League champs! O’Dowd survives James Logan’s comeback to win MVAL/WACC Foothill crown

OAKLAND — As Bishop O’Dowd head coach Hardy Nickerson walked off the field after the Dragons’ 35-27 win over James Logan on Friday night, he couldn’t hold in his excitement. 

“League champs!” Nickerson yelled in front of the O’Dowd home bleachers. “We got the belt!”

Despite a furious Logan comeback in the second half, O’Dowd held on to beat the Union City school and capture the Mission Valley/West Alameda Foothill Division crown on senior night. 

“We’ve been building,” Nickerson said. “This ain’t something that happened overnight. The guys have just been committed and they’ve taken the next step. It’s been really really fun to watch.”  

O’Dowd quarterback Devin Wilson had one of his best performances of the season, completing 12 of 20 passes for 168 yards and four touchdowns.

Senior safety Jacob Knopp came up big for the Dragons as he made the game-sealing interception on Logan’s final drive of the game.

“We got back for our brothers,” Knopp said. “The last time we were here on senior night two years ago, we lost 28-0. … Now we won. No questions asked.”

Logan had the game tied at 7 after the first quarter, but a string of O’Dowd scores put the Dragons up big early. 

Wilson found Jaren Beene for a 26-yard score to put O’Dowd up 13-7 to start the second quarter. 

Later, Knopp picked off a Logan pass and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown to make the score 21-7. 

Logan got back into the game momentarily when the Colts strung together a six-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard scoring rush by Lamar Ellis.

But O’Dowd’s offense kept their foot on the gas as Wilson threw his third and fourth touchdown passes before the end of the first half to put O’Dowd up 35-14 at halftime. 

As the third quarter started, rain poured into Oakland and dampened the O’Dowd field. But just as the Dragons looked like they were going to run away with the game, the Colts found their groove. 

Late in the third quarter, senior quarterback David Mercado found wide receiver Ayden McChristian for a 12-yard score over the middle of O’Dowd’s defense to cut the lead to 15. 

Logan made a crucial stop later in the third, and marched its offense 85 yards in nine plays, capped off by a Mercado 23-yard strike to Danzel Mercado that brought the Colts to within eight points with under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. 

With Logan having all the momentum, O’Dowd went back to its run game. The Dragons marched down to the Logan 13-yard line using a variety of inside runs and short passes, but Logan sophomore Tevita Taupaki gave the Colts one last chance to tie the game. 

At the 2:34 mark of the fourth quarter, the Dragons rushed up the middle right into Taupaki who stripped the ball from an O’Dowd running back and gave the Union City school possession with just minutes left in the game. 

With a league title on the line, O’Dowd’s defense came in clutch. Logan couldn’t reach the first-down marker in its first three plays of the possession and were faced with a fourth-and-seven. The Colts decided to pass and Knopp came up with his second interception of the game and sealed the MVAL/WACC Foothill crown for O’Dowd.

“I saw the ball thrown wide side the field and I’m like, ‘I gotta pick this. It’s my ball. This is the game,’” Knopp said.

It was a full circle moment for O’Dowd, which hasn’t won a league title since 2018. Nickerson, who took the job in 2022, adds Friday’s victory to a list of signature wins the Dragons have had this season that includes Monte Vista and Moreau Catholic. 

“They are a tough opponent,” Nickerson said of Logan. “They’re a Division I school, a big school with over 5,000 students. We’re a small Catholic school. … We worked so hard. This ain’t something that just happened overnight. It’s something that we’ve been working towards. We started during the offseason. It’s just great for us to be able to deliver on what we set as a goal and that’s to win our league.”

Wilson added, “This means everything to us. We look up at the gym and we have a banner up there that says 2018. It’s something we’ve been planning on the whole season and we’re just happy to be back.”

For first-year Logan coach James Barnes, the fact that his team was even in league title contention was something he was proud of, despite the loss. Logan lost its three-star quarterback Jonathan Craft when he transferred to El Cerrito before this season and started the year with four consecutive losses. 

“The future is bright,” Barnes said. “We’re not going anywhere. The guys believe in the system. It’s going to take one more year to get over that hump. We take our bumps now, so then going forward, we know what it feels like to be prepared and experienced to play those games.”