Familiar foe as Cardinal Newman faces St. Bernard's in NCS title game

Matt Tomlin played a major role the last time a Redwood Empire team won a North Coast Section football championship. Tomlin is in the hunt again this weekend, but he isn’t trying to hand the Empire another section title; he’s trying to take one away.

Tomlin, who was head coach at Piner High in 2009 and 2010 before helping Windsor win the Division 2 banner in 2011 as offensive coordinator, now is coaching at St. Bernard’s Academy in Eureka. Saturday night, his Crusaders will go head to head with Cardinal Newman in a Catholic school showdown for the Division 4 championship at Rancho Cotate High School.

“We’re a confident football team that feels capable of accomplishing anything - and we’re gonna need that on Saturday,” Tomlin said. “This is truly a David-versus-Goliath situation, and I’m happy to be coaching David.”

On the surface, the Crusaders don’t seem like sling-carrying underdogs. They are, after all, the defending state champions in Division V-A (the CIF divides teams differently than the NCS), and they graduated only five players from that 2015 team. But their success bumped them into a higher division. In fact, ?Tomlin said St. Bernard’s, with just 160 high-school-aged students (85 of them boys), is playing two divisions above its true weight now.

Stepping up the degree of difficulty, the Crusaders haven’t played any home games during the playoffs. That’s part of the penalty the Humboldt-Del Norte League handed down to the St. Bernard’s football and basketball programs for violating CIF standards on pre-enrollment contact and athletically motivated transfers.

The H-DNL announced the sanctions in a press release in April, citing three separate violations. The most serious was an instance in which one of Tomlin’s assistants texted a student-athlete at Eureka High and discussed transferring to St. Bernard’s.

Tomlin, who is also the school’s athletic director, told the Eureka Times-Standard that the violations resulted from ignorance of CIF and NCS rules, not of willful transgression. In any case, playing three consecutive postseason games away from home hasn’t hurt the Crusaders.

“Our kids are actually excited to be on the road,” Tomlin said. “It’s so rainy and cold here in Humboldt. All the fields are grass and we’re six inches deep in mud. We have tremendous team speed, and it’s been nice to play on some turf fields.”

They’ll get more turf at Rancho. They’ll also get their toughest opponent yet in Cardinal Newman.

The Cardinals look like they’re on a mission this year. They enter the game 11-1 after surviving a scare from Rancho Cotate in the North Bay League finale to finish undefeated in league. Newman’s only loss was 49-32 to St. Mary’s in Stockton back on Sept. 2; the Rams will play Folsom for the Sac-Joaquin Division 1 title on Saturday and are currently ranked No. 10 in the state by MaxPreps. Cardinal Newman has outscored its two playoff opponents 110-26.

If the Cardinals get past St. Bernard’s to win their 12th NCS football title, they will play for the NorCal championship a week later.

St. Bernard’s won’t be a pushover, though. Tomlin coordinates a potent offensive system that scored 76 points against Healdsburg in the first round of the playoffs, and 71 against Salesian last week.

Senior quarterback Jack Rice is a dual-threat dynamo who has passed for 3,082 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2016 while leading the team with 1,409 rushing yards and another 19 scores. He has offers from Sacramento State and the Air Force Academy. The Crusaders run a fast-paced, no-huddle, empty-backfield attack (Tomlin wants the ball snapped within 12 seconds every down), and they have four different receivers with at least 600 yards each this season.

Cardinal Newman coach Paul Cronin knows his defense will be stretched by St. Bernard’s, especially if Rice gets time to throw.

“You really count on your pass-rush guys,” Cronin said. “A sack is like a turnover sometimes. It’s tough to come back from. And the fewer guys you have to rush to get pressure, the better. If we can do it rushing four, great. If we’re dealing with a fifth or a sixth, it’s a little more stressful on the defensive backs.”

Cronin said the Cardinals usually rely on defensive ends Dino Kahaulelio and Wyatt Darien to initiate the pressure, with help from linebackers like Irvin Mann, Tanner Mendoza and Mike Daly.

Cardinal Newman has some weapons of its own, of course. Quarterback Jordon Brookshire, another run/pass threat, is on the short list for Redwood Empire Player of the Year, and Damian Wallace is among the most versatile wide receivers in the area.

Tomlin points to another huge asset for the Cardinals: their coaching staff. He calls Newman the premier prep football program north of the bay.

“Without a doubt, in my opinion Paul Cronin is the best high school football coach in the state of California,” Tomlin said. “I got to coach against him down there, and I have continued to follow his program since I’ve been gone. What people overlook is how outstanding his assistant coaches are. Bao Alderson, his top assistant - in fact, his whole staff, top to bottom, any of those guys could be head coaches at other programs.”

Tomlin is building a legacy of his own at St. Bernard’s, his alma mater, where his teams have gone 45-7 in four seasons.

This has been a difficult one, though. Tomlin’s daughter Reve, a star basketball player at St. Bernard’s, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in July. Tomlin, a 15-year law-enforcement veteran, retired from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department two weeks ago to spend more time with her.

As of Tuesday, Reve had undergone seven chemotherapy treatments. She was scheduled to have surgery today to remove the chemo port from her chest. Tomlin will be by her side, temporarily handing over coaching duties to his assistants.

“She’s doing outstanding,” Tomlin said. “After the last chemo session, the doctors declared her cancer-free.”

Tomlin will be back on the sideline Saturday, and so will Reve. She’s his stats keeper - not the easiest job for a team that snaps the ball every 12 seconds and averages 554 yards per game.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.