‘Y’all state champs!’: St. Ignatius beats Ventura for 3-AA crown
FULLERTON — St. Ignatius is a state football champion.
The San Francisco school, which was founded in 1855, had never even made a state football title game before this season.
But on Friday night in Fullerton, the Wildcats beat Ventura 42-35 for the 3-AA championship, clinching their first state title in the 20 years that the CIF had held the games.
As SI coach JaJuan Lawson showed off impressive speed to evade a Gatorade shower, pandemonium broke loose on the Wildcats’ sideline. It was a celebration seven weeks in the making after SI started the season 2-6.
Steve Malone ran in two long touchdowns and Caedon Afsharipour threw two TD passes and ran for another to lead SI in the historic victory.
The Wildcats are now 9-6, and the second West Catholic Athletic League state champs from the City, joining rival Sacred Heart Cathedral, which won the 4-A title in 2021.
“We worked since January 15 for this,” Lawson said. “Enjoy this. Have fun. Y’all state champs.”
It was the culmination of SI’s build in two seasons under coach Lenny Vandermade, who left SI in January after winning the Central Coast Section Open Division championship last season.
Lawson, who was Vandermade’s offensive coordinator, took over this year and has now put his stamp on the program in the best possible way.
And for the record – after missing him with two different Gatorade buckets — the Cats’ players got him with a third.
Just like their state championship.
St. Ignatius reached the 3-AA title game by beating fellow Bay Area school Monte Vista 17-13 last week.
The Wildcats were the top seed in the Central Coast Section Division II bracket and beat No. 8 Alisal 49-7 in the first round of the section playoffs. They beat No. 4 Menlo School 42-6 and then beat No. 2 Sacred Heart Cathedral 24-21 to win the section tournament.
It was SI’s second win this season over its Bruce-Mahoney rival. The Wildcats also beat SHC 23-14 in the final week of the regular season, which essentially clinched the top seed in the D-II bracket.
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