{"id":472159,"date":"2026-09-22T18:32:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472159\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:32:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:32:57","slug":"northern-california-high-school-football-rankings-notes-league-play-kicks-off-this-week-for-most-of-the-regions-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472159\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern California high school football rankings, notes: League play kicks off this week for most of the region’s best"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

League play kicks off throughout the region on Friday, and here is a peek at rankings within our MaxPreps Northern California Top 25 rankings.De La Salle, which entered the MaxPreps National rankings at No. 25 this week, has a Top-25 tilt on Saturday afternoon at home against No. 20 Centennial (Corona)<\/a>.\"Senior<\/p>\n

Senior quarterback Caleb Bandel and the Junipero Serra Padres open West Catholic League play this Friday at Bellarmine College Prep. (PHOTO: Mark Neuling)<\/p>\n

MaxPreps NorCal football rankings1. De La Salle (Concord)<\/a>, (4-0)
2. Folsom<\/a>, (4-0)
3. Central East (Fresno)<\/a>, (4-0)
4. Pittsburg<\/a>, (2-2)
5. Junipero Serra (San Mateo)<\/a>, (2-1)
6. Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills)<\/a>, (2-1)
7. Del Oro (Loomis)<\/a>, (4-0)
8. Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa)<\/a>, (2-2)
9. Buchanan (Clovis)<\/a>, (4-1)
10. Grant (Sacramento)<\/a>, (3-1)
11. San Ramon Valley (Danville)<\/a>, (4-0)
12. Bakersfield Christian (Bakersfield)<\/a>, (3-1)
13. Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco)<\/a>, (1-2)
14. Rocklin<\/a>, (3-0)
15. Granite Bay<\/a>, (3-0)
16. St. Ignatius (San Francisco)<\/a>, (3-0)
17. Central Catholic (Modesto)<\/a>, (3-1)
18. Jesuit (Carmichael)<\/a>, (4-0)
19. Destiny Christian Academy (Sacramento)<\/a>, (4-0)
20. Edison (Stockton)<\/a>, (3-1)
21. St. Mary’s (Stockton)<\/a>, (1-3)
22. Tracy<\/a>, (4-0)
23. Bakersfield<\/a>, (4-0)
24. Clovis<\/a>, (4-1)
25. Monte Vista (Danville)<\/a>, (4-0)The Sac-Joaquin Section includes No. 2 Folsom, No. 6 Oak Ridge, No. 7 Del Oro, No. 14 Rocklin, No. 15 Granite Bay and No. 18 Jesuit from the same Sierra Foothill League. The SJS also includes No. 10 Grant, a defending CIF State champion in No. 21 St. Mary’s (Stockton), decades-long powerhouse No. 17 Central Catholic, No. 19 Destiny Christian Academy and No. 22 Tracy.<\/p>\n

Folsom has won the SJS Division I section crown five consecutive years, beating rival Oak Ridge in the last four meetings as Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Central Section, heavy on Fresno and Bakersfield teams, is topped by a defending CIF state champion in No. 3 Central East, No. 9 Buchanan, No. 12 Bakersfield Christian and No. 23 Bakersfield.<\/p>\n

The Central Coast Section is led by No. 5 Junipero Serra, No. 13 and defending CCS Open champion Archbishop Riordan and No. 16 St. Ignatius.<\/p>\n

There are several teams with a shot to reach the Open Division state final – the state’s highest classification. Should De La Salle, Folsom and Central East go unbeaten with section crowns, the CIF committee will have much to discuss.<\/p>\n

DLS has a win over Serra and Cardinal Newman but does not play Folsom, which has a win over Orange County powerhouse Mission Viejo<\/a>, which just defeated Pittsburg. Pitt could rock this argument should it topple DLS in the NCS Open finals.<\/p>\n

Central East has a win over Oak Ridge, which could make an argument for the Open if it topples Folsom in the section finals.<\/p>\n

Joe Davidson has covered high school sports for The Sacramento Bee since 1989. He is a member of the California High School Football Hall of Fame and has been honored by the with the CIF Distinguished Service award and was the National Football Foundation legacy winner.\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"League play kicks off throughout the region on Friday, and here is a peek at rankings within our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-472159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472159","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=472159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}