MISSION VIEJO \u2013 Fifteen minutes before Cathedral Catholic kicked off against Folsom in Friday\u2019s Division 1-AA state championship football game at Saddleback College, a thick wave of fog settled onto the field.<\/p>\n
The London-like soup was so thick that players couldn\u2019t see across the field.<\/p>\n
Said the public address announcer early in the first quarter: \u201cI think it\u2019s second-and-goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dons certainly couldn\u2019t track down Folsom junior quarterback Brody Rudnicki. Rucnicki, starting for BYU-bound Ryder Lyons, rushed for four touchdowns, passed for two more, racked up 305 yards in total offense and led Folsom to a 42-28 win over Cathedral Catholic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran the hell out of the ball and threw the heck out of the ball, too,\u201d said Cathedral Catholic coach Sean Doyle.<\/p>\n
The state title was sixth for Folsom (14-1), which closed the season with 12 straight wins. Cathedral (11-3) was trying to win its fourth state title.<\/p>\n
Lyons, who was named the Gatorade State Player of the Year for the second season in a row, was injured in Folsom\u2019s Northern California Regional win last week against San Jose Archbishop Riordan. The Bulldogs trailed 38-28 when Lyons exited.<\/p>\n
On his first carry against Archbishop Riordan, Rudnicki took off on a 50-yard run and led a 42-38 comeback win.<\/p>\n
The morning of the state championship game, Doyle said of Rudnicki: \u201cHe\u2019s good. Real good. If he plays, I don\u2019t know that we\u2019re catching a break.\u201d<\/p>\n
Folsom wasted no time taking control of the game. With 44 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the Bulldogs led 21-0, scoring on all three drives. Total yardage to that point: Folsom 159, Cathedral Catholic 17.<\/p>\n
Folsom took the opening kickoff and covered 64 yards in nine plays, Rudnicki scoring from 2 yards. Folsom drive No. 2, following a three-and-out for the Dons, stretched 46 yards over four plays, Rudnicki hitting Rob Larson with a 32-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n
For Folsom drive No. 3, the Bulldogs marched 73 yards on eight plays, Rudnicki scoring from 29 yards on a quarterback draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stepped up to the role,\u201d said Dons running back\/cornerback Honor Fa\u2019alave-Johnson. \u201cHe came out and fought for his team. He was better than I thought. You gotta give him props.\u201d<\/p>\n
With 5:14 to play in the second quarter, Cathedral Catholic pulled to within 21-7 on a 15-yard touchdown run by Honor Fa\u2019alave-Johnson.<\/p>\n
Any thought of a Cathedral Catholic comeback was dealt a serious blow when Folsom scored 19 seconds before halftime on a 1-yard Rudnicki pass to Elijah Tuua for a 28-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Rudnicki gained 188 yards rushing on 24 carries and completed 11 of 20 passes for 117 yards.<\/p>\n
The second-half highlight for the Dons was a 74-yard touchdown run by Fa\u2019alave-Johnson. Cathedral Catholic\u2019s star running back\/defensive back finished the game with 267 yards on 22 carries and two TDs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s good, he\u2019s real good,\u201d Doyle said of his star running back. \u201cHe just has such incredible balance and vision. He got hit four, five times sometimes and just broke away. He wills what he wants to get done. He is special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cathedral Catholic trailed 42-14 in the fourth quarter, but scored two touchdowns to make the score respectable. Brady Palmer scored on a 4-yard run and tossed a 10-yard TD pass to Gianluca Busalacchi.<\/p>\n
Regarding the early 21-0 deficit, Doyle said: \u201cJust a little too much against a very, very good football team. People don\u2019t make the state championship game and not be good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just extremely proud of the boys. They fought until the very end, which a lot of teams don\u2019t do. A lot of teams with that score sit back and give up. Our boys didn\u2019t. They fought until the end. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t end the way we wanted to, but we gave it our best shot,\u201d said Fa\u2019alave-Johnson.<\/p>\n
The game marked the third time Cathedral Catholic and Folsom have played for a state championship. Folsom now leads the rivalry 2-1. Cathedral lost to Folsom 21-14 in overtime in 2018. The Dons beat the Bulldogs 33-21 in 2021.<\/p>\n
Division 1-AA State Football Championship Game<\/p>\n
At Saddleback College<\/p>\n
Folsom 42, Cathedral Catholic 28<\/p>\n
Folsom 21 7 7 7 \u2013 42<\/p>\n
Cathedral Catholic 0 7 7 14 \u2013 28<\/p>\n
F \u2013 Rudnicki 2 run (Ganguly kick)<\/p>\n
F \u2013 Larson 32 pass from Rudnicki (Ganguly kick)<\/p>\n
F \u2013 Rudnicki 30 run (Ganguly kick)<\/p>\n
CC \u2013 Fa\u2019alave-Johnson (Bernstein kick)<\/p>\n
F \u2013 Tuua 1 pass from Rudnicki (Ganguly kick)<\/p>\n
F \u2013 Rudnicki 11 run (Ganguly kick)<\/p>\n
CC -Fa\u2019alave-Johnson 74 run (Bernstein kick)<\/p>\n
F \u2013 Rudnicki 1 run (Ganguly kick)<\/p>\n
CC \u2013 Palmer 4 run (Bernstein kick)<\/p>\n
CC \u2013 Busalacchi 10 pass from Palmer (Bernstein kick)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MISSION VIEJO \u2013 Fifteen minutes before Cathedral Catholic kicked off against Folsom in Friday\u2019s Division 1-AA state championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2044,181,74,76,75,127,1696],"class_list":["post-93178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-high-school-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93178","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=93178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}