by Luis Hernandez, Managing Editor

The St. John Bosco High School Braves play the Huskies of Corona Centennial tonight in the CIF-SS Semifinals at Panish Family Stadium, as Bosco Football continues its quest to repeat as CIF-SS, State and National Champions.

“The biggest thing is not looking too far ahead, but focusing on the task at hand and coming to practice every week to be better than we were last week,” said senior Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, a Notre Dame-commit.

The Centennial Huskies, who are currently ranked 19th in the country by Maxpreps, hope to extend their seven-game winning streak, but the Braves, who are currently ranked third in the nation by MaxPreps, hope to maintain their dominance over the Huskies. 

The Huskies are coming off a high-scoring game against Orange Lutheran, winning 63-39. The player of that game was senior running back Cornell Hatcher Jr, who scored five rushing touchdowns in the game.

The Braves will focus their attention to stopping the Huskies rushing attack. Bosco’s run defense in the playoffs thus far has been incredible, only allowing 33 rushing yards in their matchup against San Clemente. The defense was stingy all night, but Kyngstonn led the way with twelve total tackles and two tackles for a loss.

Centennial’s receivers also had a night with Cory Butler Jr. and Tavian Mcnair each having 100+ receiving yards and a touchdown against Orange Lutheran.

But the secondary of Bosco is the strongest in the nation, due to it being filled with studs in each position. Safety Peyton Woodyard and cornerbacks Marcelles Williams and Khmori House make throwing the ball for the opposing quarterback a nightmare.

The defense proved to be too much to handle for San Clemente, as quarterback Dylan Mills threw for only 74 yards last Friday.

The Braves ultimately won their playoff opener against the San Clemente Tritons 35-10.

Bosco started off the game slowly, causing the game to be 10-0 in the beginning of the second quarter. These would be the only points the Tritons would score for the rest of the game, as the defense caught fire and the offense picked it up later in the second quarter scoring two touchdowns.

“We have been successful this season due to our ability to handle adversity, ” said senior Tamal Johnson.

Quarterback Caleb Sanchez found Kyngstonn for a four-yard touchdown pass. The defense quickly shutdown San Clemente’s offensive possession, which led to a long punt return from Alabama-commit Peyton Woodyard to the Triton’s one yard line. UCLA-commit Cameron Jones finished the job with a one-yard rushing touchdown.

The Braves were unstoppable entering the second half of the game, senior Chauncey Slyvester quickly scored a 49-yard rushing touchdown to give Bosco a comfortable lead.

The Triton’s offense could not get anything going due to Bosco playing extremely good defense. Following an excellent kickoff from the Braves that landed on San Clemente’s six yard line, Tamal caught a pick 6 that solidified the game for the Braves.

In the last minutes of the game, Bosco capped off their successful night with a 16-yard rushing touchdown from senior Kahlil Warren.

“The biggest thing is not looking too far ahead but focusing on the task at hand and coming to practice every week to be better than we were last week,” said Kyngstonn. “We just got to improve week-to-week to peak at the right time down the stretch. and not take anything we do for granted.”

The Braves kick off tonight at 7:00pm at Panish Family Stadium with a win sending them to the Los Angeles Coliseum for the CIF-SS Championship game on Friday, November 24th at 7:00pm.