‼️OFFICIAL HIGHLIGHTS‼️ Serra Padres vs De La Salle Spartans

This game was outstanding, one of the best high school games we’ve seen in a while here at GetSportsFocus.

The setting, the drama, the storylines, the caliber of the athletes, the coaches, and the rivalry perfectly played out on national TV. Wait until you see the behind-the-scenes from this game when the GSF360 Padre Football series come out in the future.

The Mightly De La Salle has some big-time future college players on their team. Cooper Flanagan is one of them. He’s a 4-Star, Notre Dame commit, and he stood out above the rest of the Spartans with his playmaking ability on offense as a TE and defense as a DE. The hit he applied on Serra’s junior QB Maealiuaki Smith in the third quarter was super impressive. But perhaps that hit woke a sleeping giant in Smith.

Smith started the game well with a TD pass to his speedy receiver Jaden Weber shortly after Serra’s defense had a takeaway in their first defensive series against the Spartans. Smith led the offense deep into the Spartans’ territory enough times that the score should have been 21-7, Serra at the half. But the offense was plagued with key turnovers thanks to some heads-up plays by the De La Salle defense, who forced three in the first half.

De La Salle pulled away 21-7 late in the third, but Padre’s defense led by Sam Goligoski and Danny Niu, who each had 9 total tackles, kept the pressure and gave Smith and the offense enough time to get it together. Smith rallied his squad to two touchdown drives and showed off his versatility in front of the nation as ESPN televised the game. Smith is a 3-Star rated national recruit, and he put on a dramatic comeback that will be remembered as one of the greatest in school history because the Serra Padres finally beat the De La Salle Spartans.

There is so much more about this game that can only be told in a 10-chaptered book. Perhaps when Serra’s head football coach of 22 years and counting, Patrick Walsh, a DLS Alum, Class of 1993, will write about it someday.

Maealiuaki Smith finished with 249 yards completing 19 out of 26 and two touchdowns.

Marley Alapati, a junior whose family moved to the area of Daly City during the off-season and ended up as a Padre, also had a storybook outing as he started the game with a fumble recovery and practically ended it with an interception that led to the game-winning 20-yard field goal by Dylan Joudieh. Alapati attended De La Salle in his first two years as a high schooler, and his “homecoming” at DLS will also be memorable forever. He finished with five total tackles, four solo, a fumble recovery, and an interception.