St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy is The Sporting News' California football Team of the Week for Week 4

Down 14-0 in the first quarter and 28-12 at halftime, St. Pius X-St. Matthias was in danger of a three-game losing streak – and the odds weren't exactly in its favor.

The Warriors were heavy underdogs against reigning CIF-Southern Section D2 champion Newbury Park, which is led by reigning California Mr. Football and 4-star Florida State commit QB Brady Smigiel.

Instead of folding, PMA won the second half 34-13 to come all the way back and win 46-41 in regulation. PMA held Newbury Park scoreless for the final seven minutes of the game and scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown with about two minutes left. Smigiel did total 293 passing yards, three touchdown passes, and a rushing touchdown, but the Warriors managed to hold one of high school football's great quarterbacks to 18 completions on 45 attempts (40%) with two interceptions while scoring 46 points of their own. Not a bad way to kick off the season at home following three road games to start 2025.

For their fantastic comeback, the Warriors have been voted The Sporting News' California Team of the Week for Week 3 with a whopping 5,254 fan votes. Before running away with the top spot in the voting, they faced steep competition from Beaumont, which earned 2,073 votes after moving to 4-0 and winning its 10th consecutive regular season game with a 27-14 win over Chaminade.

It didn't take much time after restarting its football program from scratch in 2017 for St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy to prove itself as a consistently prominent CIF-Southern Section program. After going 3-7 in 2017 and 4-7 in 2018, PMA rolled to an undefeated regular season and Division 14 finals appearance in 2019, coming up just short against South (Torrance) in the title game and finishing 12-1. In the fall of 2021 (after a pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season), PMA made the CIF-SS finals for the second postseason in a row, this time up in Division 7, and finished 11-3 in Devah Thomas' first year as head coach. The rise continued in 2022 with a sweep of the Del Rey League and a playoff berth all the way up in Division 3.

Finally in 2024, PMA made yet another section finals, and this time came home with a CIF-SS D8 title and Southern Region 4-A crown as well. That came after starting 0-6 and 1-9 due to playing an Angelus League schedule. Thomas was named the Press-Telegram Coach of the Year, and a whopping six Warriors – all of whom were underclassmen who are back this season – made the All-Area Dream Team. Among them are 3-star wide receiver Jaylen Stokes, who we named as one of the top 20 wide receivers in California entering 2025 after he totaled 86 catches for 1,253 and eight touchdowns as a junior.

St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy followed up the Newbury Park win with a Week Four bye and will resume action on Friday hosting Carson.