Mater Dei football to play just nine games – again – after Bishop Montgomery forfeits upcoming game

Lance Smith

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Mater Dei football to play just nine games – again – after Bishop Montgomery forfeits upcoming game image

For the second year in a row and third time in five years, Mater Dei – the No. 1 team in high school football – will play fewer than 10 regular season games.

While finding non-league opponents willing to play has been an issue in recent years, the Monarchs did get 10 games on the schedule this regular season. But Bishop Montgomery has forfeited their Aug. 29 game, a Mater Dei home game at the Santa Ana Bowl, due to a lack of available players. It's the result of a game-ending brawl between Bishop Montgomery and St. Louis, Hawaii's top-ranked team, during which numerous players left the sideline in violation of CIF policy.

The game was called with 51 seconds left with St. Louis up 34-27. 

Mater Dei is coming off a season-opening 26-23 victory over Florida juggernaut St. Thomas Aquinas. It will next play at home on Friday, Sep. 5 against Kahuku (HI).

Assuming the Monarchs earn a top-two seed in the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, the most games they can play this season is 13. That's also under the assumption that the CIF-SS doesn't expand to a 16-game Division 1 field and the state office doesn't add a regional championship to the state Open Division bracket, in which the top team in both Southern California and Northern California traditionally advance straight to the state finals.

Mater Dei only needed 13 games – all wins – last season to win an undisputed national championship.

After Kahuku, the Monarchs wrap up non-league play against fellow national contenders Corona Centennial and Bishop Gorman (NV). They begin Trinity League play on Oct. 3 at Orange Lutheran and close it on Oct. 31 at St. John Bosco.

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Lance Smith

Lance has covered high school basketball, football and softball since 2019. A graduate of The USC Marshall School of Business, Smith dabbles in linear algebra and football and basketball computer rankings.