Lincoln High School Claims Football State Championship with Historic Win over De La Salle
State title caps championship-filled fall sports season for San Diego Unified schools
For the first time in their school’s storied football history, the Lincoln High School Hornets are State Champions.
With a 33-28 victory over De La Salle High School last Friday, Lincoln claimed the Division 1-AA CIF State Championship and cemented their place in California football history.
The title game victory was not only Lincoln’s first, but also the first win by any San Diego team against De La Salle, a private Roman Catholic school from the Bay Area with what is generally considered the most successful high school football program in California history. De La Salle has been recognized as the top team in California an astounding 19 times since 1992, and once led an incomparable 30-year unbeaten streak against other Northern California schools.
Photo: Nicole Noel Photography
But Lincoln has history too. The Hornets football team has won several San Diego regional championships over the years. Their alumni include the likes of NFL Hall of Famers Marcus Allen and Terrell Davis, and Lincoln sends graduating seniors on to top-tier college football programs across the country every year.
One of the standouts in last Friday’s championship game is continuing that tradition.
After graduating from Lincoln next June, senior Roderick Robinson will attend the University of Georgia to study and play for one of the nation’s best football programs. Robinson rushed for four touchdowns in the victory over De La Salle.
“It was a big game for us not just because we were playing in the State Championship, but playing against a historic De La Salle, they had never lost to a San Diego team,” Robinson said in an interview with KUSI News. “Just going out there and playing for one another really brought us closer together.”
See more coverage of the State Championship game in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Lincoln’s state title comes on the heels of their CIF Section Open Division Championship, which was played before a San Diego crowd in the new Snapdragon Stadium. That championship was just one of several local CIF titles won by San Diego Unified schools this fall season, which also includes sports such as tennis, cross country, field hockey and more.
Click the photo above to see photos of each of the local CIF San Diego Section champion school athletics teams from Fall 2022.
This year’s other CIF Champion teams are:
- Canyon Hills High School Girls’ Field Hockey - Open Division Champions
- Crawford High School Boys’ Cross Country - Division 4 Champions
- La Jolla High School Girls’ Cross Country - Division 4 Champions
- La Jolla High School Girls' Tennis - Division 1 Champions
- Scripps Ranch High School Girls’ Cross Country - Division 2 Champions
- University City High School Football - Division 3 Champions
- University City High School Girls’ Field Hockey - Division 2 Champions