By admin 
In an effort to ease his Mira Loma Matadors into this season, coach Jesse Collins went with a simple, yet proven approach.
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Unleash Deangelo Keys and let him do his thing.
The Mira Loma senior quarterback continued his sizzling effort from last season when the Matadors of the San Juan Unified School District capped the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section’s first 8-man season with a 12-0 showing and a section championship, and he hasn’t slowed down a bit. He tore through Valley on Thursday night at Cosumnes River College with instinctive runs and deft passing.
Keys rushed for 286 yards and accounted for all six touchdowns to engineer a 46-0 effort over the Vikings of the Elk Grove Unified School District to kick off the Sacramento area’s 2026 prep football season.
Keys opened with an early 82-yard touchdown sprint down his team’s sideline. He then hit Jerad Lawson for a 32-yard touchdown pass, and the Matadors were off and running. Keys also had scoring runs of 8, 20 and 44 yards and a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Na to send his giddy bunch home triumphantly.
“We’ve still got great leadership,” said Collins, an alum of Mira Loma who doubles as the boys varsity basketball coach on campus. “Deangelo is tremendous. He just steadies the ship.”
The Matadors were not always crisp and efficient. There were first-half penalties, some sloppy play and some chippy moments, common things for a season opener in a game of controlled violence. Collins and his staff addressed players after mistakes on the sideline, imploring leadership and poise. The mistakes are correctable, Collins said, but he doesn’t have to question the effort.
The Matadors compete. It’s been a thing for this storied program for decades during championship highs and even through lean seasons. Mira Loma for decades stood as a sparkling example of regional pride in football, first under the leadership of famed coaches Don Brown and Gerry Kundert, a run from the 1960s through the early 1980s. Some of the program’s 1960s and 1970s teams rate as all-time area greats, and same with those throwback founding coaches.
Coach Terry Stark, a 231-game winning now in his first season coaching Antelope High, fielded winners at Mira Loma as head coach of his alma mater in the late 1990s, but losing skids of 29 and 31 games in the last 10 years battered the program. Low football roster numbers led to Collins and company electing to go the 8-man route last season.
That move saved the program, revitalized it and has inspired the current players and alumni from yesteryear. Mira Loma principal Carrie Jackson attended the game, standing behind the team sideline, beaming. She is an alum of the school. Team trainer Alluria Costa taped ankles, wiped down facemasks, handed out water and encouraged the Matadors. She, too, is an alum of Mira Loma.
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“We have a great thing going here,” Costa said. “So many great kids.”
Collins has a great thing going with Keys.
“He tells me what he’s doing, a coach running the plays, and I’m, ‘OK!’” the coach said. “He understands our offense tremendously well, and I trust him. He’s incredible. Just incredible.”
Keys is also the starting point guard for Collins on the basketball team, where he is a slick passer, ball handler and scorer.
Valley aims to field a winner
Collins and Valley first-year coach Rashad Manuel spoke for a long moment after the game after embracing. Coaches in 8-man appreciate each other.
Valley has a storied history, too, but also one dotted with down seasons. The Vikings were a regional powerhouse in the 1980s, ‘90s and early 2000s, producing scores of college recruits, some of whom reached the NFL. Valley has fielded just one winning season since 2001, going 6-5 under Dave Filan in 2014.
Valley athletic director Larry Green, a staff member on campus for 29 years, said Valley has made strides since having to cancel its varsity football season on the eve of the 2024 season. The Vikings went 4-7 last season in 8-man.
“We have about 40 players, and we’re getting there,” Green said.
Valley’s team captains are Jeremiah Gibson, Charles Wilson, Jayden Sain, Bo Mitchell, Domingo Andres, Jaxson Steele, Juan Garcia and Amiri Jefferson.
“It’s so nice that schools like Valley and us have an opportunity to play 8-man,” Collins said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be playing. It’s great, competitive football. We won tonight, but Valley played their butts off.”
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