105th Big Little Game figures to be memorable in midst of Pittsburg's 100th football season
It's a game that has passed and flourished through the test of time.
The Big Little Game — Pittsburg versus Antioch — is a Bay Area tradition.
The teams will battle for the 105th time 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Pittsburg with a Bay Valley Athletic League title at stake.
The host Pirates, in their 100th season, are the big favorites and can win the league outright while finishing a regular season undefeated. Pittsburg, ranked fourth among Bay Area teams, is 9-0 and 5-0 in BVAL play.
According to former coach and program historian Herc Pardi, Pittsburg will try to become the sixth Pirate team, and first since 1964, to finish the season undefeated and untied. The others were 1944, 1951, 1954 and 1957.
Pittsburg junior Marley Alcantara has takent over reigns at quarterback flawlessly.
Photo: Joe Bergman
The 1964 squad, (9-0) featuring future NFL running back Altie Taylor (who was a backup), was the first in school history to score 300 points while giving up just 54.
The current Pirates haven't had a close game since league began, following a 34-27 win at Los Gatos. They also pulled out games against California (38-35) and Monterey Trail (10-7). Other than that, behind a terrific junior class that features 4-star recruits Jayden Hudson and Jewelous Walls, QB Marley Alcantara (1,837 passing yards, 29 touchdowns) and running back Elijah Bow (985 yards, eight TDs) has beat the other six foes by a combined count of 292-75.
Surging Panthers
They'll face a surprising Antioch (7-2, 3-1) which is just five points from being undefeated itself. The Panthers lost games to Vintage (30-26) and Liberty-Brentwood (41-40) but also has been largely dominating, including wins in league over Deer Valley (44-21) and Freedom (44-0).
They are led by dymanic 5-foot-8, 160-pound senior quarterback Larenzo Mayfield, who has accounted for more than 1,900 yards and 26 touchdowns. He has impressive tailbacks in junior Curtis Tucker (720 yards, 7.8 yards per carry, seven TDs) and senior Elijah Stingley (399, 6.7, 7).
If the BVAL title isn't enough motivation for the Pirates, being that it will honor its 2024 Hall of Fame Class should provide even more.
The inductees include former players Frank Cardinalli (played in 1957 and 1958), Cy Simonton (1992-93), Ryan Ponce (1994-96), Augie Torres (1998-2000), Albert Toeaina (1999-2001) and Jason Guerrero (1995-96).
Other inductees are coach Larry Rodriguez (1979-1990), contributor Joe Narez (Class of 1957) and distinguished alum, former Oregon and NFL coach Nick Aliotti.
The 1932 and 2003 teams will also be honored.
NFL alums and Hall of Famers galore
Though the Pirates have played "only" 100 years, it's the 105th because the schools often played more than once.
"Many years we played two or three times a season and sometimes we didn't play at all," Pardi said.
The game has featured more than 20 future NFL players, including Hall of Fame running back John Henry Johnson, who played for both schools.
When the teams met in 2003, there were five players that season playing in the NFL:
Antioch's Jeremy Newberry (lineman) and Mike Lucky (Dallas tight end) and Pittsburg's Regan Upshaw (Washington defensive lineman), Shaunard Harts (Kansas City safety) and Joe Tafoya (Chicago defensive end).
In terms of talent produced from rivalry games, this one is probably the best in Northern California and maybe the state," Cal-Hi Sports editor Mark Tennis said at the time.
Johnson, a 1949 Pittsburg graduate, starred for the 49ers as a member of the "Million Dollar Backfield," that included fellow Hall of Famers Hugh McElhenny, Joe Perry and Y.A. Tittle. Johnson had 6,803 career rushing yards and 48 touchdowns.
Antioch had its own future Hall of Famer in the '40s, Gino Marchetti, but he never played in the Big Little Game.
The game was canceled for six years starting in 1938 because of hostility between the towns, players and fans. Marchetti, a 10-time Pro Bowler for the Baltimore Colts, graduated in 1944.
"We were having a lot of problems in those days," the late Worth Shaw, a 1946 Antioch graduate, told us in 2003 said. "There were a lot of fights. School administrators thought it was best to put the game on hold."
Nothing bigger in the world
The good has far outweighed the bad, said Pardi, noting some classic games. Pardia coached at Pittsburg for 18 years, the last five as head coach when he won 45 games against 13 defeat.
He's most famous for his 1991 team that is the last North Coast Section squad to defeat De La Salle, 35-27 at the Oakland Coliseum for the 3A title.
That same year, Antioch beat Antioch 26-20 in overtime before more than 10,000 fans. The victory sent Pittsburg to the NCS playoffs and sent Antioch home at 8-2. At the time, the attendance mark was the biggest to see a high school football game in Contra Costa County.
In was broken in 1995 when 12,000 showed up for De La Salle at Pittsburg.
"The average attendance for the BLG was about 8,000 fans for decades," Pardi said.
Newberry, who played from 1998 to 2009 in the NFL, said no matter the records, "It's just an awesome experience (to play in the Big Little Game). "It's like Cal and Stanford but at a smaller level. I've played in a lot bigger games since then, but when you're in it, there's nothing bigger in the world."
