Second chances rarely arrive in a high school football season.
But the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 playoff bracket has provided Oaks Christian with a unique second shot this week at St. Bonaventure.
The Lions and Seraphs will play twice in a season for just the second time Friday, when Oaks Christian (4-6) will host St. Bonaventure (5-5) at Redell Field in a first-round playoff game.
The Seraphs handed the Lions their first shutout in Marmonte League play, 19-0, less than a month ago.
“The game that we wanted back,” Oaks Christian coach Charlie Collins said.
The teams tied with Bishop Diego for second place at 3-2 in league play. Oaks Christian lost the coin flip for the league’s automatic playoff berth, but still made the Division 4 field as an at-large selection.
The rematch is reminiscent of 2022, when Rio Mesa defeated Pacifica 24-7 in a Channel League showdown. The teams were matched up three weeks later in the Division 4 playoffs; Pacifica won, 34-7.
“Everything is at stake now,” St. Bonaventure coach Troy Hill said. “So you have to go out there prepared to play free.”
Hill is pulling from his experience as a player in the NFL, where divisional opponents face each other twice each season, for the rematch.
“It’s hard to beat a team twice,” Hill said. “But I’m excited for the challenge. … It’ll be good to see them at full strength, too.”
Both teams were missing arguably their most impactful players on Oct. 17.
Oaks Christian running back Deshonne Redeaux and St. Bonaventure defensive lineman Matt Perez both missed the game due to injury.
After missing the first three games of Marmonte League play, Redeaux has rushed for 379 yards and five TDs over the past two games — wins over Camarillo and Simi Valley — to earn his second straight 1,000-yard season.
Similarly, Perez had four sacks in the regular-season finale — a win over Camarillo — to earn his third straight 10-sack season.
Led by Perez, linebacker Jason Homan and safety Jeremiah Barrios, St. Bonaventure defense is allowing just 18.6 points per game.
After difficult regular seasons, both teams — considering recent postseason success — would expect to make long postseason runs, should they survive their longtime league foe.
St. Bonaventure won Division 3 in 2023 and reached the Division 4 final a year ago.
“I think we’re battle tested,” Hill said. “All those games that we lost come down to us beating ourselves. … We have to go out there and handle our business for the next six weeks.”
Collins, who coached Oaks Christian to a Division 2 semifinal run last season, is bullish on the Lions’ chances.
“If we play the way we played against Simi (last week), I think we can win the whole thing,” Collins said. “We’re trending upward.”
The only other time the teams faced each other twice in a season was in 2011, when Oaks Christian won 34-24 in Marmonte League play and 27-24 in the CIF-SS Northern Division semifinals.
Raiders revival
On the other side of the playoff spectrum is Channel Islands, who are preparing to play its first playoff game in 12 years on Friday at South El Monte.
“It’s awesome,” said coach Jeremiah Valoaga. “It’s a good challenge for us, to check our resolve and see how we attack this.”
The Raiders have no issues with being the No. 16 seed in Division 14, which means they are the last ranked team in the 216-team postseason field.
“I just look at it like we’ve got another week of football,” Valoaga said.
Valoaga remembers his playoff experience as a senior in 2011. He caught five passes for 51 yards and blocked a field goal in a 28-20 loss at Santa Monica.
“It’s going to be cool to see these guys experience (the playoffs), too,” Valoaga said.
After starting 0-6, Channel Islands grabbed a playoff berth by winning three of its last four games to finish third in the Citrus Coast League.
The Raiders haven’t won a playoff game in 48 years, when they beat Canyon Country-Canyon 42-6 in the 1987 Coastal Conference semifinals.
They lost to Thousand Oaks in the title game the next week.
Seeking a finishing kick
One word sums up the goal this week at Moorpark High — finish.
“Obviously we want to take a step forward,” Moorpark head coach Christian Dearborn said. “A lot of it is finishing.”
The Musketeers (9-1) have won 26 games over the past three years, but are still searching for their first playoff win since 2018.
Painfully dramatic playoff losses the last two years to Yorba Linda and Santa Ana-Foothill have produced lessons second-seeded Moorpark can draw on as it opens the Division 6 playoffs by hosting Riverside-King on Friday.
“Our message to the boys if finishing in all three phases,” Dearborn said.
Dearborn points to his limited roster as a reason why the Muskeeters have been so good on special teams.
“We’re fielding our smallest roster in 35 years,” Dearborn said. “That forces your hand a little bit. When guys like Gerrit Gray want to be on the kickoff team, that helps.”
Par for the course
A difficult season for Newbury Park became just a little tougher when the defending Division 2 champion was paired up with Loyola in the first round of the Division 5 playoffs.
A Mission League team? On the road? In Division 5?
“Not a great draw,” Newbury Park coach Joe Smigiel said, “but par for the course for this year.”
Of course, Newbury Park (6-4) will be without star quarterback Brady Smigiel, who suffered a season-ending injury Oct. 3 against Santa Barbara.
Sophomore Darrien Johnson gave the Panthers a spark in his first start at quarterback in a 49-7 win over Rio Mesa last weekend.
It’ll need to continue if they are going to play with Loyola, which fell to Simi Valley in the Division 3 semifinals a year ago.
“They’re huge,” Smigiel said.
Joe Curley covers football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Football notebook | Oaks Christian, St. Bonaventure ready for postseason rematch
Reporting by Joe Curley, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
