St. John Bosco, the #1 team in the High School Football America National Top 25, begins 2016 in the top spot in Southern California. The Braves open on the road Saturday at St. Xavier in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Related: Listen to St. John Bosco HC Jason Negro on High School Football America Radio Show
Mater Dei is right behind the Braves at #2 in the High School Football America Southern California Top 25. The Monarchs, who are ranked #4 nationally, open against Bishop Amat on Friday.
Related: High School Football America Top 25
Related: High School Football America The Other 25
Corona Centennial, last year’s #1 team in SoCal, Chaminade and Mission Viejo round-out the Top 5 in our rankings that are based on our proprietary algorithm that is used to design our national and regional rankings.
There are several very interesting opening week match-ups within the Top 25, starting with a Top 10 showdown between #4 Chaminade and #7 Oaks Christian.
Chaminade is expecting a big season, thanks to return of several key players from last year, plus the addition of junior quarterback Brevin White, who transferred from Alemany. The Eagles should have plenty of balance with the return of running back T.J. Pledger, who rushed for over 1,300 yards rushing last season.
Oaks Christian loses a dozen starters from last year’s team, including wide receiver Michael Pittman, who is now at USC. However, before you start feeling bad for head coach Jim Benkert, remember that he has players like junior quarterback Matt Corral and tight end Colby Parkinson. Corral, who has already given his verbal to USC, has been a starter since he was a freshman. He’s coming-off a sophomore season that saw him complete 68 percent of his passes with 36 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Parkinson has given his verbal to Stanford.
The other Top 25 vs. Top 25 match-ups are:
Narbonne at Serra
The game was originally scheduled for El Camino College, but now has been moved to Serra. The Cavaliers, ranked #13 in our preseason poll, opened the season Friday with a loss in Arizona to Saguaro. Narbonne, coming-off a CIF Division I-A state championship, is ranked #6 in our poll.
La Mirada vs. Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College
Like Narbonne, #14 La Mirada is coming-off a state championship season. The Matadores, who return plenty of talent from last year’s squad, including quarterback Tristan Meyer, play one of the toughest non-league schedules in SoCal. After #10 OLu, LM will face #1 St. John Bosco, #2 Mater Dei and #15 San Clemente. OLu head coach Chuck Petersen has made some major changes to his triple-threat offense during the off-season. Expect to see more passes out of Petersen’s team in 2016.
High School Football America SoCal Top 25
#1 St. John Bosco
#2 Mater Dei
#3 Corona Centennial
#4 Chaminade
#5 Mission Viejo
#6 Narbonne
#7 Oaks Christian
#8 Vista Murrieta
#9 Servite
#10 Orange Lutheran
#11 Long Beach Poly
#12 Calabasas
#13 Serra (0-1)
#14 La Mirada
#15 San Clemente
#16 Loyola
#17 Corona del Mar
#18 Rancho Cucamonga
#19 Edison
#20 JSerra
#21 Upland
#22 St. Bonaventure
#23 La Habra
#24 Murrieta Valley
#25 Redlands East Valley
