RANKINGS: Santa Margarita Stays No. 1 as Mater Dei Knocks Centennial Out of the Top Three

Eagles roll Inderkum; Sierra Canyon and the Monarchs climb; Crean Lutheran takes the week’s steepest drop; Capistrano Valley and Chaparral crash the board

The top of the JPWest Media CIFSS Top 25 did not change. Almost everything under it did.

Santa Margarita is still the No. 1 team in the Southern Section after a 41-0 Saturday night against Sacramento Inderkum. Three weeks. Three different kinds of wins. Same chair. That is holding, and in this section that is the whole job until somebody rips the seat out from under you.

Everybody else had to answer for Friday night.

Mater Dei and Corona Centennial finally played the game the Southland had circled since August, and the final looked exactly like the tape: 10-9. Decided in the fourth quarter by two Monarch takeaways. Centennial had the game in its hands and let it slip. That is how a former No. 1 falls two spots out of the top three. That is also how a 4-0 Mater Dei team walks into the four-hole and starts talking about Bishop Gorman on Friday.

Sierra Canyon did not need a committee meeting. Three interceptions returned for touchdowns in a 52-0 demolition of Saint Louis (Honolulu) is not a box-score win. That is a statement. The Trailblazers slide past Centennial into No. 3 and now get Orange Lutheran at home. Win that one, and this ranking stops being an argument.

Crean Lutheran is the week’s biggest faller, tumbling five spots to No. 19 after a 28-21 loss to Oak Ridge — the Saints’ second straight defeat. Capistrano Valley and Chaparral crash the board. Oak Hills and Rancho Cucamonga fall off it.

The top two held. The rest of the poll got honest. And next Friday is about to blow this thing wide open.

The Top 10

1. Santa Margarita (4-0) — The defending CIF-SS Division 1 and State Open champions treated Inderkum like a Tuesday practice. Forty-one to nothing on a Saturday night is not a dogfight. It is a reminder. Norco comes to Saddleback College on Friday, and that is the first résumé game that can actually move this chair.

2. St. John Bosco (3-1) — The Braves did what a title contender is supposed to do with a Hawaii visitor: they put Kahuku away, 49-13. Koa Malau’ulu threw five touchdown passes. No drama. No climb back to No. 1, either. Honolulu Saint Louis is next on the road. Handle that, and the conversation at the top gets loud again.

3. Sierra Canyon (3-0) ↑1 Three pick-sixes. Fifty-two to nothing. The Trailblazers’ defense played like it was personally offended that Saint Louis showed up. They already own the JSerra win. They just added a shutout of a Hawaii power. Orange Lutheran walks into Chatsworth this Friday, and that game is the first one that can confirm — or puncture — this jump.

4. Mater Dei (4-0) ↑1 Forget the yardage. Watch the fourth quarter. Two turnovers, one-point win, freshman quarterback Paytyn Guess injecting life into a Monarch team that needed a spark against the Huskies. That is November football in September. Bishop Gorman at Santa Ana Stadium is not a reward. It is the next exam.

5. Centennial (1-2) ↓2 The Huskies had Mater Dei on the ropes and could not close. That has now happened twice in three weeks against top-five teams — first Santa Margarita by a point, now the Monarchs by a point. The talent is still here. The margin for error is gone. Rancho Cucamonga is next. A statement win is no longer optional.

6. Orange Lutheran (3-1) ↑1 Thirty-five to nothing over Gardena Serra is the kind of clean tape Ray Fenton wants heading into Chatsworth. The Lancers have weapons everywhere and they used all of them. Sierra Canyon on Friday is the game that decides whether this six-spot is a layover or a launching pad.

7. JSerra (3-1) ↑1 Hardy Nickerson’s Lions did not just beat Oak Hills. They erased them, 63-0. That is three straight wins since the Sierra Canyon loss, and the next one is a step-up date at Bishop Amat. Win in La Puente and the top six starts to look crowded.

8. San Clemente (4-0) ↓2 The Tritons are still unbeaten. They also needed a full four quarters to put away La Costa Canyon, 31-21. That is a win. It is not a leap. With Orange Lutheran and JSerra stacking more impressive bodies of work, San Clemente slides two and keeps the 4-0 in its pocket. Bye week next. Use it.

9. Mission Viejo (3-1) — Brett Burnor scored five touchdowns in a 56-0 demolition of San Diego Lincoln. The Diablos answered the Folsom loss the only way that matters: they went back to work and looked like a November team again. Pittsburg comes to town Friday. No more tune-ups.

10. Yorba Linda (4-0) — Forty-two to seven over Esperanza. Four-and-oh. The Mustangs are done asking for permission to live in the top 10. Huntington Beach is next, and that heavyweight fight is the first one that can punch them out of this chair — or lock them in it.

Notable Movers & Newcomers

Biggest risers

There was no seven-spot moonshot this week. The board moved on results, not vibes. Sierra Canyon, Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran, JSerra, Norco, Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach, Bishop Amat and San Juan Hills all nudged up a single chair — and every one of those jumps is attached to a win that looked the part.

Bishop Amat (↑1 to No. 17) is the one that still feels light. Kory Minor’s Lancers dropped 65 on Culver City, piled up six sacks, and sit 4-0. JSerra visits Friday. That game is the first one that can shove Amat into the top 15 for real.

Norco (↑1 to No. 14) keeps stacking bodies. Julian Medina accounted for five touchdowns in a 56-26 win over Etiwanda. The Cougars are 4-0 and they just drew the assignment of a lifetime: Friday night at Santa Margarita. Win that, and this 14-spot becomes a punchline.

Biggest fallers

Crean Lutheran (↓5 to No. 19) is the week’s only real tumble. A 28-21 loss to Oak Ridge is the Saints’ second straight defeat, and the board does not give participation trophies for last month’s tape. They stay in the conversation. They do not stay in the top 15.

Centennial (↓2 to No. 5) and San Clemente (↓2 to No. 8) are the other losers on the graphic. One dropped a one-point war to Mater Dei. The other won without looking like a top-six team. Different paths. Same result.

New to the rankings

Capistrano Valley (NR to No. 23) is 4-0 after a 59-14 handling of Millikan and finally forces the door open. The Cougars have been knocking. The board heard them.

Chaparral (NR to No. 25) is the better story. The Pumas beat Rancho Cucamonga 20-13 without star quarterback Dane Weber. That is how you get back on the board after last week’s exit. That is also how Rancho Cucamonga — last week’s No. 25 after a 13-spot free fall — disappears entirely.

Oak Hills drops off after the 63-0 loss at JSerra. One week you beat a ranked team and crash the poll. The next week the Lions remind you why the Trinity League does not do participation ribbons.

What Friday Night Told Us

The Trinity League went undefeated this week and looked mean. Bosco, JSerra, Servite and Orange Lutheran all won, and Servite’s 69-14 erasure of St. Paul was a reminder the Friars are not done just because they sat at .500 for a minute.

The 4-0 club is getting crowded: Santa Margarita, Sierra Canyon, Mater Dei, San Clemente, Yorba Linda, Palos Verdes, Pacifica, Norco, Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach, Bishop Amat, Chaminade, Dana Hills, Capistrano Valley. That list is too long to survive the next two Fridays. Somebody is about to get honest.

And the one-score club at the top is real. Santa Margarita beat Centennial by one in Week 2. Mater Dei beat Centennial by one in Week 3. The Huskies are 1-2 and still a top-five team because the tape says they belong in those games. The standings say they have to start finishing them.

Games That Will Blow Up Next Week’s Board

• No. 1 Santa Margarita vs. No. 14 Norco — Saddleback College. If the Cougars hang, the top five gets rewritten on the spot.
• No. 3 Sierra Canyon vs. No. 6 Orange Lutheran — Chatsworth. The cleanest style-versus-style game on the slate.
• No. 4 Mater Dei vs. Bishop Gorman — Santa Ana Stadium. National TV energy. Local implications.
• No. 7 JSerra at No. 17 Bishop Amat — La Puente. The Lions’ first real road test since the Sierra Canyon loss.
• JPWest Media Game of the Week: No. 10 Yorba Linda at No. 16 Huntington Beach — two 4-0 teams, one chair in the top 10, and a packed Orange County Friday night.

Win those, and you do not just hold your spot. You start dictating the poll. Lose them, and Week 5 is going to look like a different sport.

Full Week 4 Top 25

Dropped out: Oak Hills, Rancho Cucamonga
New this week: Capistrano Valley (No. 23), Chaparral (No. 25)

The board will keep shifting. It always does in this section. The difference now is the non-league runway is almost gone, and the games left on the schedule actually mean something. Santa Margarita is still the team to beat. After Friday, we will find out how many teams still think they can.