The goal, Cathedral Catholic High School defensive end Luke Westfall says, is to stop the run, get a turnover and shorten the field for the offense.

It sounds simple. But against Lincoln — a team with five-star quarterback Akili Smith, talented receivers and a good running back in Aden Jackson — the task becomes complicated.

Lincoln beat Cathedral Catholic by 20 points on Oct. 18.

Saturday night, the Dons and Hornets meet again — this time at Snapdragon Stadium for the CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship. The winner advances to the Southern California Regionals. The loser’s season is over.

The key to that October game was containing Smith. Four times, Westfall and the Dons had Smith trapped and primed for a sack.

Each time, Smith escaped for keeping-the-drive-alive gains of 10, 11, 22 and 17 yards. He also completed 16 of 23 passes for 217 yards with a pair of touchdowns. He was intercepted just once.

Lincoln rushed 43 times for 230 yards in that first game, with Jackson carrying 21 times for 92 yards.

“Our goal every game is to create three turnovers,” said the 6-foot-3, 260-pound Westfall. “We want to get some sacks, make the quarterback uncomfortable. We need to finish when we have him trapped.”

Smith extended Lincoln’s first drive with a 10-yard scramble in the teams’ first meeting. On fourth down, he completed a 6-yard pass to keep the drive alive on the way to the game’s first score. He also had time-killing scrambles on three other drives.

“We have to contain Akili,” said Cathedral Catholic defensive back Honor Fa’alave-Johnson.  “Akili is a five-star guy. He’s going to Oregon because he’s really good.

“But we can’t let him escape. We can’t let him complete the big one against us. We need to bother him so the ball comes out of his hand quicker than he’d like.”

Cathedral Catholic has one of the biggest, baddest defenses in the county.

The Dons have given up just 121 points all season. They’ve shut out two teams; four other times, they allowed just one touchdown.

Cathedral finished the regular season 8-2. The losses, to Lincoln and San Francisco St. Ignatius, “we gave away,” coach Sean Doyle said.

“Honestly, we’re blessed with some really good players,” Doyle said. “We’re big. We’re strong. And we’re fast. And in John Montali, I believe we have the best defensive coordinator around.”

Westfall and Fa’alave-Johnson are both highly regarded college prospects. There is also 6-foot-4, 270-pound Brody Harriff, three-star junior linebacker Bronx Letuligasenoa, Josh Faraimo, Cade Smith, Joshua Spencer, Sven Chuppa, Carter Jackson, Jake Bloom, Matthias Beals, Cade Smith and Samuel Samuela

And then there’s San Diego State commit Sidney Dupuy and USD commit Diezel Hernandez.

“We have backup guys who could start for nearly every other school in the county,” said Doyle, whose team runs an old-school 3-4 defense.

Jackson said one of the keys to last week’s 27-6 win over unbeaten La Costa Canyon in the semifinals was stopping the Mavericks on their first series.

“It was three-and-out and that set the tone,” Carter said. “We want to do that every drive, but especially the first.”

Lincoln assistant coach Jason Carter said the Hornets played “a great game” the first time around against Cathedral.

“We felt all along that it would be us and Cathedral playing for a second time in the championship game,” he said. “We prepared to play them twice.”

The game is being played on a college stage in Snapdragon Stadium, home of San Diego State. Fans are only allowed to sit on the east side of the stadium, but the crowd is expected to spill over and fill both end zones.

“We all know — both teams — that this is a big game,” Hernandez said. “It’s not just another game, but the team that can treat it like it is, keep its composure, will have an advantage.”

CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship game

Who: No. 1 Lincoln (9-2) vs. No. 3 Cathedral Catholic (9-2)

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Snapdragon Stadium

Originally Published: November 21, 2024 at 3:54 PM PST