Herd Comes Up Short, Again, In Section Final

Three times in the last four years the Elk Grove High School football team played at Hornet Stadium on the Sacramento State University campus in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s championship game.

Three times in the last four years the Herd has left the locker room in Broad Fieldhouse on the south end of the stadium with heads down, muttering what might have happened if one or two plays might have gone their way.

Each time head coach Chris Nixon, though very disappointed, has found the words to reflect back on the season and find the positives that got the Herd to the championship game.  Saturday he had those words after losing the Division I championship to Folsom, 35-27.

“There were a lot of tears shed and a lot of disappointment, but this was a tremendous season,” he said.

Elk Grove came into the game with a 13-0 record. With the same mark was their opponent, Folsom, marking this just the second time a pair of 13-0 teams faced off for a Sac-Joaquin Section championship. The other time came in 1989 when Merced and Nevada Union both were 13-0. Merced ended up the winner that day.

In the past few years Elk Grove has been in the Division II playoffs, but this year under a new rule, were brought up to Division I because of its Delta League championship.

“The Section has its reason for doing what they did, forcing us up to D-1, but to take two teams like this and play us off in Section, it does leave us with an empty feeling like we came away with nothing, “ Nixon said. 

For Folsom head coach Kris Richardson the early December games at Sac State is familiar territory. The Bulldogs have now won four straight Section titles, are the defending state champions in Division I and are riding a 30-game winning streak.

Richardson said this Section championship was particularly special because his son, Kooper, a starting offensive lineman, is a senior.

“I’ve watched a lot of these guys go through the youth program and watch them grow up with my own son and it was fun to watch,” Richardson said.

But, obtaining this Section title was a battle for the Bulldogs. Folsom quarterback Jake Jeffrey fumbled on the fourth play of the game, recovered by Lau Ta’amu a the Bulldogs’ 16.

Ryan Robards scored on the next play and then kicked the extra point for an early 7-0 lead.

Folsom: Rebuild or Reload This Season?

Here is the latest in my series of football previews, this one I look at the exciting Folsom Bulldogs ...

Folsom’s football team has made Friday nights at Prairie City Stadium fun. There’s never a dull moment. Kris Richardson’s score-quickly and score-often offense has been thrilling Bulldog fans for several years now, winning the California state championship in 2010 and placing second in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division II playoffs a year ago.

The question this season is whether the Bulldogs will be reloading or rebuilding because of the loss of big stars like J’juan Muldrow, Tanner Trosin, Carson McMurtry, Alex Wood and Doug Vernon to graduation.

Behind the play of those guys Folsom averaged 507 yards and 42 points a game, including two games in which 100 or more points combined were scored. In a memorable offensive contest on Oct. 14, Folsom and Sheldon combined for 48 points scored in the third quarter alone as the Bulldogs defeated the Huskies, 63-40. There were 1,113 total yards of offense run up by the teams that night.

“I think this is our year to reload,” Richardson, entering his eighth season as Folsom’s head coach, said. “All the good programs – our whole league is like this – have a great thing going. The outgoing seniors graduate and we just plug the next guy in.”