No. 1 Mater Dei (California) comes from behind to beat No. 5 IMG Academy

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No. 1 Mater Dei’s path to a second straight High School Football America “mythical” national championship is a little bit clearer after beating No. 5 IMG Academy 28-24 on Friday night before an overflow crowd in Santa Ana, California. It was a game that saw the Monarchs come back from a couple of deficits and overcome 155 yards in penalties.

IMG, which saw its 40-game win streak come to an end, took a 7-0 lead in the 2nd quarter and held a 7-6 advantage at the half. Mater Dei grabbed its first lead in the third quarter on a flea flicker that started with junior quarterback Bryce Young handing the ball to Shakobe Harper, who gave it to Bru McCoy, who gave it back Young, who found Sean Dollars wide open for the score. The two-point conversion gave the Monarchs a 14-7 lead.

Mater Dei won it with a little more than a minute to go on a touchdown run by Young, who’s given his verbal commitment to USC.

Young finished the game 21 of 30 for 309 yards with three touchdown passes.

Mater Dei, which now owns a 20-game win streak, opens Trinity League play next week against Servite, which is a rivalry game for the Monarchs. Our latest national rankings find Mater Dei and three other Trinity League teams ranked in the Top 100 — St. John Bosco at No. 4, Orange Lutheran at No. 29 and JSerra at No. 76.

Related: Top 100 Scoreboard

This will be the last time that IMG, which can recruit players from around the nation, will play a team from California, because the state has decided to ban such matchups.

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About the Author

Jeff Fisher
Jeff is an award-winning journalist and expert in the field of high school sports, underscored with his appearance on CNBC in 2010 to talk about the big business of high school football in America.Jeff turned to his passion for high school football into an entrepreneurial venture called High School Football America, a digital media company focused on producing original high school sports content for radio, television and the internet.Jeff is co-founder and editor-in-chief of High School Football America, a partner with NFL Play Football.