Pac-12 rivalry begins early: Top football recruits lock up on opening night

A matchup made for Saturday afternoons in the Pac-12 will kick off the 2017 high school football season.

On Friday evening, UCLA-bound wide receiver Isaiah Johnson will lead Downey High against Buhach Colony and future Colorado cornerback LJ Wallace in their season openers.

“I’m looking forward to this,” Wallace said. “I’m ready. I like competition. I finally get to go against a good receiver who has an offer ... who is committed. I want to prove to everyone why I have these offers and why I’m committed to Colorado.”

The game will be played at Atwater High’s Dave Honey Stadium and headlines opening night in the Stanislaus District.

Downey has won five consecutive Modesto Metro Conference titles and debuts at No. 4 in The Bee’s large-school power ranking.

Buhach Colony is No. 10.

It’s the only matchup of top-10 large-school teams on the Week Zero docket, though small-school No. 1 Sonora hosts large-school No. 1 Oakdale and large-school No. 9 Modesto tangles with small-school No. 5 Modesto Christian.

“We don’t care about this five-year championship stuff,” Wallace said. “All I know is we’re coming hard this year.”

The Knights’ mettle will be tested this fall. Downey will be the visitor in six of 10 regular-season, including Friday’s clash with the Thunder, a darkhorse contender in the Central California Conference.

“It’s not that different if you’re trained for it,” Johnson said of playing on the road. “I think this team has it. I think we can win, because we’re well-coached and we have a lot of confidence.”

To this point, Johnson and Wallace have been linked only in “best-of” conversations.

On Friday, though, they’ll be staring across the line of scrimmage at one another for the first time.

“It makes for an exciting game,” Johnson said. “You don’t get to go against a lot of good DBs. We’ll see what both of us have.”

Here’s what we know: Johnson and Wallace are two of the top athletes in Northern California for the Class of 2018.

Johnson’s versatility shows in his commitment to the Bruins. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound three-star recruit has received a scholarship offer to play linebacker, a position he’s played sparingly at Downey. He was second on the team in receptions (33), yards (435) and touchdowns (nine) despite missing three games with a hyper-extended knee.

“I’ve been studying him everyday on film,” Wallace said. “All I see is long routes and long passes. I know they’re a Spread team, so that gives me a chance to lock up and press him. I know for a fact he won’t handle that. I’m going to be on him all night.

“My coach (Kevin Navarra) is letting me press, too, because he wants me to show out.”

Like Johnson, Wallace was limited as a junior. He appeared in eight games for the Thunder, which missed the postseason for the fourth consecutive year. Wallace’s recruitment began with an offer from Fresno State, but quickly ballooned to include interest from Cal, Oregon State, San Jose State, Nevada, Vanderbilt and UCLA, among others.

Wallace is a 6-foot-3, 190-pound shut-down cornerback. He had two interceptions, four pass deflections and 37 tackles in eight games in 2016.

Johnson, who tangled with former Central Catholic star Daron Bland (now at Sacramento State) in the postseason last fall, says Wallace is the real deal

“He didn’t get those scholarship offers for no reason,” Johnson said. “He’s a player we have to look out for, but I don’t think we’re too worried.

“From the film we have, it looks like he’s able to cover anybody and everywhere. He plays some safety and some corner. He was always able to make the play and never missed a tackle, and most of the time, his side of the field was shut down.”

Nevertheless, Downey’s prolific “Air Raid” offense won’t shy away from Wallace, even with a first-year quarterback under center.

Junior Bryce Peterson steps in for Brett Neves, who graduated in the spring. Johnson said Peterson developed a quick rhythm with all of his wide receivers, including senior Jairol Harris-Red and junior speedster Javon Gamez.

“We’ve got a good connection,” Johnson said. “He’s been getting all of our receivers involved. We can all make plays. We’re pretty confident with what we can do on offense.

“We’ll be true to who we are. We’re not going to back away from anything.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2017 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Pac-12 rivalry begins early: Top football recruits lock up on opening night."