get a little bit crisper before the Grizzlies play on the road against Menlo-Atherton and El Cerrito. Kovacs was also sacked a couple of times, including once by Erick Arevalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur run game needs to start getting a little bit better because it sets up our pass,\u201d Calcagno said. \u201cBut we\u2019re so young up front. We\u2019ve got two sophomores starting, but it was a good win.\u201d<\/p>\n

California\u2019s defense often didn\u2019t have an answer for Santa Teresa running back Trey Monroe, who was a workhorse and the Saints\u2019 biggest threat with 178 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries.<\/p>\n

Santa Teresa hosts Live Oak next Thursday, and while coach Steve Papin feels his passing game can become more effective, he also admitted, \u201cWe\u2019re going to live and die with our run game, and Trey, he\u2019s a man amongst boys sometimes. We\u2019ve got to lean on him the rest of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019ve just got to reset. We lost to a good, well-coached, fundamentally sound football team. From top to bottom, that\u2019s going to be the best team we face all year. So now we\u2019ve just got to reset and get back to doing what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"California'sCalifornia’s Nicco Kovacs (10) is sacked by Santa Teresa’s Erick Arevalo (28) during the second half of a high school football game at California High School in San Ramon, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Thien-An Truong for Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN RAMON \u2013 The Santa Teresa High School football team methodically marched down the field on a 14-play,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,179727,7,392,332,2043,2044,402,181,88,90,89,2652,198,94685,200,127,398],"class_list":["post-461381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-preps-hq","tag-california","tag-contra-costa-county","tag-east-bay","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-ramon","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-social-alert","tag-south-bay","tag-sports","tag-tri-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}