Bishop Montgomery had high aspirations for this football season, including scheduling a game against mighty Mater Dei.
Those aspirations vanished this week. Bishop Montgomery forfeited its game against Mater Dei that was scheduled for Friday at Santa Ana Stadium.
Bishop Montgomery, a co-ed Catholic school in Torrance, stated that it “does not have enough healthy and eligible players to safely field a team” to play Mater Dei.
Mater Dei is taking the high road on the canceled game. The school statement sent by Mater Dei president Michael Brennan included this: “While we are disappointed that the football game was forfeited, we understand and support Bishop Montgomery’s decision. Our hope is that their storied football program has a blessed season.”
Mater Dei might be a tad angry, and for good reason. It would have been the first home game of the season for the Monarchs, the No. 1 team in various national rankings. The first home game for a big football program like Mater Dei’s is a big money-maker and a major event for the school community.
It’s bizarre that the No. 1 team in the nation just had its home opener canceled.
Here is how the forfeit and cancellation happened …
Bishop Montgomery, a lower-division football team that missed the playoffs last season, had five transfers declared ineligible by the CIF Southern Section last week. Their transfer attempts were found to be in violation of CIF bylaw 202 that requires that all information regarding eligibility “must be true, correct, accurate, complete and/or not false or inaccurate.”
Bishop Montgomery on its own banned several more Knights players from being able to participate in the Mater Dei game. The players were involved in an on-field fight that happened in the final moments of their game last week in Hawaii against St. Louis.
There could be more one-game suspensions coming for Bishop Montgomery. The South Bay group of the California Football Officials Association was still reviewing skirmish as of Thursday morning. The group could recommend to the CIF-SS office that more Knights players should be penalized.
Mater Dei said it was first informed of the forfeit Monday. Bishop Montgomery said it was thinking about forfeiting the game against Mater Dei before last week’s game in Hawaii. It might have been considerate to give Mater Dei the heads-up about that, although it would be near impossible for Mater Dei to find a Week 1 replacement opponent.
So Mater Dei is left with a nine-game regular season schedule for the second year in a row. CIF rules allow a maximum of 10 regular-season games for a football team. Mater Dei plays its first 2025 home game Sept. 5 at Santa Ana Stadium against Hawaii’s Kahuku.
Nobody is going to feel sorry for Mater Dei football. But the Monarchs did get sideswiped on this one.
NOTES
• Bruce Rollinson, who coached Mater Dei football to consistent excellence from 1989-2022, was not a fan of travelling out of state to fill the schedule. But he relented and did so a couple of times, starting in 2018 with a trip to Las Vegas. Rollinson was concerned that perhaps if Mater Dei could not offer players a full schedule that could keep Mater Dei from remaining a preferred destination for football players. …
• The El Toro-Aliso Niguel football game scheduled for Friday has been postponed to Sept. 27 because of a “personnel matter” involving an employee of the Capistrano Unified School District, a district spokesperson said. Aliso Niguel belongs to the Capistrano Unified School District. El Toro is a Saddleback Valley Unified School District school. …
• The Tustin vs. Foothill football game Friday at Tustin High is a Foothill home game. That has to be weird for Tustin people, to sit on the visitors side of that stadium. …
• The HSratings.com state football rankings this week have Mater Dei at No. 1 and St. John Bosco at No. 2. Orange County teams in the Top 10 include No. 5 Orange Lutheran, No. 6 Mission Viejo, No. 7 Santa Margarita and No. 10 JSerra. …
• Spectrum’s TV coverage of high school football has two Orange County games coming: Chaminade vs. Servite on Sept. 5; Mater Dei vs. Centennial, Sept. 12. The games will be on the Spectrum News 1 and Spectrum SportsNet channels. …
• In a big early-season girls volleyball match, Newport Harbor defeated San Juan Hills in five sets. The scores: 26-28, 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 15-10. Newport Harbor is 8-0 under first-year coach Pat Eaton, who previously coached at Tesoro. …
• Two Orange County athletes who won CIF-SS individual championships last fall are not playing for their high schools year. Sophia Suh, the CIF-SS girls tennis singles champion as a freshman at Orange Lutheran, is playing on the International Tennis Federation circuit. Samantha Daniels, who won the CIF-SS individual golf championship as a Santa Margarita freshman last season, is not playing this season. …
• The Dave Mohs Tournament, one of the better early-season girls volleyball tournaments in Southern California, is Sept. 5-6 at Edison High. Among the teams in its Division 1 group are Corona del Mar, Edison, Huntington Beach, JSerra, Marina, Newport Harbor, San Clemente, San Juan Hills and Santa Margarita. …
• The Woodbridge Classic, the most prestigious regular-season cross country meet every season, is Sept. 19-20 at Great Park in Irvine. Two other top meets on the near horizon are the Dana Hills Invitational (Sept. 6) and the Laguna Hills Invitational (Sept. 27). …
• Santa Margarita senior infielder Brody Schumaker has been selected to Team USA Baseball’s 18U national team that is headed to Japan on Friday. He is the son of ex-MLB player and manager Skip Schumaker, who played at Aliso Niguel. Brody Schumaker, who committed to Texas Christian University, was a second baseman last season and will move to shortstop this season. …
• CJ Weinstein, the starting shortstop for the Huntington Beach baseball team last season, has transferred to Orange Lutheran for his senior year.