Late touchdown pass secures Folsom High's 5th CIF state title
MISSION VIEJO - The Folsom Bulldogs won their fifth CIF state title in a thriller over St. Bonaventure on Saturday.
In the Sacramento region, this is the kind of game that will be talked about for a long time.
The Folsom Bulldogs had their backs against the wall, scoring not once but twice in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter to win their fifth state championship all on the back of their star sophomore quarterback Ryder Lyons.
"I always come in with confidence," Lyons said. "I have confidence in this team. I have confidence in myself. I gotta play composed and just try to get first downs and get down the field and try to score."
Down one with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter, it would fall to him.
"He does it the right way," Paul Doherty said. "He's coachable. There's so much pressure on these kids."
If anyone was gonna get it done, it would have to be the sophomore quarterback.
"The greatest thing about Ryder is that he has it in him," Kamee Lyons said. "I turned to my friends and I said he's not gonna let this go. He has this in him."
His mother, Kamee, was watching from the stands and sending videos to his brother Walker, a USC football player and former Folsom star watching from Norway where he serves an LDS mission.
"It was actually the middle of the night and he was getting every offensive clip and totally loving it," Kamee said.
And what Walker saw was Ryder shining brightest on the biggest stage of his career to date, delivering a game-winning pass to Jameson Powell.
"Me and Ryder, we work day in, day out, and putting it out every time in this game," Powell said. "And every time he rolls out, I'm gonna find him and he's gonna find me."
With bragging rights over his older brother Walker, now his mom says that they're going to have to make sure that that doesn't become a topic of conversation on the holidays.
She would love to see both of them play together on the college level.