For the fifth time since 2017, Southern California’s Mater Dei High School is the High School Football America national champ. Saturday night, the Monarchs clinched another national crown by beating No. 25 De La Salle 37-15 in the California Open Division championship game at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
The victory wrapped up a perfect wire-to-wire run atop the High School Football America 300 national rankings, powered by NFL Play Football. Every win during the Monarchs’ 13-0 season came against teams that will finish 2024 ranked in the HSFA 300.
Mater Dei scored on its first two possessions and never lost the lead Oregon-signee Jordon Davison scored the first points.
On the next series, Dash Beierly, a Washington-signee, hooked-up with sophomore Gavin Honore on a 90-yard catch-and-carry.
De La Salle made a game of it in the third quarter with QB Toa Faavae scoring twice to cut the lead to 23-15.
Mater Dei then put together a 16-play, 92-yard drive that was capped with a Davison TD run.
The ultra-tough Trinity League has now won the last eight Open Division championships and seven of the last eight national championships. St. John Bosco won national titles in 2019 and 2022.
The only year MD or SJB didn’t win a national championship was during the COVID pandemic in 2020, when SoCal only played a limit spring time schedule, cancelling fall games.
We will release our penultimate Top 300 on Sunday afternoon. Our final 2024 ranking will be released on December 22.
