CONCORD — There will be no debate between De La Salle and Folsom in 2018.
The Northern California football powers have agreed to open the upcoming season against each other Aug. 17 at De La Salle in a matchup that will have immediate postseason ramifications.
De La Salle has not lost to a team north of Fresno since December 1991, a streak that reached 290 games last season.
Folsom won the state’s Division I championship in December, completing a 16-0 season, and returns its quarterback and top running backs and receivers from that high-powered team.
De La Salle lost in December to Mater Dei-Santa Ana 52-21 in the state’s Open Division title game, marking the second year in a row that the Spartans have lost in the state’s premier division.
The winner in August will have the inside track to represent the North in next season’s Open Division game.
“It should add some measure to our workouts,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said Thursday. “That’s why we got six sets of a circuit today. Got to remind the boys what’s coming here. It’s exciting. It’s great. We want to play the best teams that we can.”
The game will be the first between the teams since De La Salle routed Folsom 45-17 and 49-15 in regional championship games in 2013 and 2012.
The state removed the Open Division regional games in 2014, clearing a path for Northern California’s two top-ranked teams in any given season to play for state championships.
DLS has advanced from the sectional playoffs to the state Open game each of the past four seasons.
Folsom will play host to De La Salle on Sept. 13 in 2019.
The schedule switch was made possible because Amador Valley, which has opened against De La Salle the past few seasons, agreed to move aside. The Dons will resume playing DLS in 2019.
“It’s no slight on Amador,” Alumbaugh said. “We’re playing them the following year. It was just the only way we could get the two-year deal going is if we matched up Week 0 this year and 9-13 the following year.”
