Friday Night Lights – The High School Season Ends: Part XV
Hanging up the used cleats they had once had to buy, these Golden Bears will have brand new ones waiting for them in their lockers in Berkeley.
The high school football season has officially come to an end, which brings our first “season” of Friday Night Lights at Write For California to hibernation, as we close out the series with coverage of the last two signed-California Golden Bears who squared off with their teams in the Division I-A 2025 CIF State Championship game and the Open Division 2025 CIF State Championship Game.
While the 2026 signees have been wrapping up their high school careers, the California Golden Bears have one last game to play this year, and before they do that, they are paying homage to their Hawaiian Bears who played high school football in the Aloha State, as Cal’s preparation for the 2025 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl consists of practices at the alma maters of current Golden Bear players from the islands.
EJ Morgan - WR - 3/5-Star (89 OVR) - Central East (Fresno, CA) – The Central East Bengals are the Division I-A 2025 CIF State Football Champions for the second time in program history, as Head Coach Kyle Biggs brings a title back to Cornelia Avenue. Biggs and the Bengals have won 5 of the last 8 Central Section championships, including the last two back-to-back, which has given the coach a 107-21 record in his 10-year tenure with the Bengals.
Taking place at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, the Central East Bengals took on the Pacifica Tritons in a close game, but it became a shootout that the Fresno-based Bengals outdueled their opponent in, as the Tritons fell by a final score of 42-28.
Incoming Cal WR EJ Morgan had a quiet game as far as receptions go, bringing in 2 catches for 40 yards, but it was a play he made in the 4th quarter on one of those catches that caught the attention of social media, and should give Cal fans a sense of hope about the range and athleticism of their soon-to-be Freshman WR.
Morgan will finish his senior year with a final spring semester at Central East, as he is also a track and field star for the Bengals’ Varsity team. He will then report to summer workouts with the Golden Bears before the Fall 2026 season.
Nemyah Telona - DL – 3/5-Star (88 OVR) - De La Salle (Concord, CA) – Telona and De La Salle traveled down to Mission Viejo, where the Justin Alumbaugh-led undefeated Spartans took on the Santa Margarita Catholic Eagles, who made it to the Open Division 2025 CIF State Football Championship game in their season under Head Coach Carson Palmer – a former Santa Margarita Eagle himself.
The Spartans’ last loss for their varsity football program came on December 14th of 2024 in the Open Division CIF State Championship Game to Mater Dei, when Dash Beierly (Washington) threw for 355 yards as the Monarchs went on to dominate in a 37-15 win. The Spartans were 12-0 before that and had ended their season by coming up short at the finish line. Similarly, Alumbaugh’s 2025 Spartans suffered defeat this year to the SoCal-represented team in the Open Division of the CIF State Championship Game, as Palmer’s Eagles defeated the Spartans by a final score of 47-13. While the former Heisman Trophy-winning Head Coach would lead his alma mater to their first State Championship since 2011, De La Salle has now lost eight straight CIF title games, having last claimed a title 10 years ago in 2015.
Santa Margarita Catholic dominated from the kickoff, with Senior quarterback, Trace Johnson (a 3-Star signee to Tulane) completing 17-20 passes with 4 TD and 0 INT, and Senior WR Trent Mosley (4-star USC) brought in 2 receiving TDs and a rushing TD for the Eagles. Mosley finished with 11 catches and 183 yards, with the Spartan defense unable to stop him and the offense unable to respond, putting up just 70 total yards in the first half.
De La Salle’s Senior RB Jaden Jefferson (3-star UNC) scored 2 TDs after Santa Margarita committed a couple of turnovers in their own redzone. Beyond these two scoring drives, the Spartans did not upload any statistics for their team’s box score. Nemyah Telona is also not an early enrollee for the Bears’ 2026 incoming class and will report to the team after the conclusion of the academic year for summer workouts before the Fall 2026 season.
Bears in Hibernation: (with updated rankings as of December 19th)
* = early enrolee
Daniel McMorris – OT – 4/5-Star (94 OVR) – Norman North (Norman, OK)*
Taimane Purcell – TE – 4/5-Star (90 OVR) – Kamehameha (Honolulu, HI)*
Victor Santino – RB – 3/5-Star (89 OVR) – Edison (Miami, FL)*
Kamo’i Huihui-White – IOL – 3/5-Star (88 OVR) – St. Louis (Honolulu, HI)*
Nainoa Lopes – QB – 3/5-Star (88 OVR) – St. Louis (Honolulu, HI)*
Kai Meza – WR – 3/5-Star (88 OVR) – Corner Canyon (Draper, UT)*
Tyree Sams – WR – 3/5-Star (87 OVR) – Clovis North (Clovis, CA)
Ernest Nunley – S/WR – 3/5-Star (87 OVR) – Western (Anaheim, CA)*
JD McKinley – LB – 3/5-Star (87 OVR) – Centennial (Corona, CA)*
Esaiah Wong – OT – 3/5-Star (87 OVR) – Kailua (Kailua, HI)*
Jaxon Pyatt – LB – 3/5-Star (87 OVR) – Arvada West (Arvada, CO)
Elisha Faamatuainu – IOL – 3/5-Star (87 OVR) – Murrieta Valley (Murrieta, CA)*
Niles Davis – ATH – 3/5-Star (87↑ OVR) – Westlake (Westlake Village, CA)
Frank Fanua - IOL – 3/5-Star (86 OVR) – Mount Miguel (Spring Valley, CA)
Lucky Schirmer – DL – 3/5-Star (85 OVR) – Centennial (Corona, CA)*