O’Dowd asserts itself with 35-9 win over league rival Moreau Catholic

OAKLAND — The magnitude of the win could be measured by the extent of the celebration.

Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” thumped over the loudspeakers as coach Hardy Nickerson and his players strutted to midfield for the postgame handshake line. Once the sportsmanship was out of the way, the victors raced back to their sideline, mobbed each other and, eventually, snapped a team photo.

At last, the Foothill League belongs to Bishop O’Dowd again.

“We knew this was going to be our league championship,” senior Deji Ajose said Friday night after the Dragons’ 35-9 smackdown of their West Alameda County Conference rivals Moreau Catholic. “So we came in really dialed in, we had our game plan, and we stuck to it.”

The matchup pitted the final two teams left without a league loss against each other in the penultimate week of the regular season. Playing in front of a home crowd — and DJ D Sharp spinning a soundtrack to accompany the marching band — O’Dowd left no question as to the superior squad.

The Dragons took a 14-9 lead into intermission, then pitched a shutout in the second half while imposing their will offensively.

“At halftime, we went in, talked about, and when we came out, the kids came out an executed like clockwork,” Nickerson said. “I’m so proud of my kids, so proud of what they’ve done. This is big. … We said, ‘Moreau Catholic’s undefeated in league; we’re undefeated in league. This is a big game.’ And they rose to the occasion.”

The win was O’Dowd’s fourth in a row and its sixth of the season, matching its total from last season. It also clinched its first WACC Foothill title since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The last time the Dragons captured a full-season crown was in 2018.

According to Nickerson, “this is the first time in like four or five years that we’ve had a four-game win streak. …

“It’s coming together,” he continued. “It’s coming together.”

Ajose, committed to play for the University of Washington, hauled in an interception, returned it for a touchdown and caught three more passes from his own quarterback, O’Dowd senior Devin Wilson, who led an efficient offense with 135 yards and a pair of TDs on 11-of 17 passing.

It was the ground game where the Dragons held their biggest advantage behind bruising senior Saliou Sow, who was responsible for 93 of their 152 rushing yards on 14 carries. He hauled in their first score of the night when he beat his defender on a wheel route for a 37-yard strike in the first quarter, then put the victory on ice with a six-yard scamper into the end zone to finish off their opening drive of the second half, which extended the advantage to 21-9.

The touchdown was their seventh run of the drive, and Nickerson wouldn’t draw up his first pass play of the second half until backed into a third-and-16 midway through the third quarter. Wilson found Ajose for a first down and completed his next three passes for 33 yards to set up 1-yard touchdown run from sophomore Oc Lehner.

“When our offensive line gets going, they’re tough to stop,” Nickerson said. “When we came back out in the second half, that first drive was crucial. We talked about it in the locker room. We need to come back out, first drive, take it down the field and score. Our guys responded and they did it. That kind of set the tone for the whole second half.”

Moreau outgained O’Down through the air behind its gunslinger, senior Jeremiah Charles, who finished with 211 yards on 18-of-30 passing. But the Dragons didn’t turn the ball over, whereas the Mariners never recovered from their quarterback’s ill-fated interception that Ajose returned to the house in the first half.

Moreau also turned the ball over on downs twice, while O’Dowd only punted for the first time on its final drive of the game — when a holding penalty negated what would have been another touchdown strike to extend the lead even further. The Dragons started in Moreau territory on two of their four second-half possessions.

After extending the lead to 28-9 with 3:18 to go in the third, O’Dowd gave the ball back to Moreau and forced a three-and-out while getting to the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage on all three plays. Lehner and senior Evan Garrison were constant presences in the backfield all night.

That said, the most impactful defensive force on either side might have been Moreau senior Miles Moore, who collected a game-high three sacks, including two in a row late in the first half that forced O’Dowd to attempt — and miss — a long field goal that kept the score 7-3.

From then on, however, Moreau would only find the end zone once, on a double-reverse handoff to speedy senior Saia Taesali, who weaved his way 27 yards for the score with 6 second left in the first half — only for the point-after attempt to be blocked.

Taesali used his speed for another explosive play in the first half, taking the Mariners from their own territory to the edge of the goal line on a heave from Charles. It could have been six, but Ajose chased him down at the 4-yard line and O’Dowd put together a goal-line stand that proved to be a sign of things to come.

“That’s what you expect from a primetime player,” Nickerson said. “Great effort.”