2026 CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS PREVIEW

2026 EAST COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL 

2026 CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS PREVIEW

With guests, KALEB RUNKLE, JULIAN MORONES, KAI ROSIER, and GRANT YEAGLEY

 

From 3-7 to state championship game, Patriots look for complete ’26

By Ramon Scott

EastCountySports.com

EL CAJON — No East County football team authored a more improbable finish to the 2025 season than the Christian High. Patriots.

The Patriots were 2-7 at one point and entered the postseason only 3-7. They had gone 1-4 in the Eastern League and had been shut out by Point Loma, 24-0. Their offense — traditionally one of the calling cards of Christian football — had been held to seven points twice during the regular season.

Then everything changed.

Christian beat San Diego, 13-7, in its regular-season finale and never stopped winning. The Patriots defeated Brawley, 37-16; Ramona, 31-28 in overtime; Army-Navy, 20-17; and Central, 28-14, to capture the CIF San Diego Section Division III championship.

They weren’t finished.

Christian went on the road and defeated Valley Christian of Cerritos, 27-13, to win a Southern California regional championship and earn the program’s first appearance in a CIF State championship game.

Bishop O’Dowd finally stopped the run, 37-0, but the loss did little to diminish what Christian had accomplished. A team that appeared headed toward a losing season in October finished 8-8 with a section championship, a regional championship and one of the deepest postseason runs in East County history.

Now the Patriots believe 2025 wasn’t simply a magical finish.

They believe it was preparation for 2026.

“We are going to be very good this year,” senior quarterback Kaleb Runkle said. “Probably contending in D2. I think we’re going to be trouble.”

Runkle returns to run show

Christian has a long history of prolific passing attacks and productive quarterbacks, and Runkle enters his senior season with an opportunity to add his name prominently to that list.

Runkle completed 240 of 393 passes for 2,870 yards and 28 touchdowns against only six interceptions last season. He also rushed for 572 yards and three touchdowns, accounting for 3,442 yards of total offense.

Over the last two seasons, Runkle has passed for 4,398 yards and 49 touchdowns.

Those numbers could climb significantly in 2026.

Christian returns its most productive receiver in senior Kai Rosier, who caught 77 passes for 1,146 yards and nine touchdowns last season. Rosier also produced 497 return yards, including a 95-yard kickoff return, and finished with 1,643 all-purpose yards.

Rosier was also an important defensive player with 49 tackles and two interceptions, but Christian’s increased depth could allow him to spend considerably more time concentrating on offense.

“I’m playing mostly one way right now because we’ve got a lot of new transfers, and they’re definitely good guys,” Rosier said. “So I’m definitely going to have way more production than last year.”

Rosier expects to continue returning kicks and play some defense, just not nearly as much as he has in the past.

That could be bad news for opposing secondaries.

Morones could be ready for a breakout

If Christian’s passing game has an established star in Rosier, its running game may have one of the San Diego Section’s emerging stars in sophomore Julian Morones.

Morones was only a freshman last season, yet rushed 84 times for 571 yards, averaging 6.8 yards per carry. He added 28 receptions for 224 yards, giving him 795 yards from scrimmage despite spending much of the year behind an older back.

His impact was just as noticeable defensively.

Morones recorded 64 tackles, 12½ tackles for loss and 4½ sacks and forced two fumbles. His workload increased late in the season, coinciding with Christian’s championship run.

Runkle believes having Morones in the backfield changes the way defenses can attack Christian.

“Offensively, it’s like a relief for passing,” Runkle said. “We can’t just throw the ball every game, and being able to run the ball is going to keep the defense honest. He’s just a monster.”

Christian also intends to find ways to get Morones the ball outside the traditional running game.

“We’re definitely going to get the ball in Julian’s hands, out in space, everywhere, as much as we can,” Runkle said.

Morones isn’t interested in putting a number on his sophomore season.

“I’m going to do the best I can and, again, whatever we need to win,” Morones said. “If that’s 15 [touchdowns], if that’s two, I just want to make it as far as we can and win games.”

More weapons — more depth

Perhaps the most important difference between the 2025 and 2026 Patriots isn’t one player.

It’s numbers.

Christian’s lack of depth forced many of its best players to remain on the field for nearly every meaningful snap last season. Injuries compounded the problem during the difficult Eastern League schedule.

This year, the Patriots believe that has changed.

“We definitely have a lot more depth,” Runkle said. “We have a lot of receivers. We basically got like a whole new receiving corps.”

Senior Soren Lucey is already a proven weapon after catching 20 passes for 272 yards and six touchdowns last season.

The current roster also includes senior receivers Gael Lopez and Quentin Uhland, junior Connor Nguyen, and sophomore Gavin Runkle, Kaleb’s younger brother.

“Gavin’s going to be trouble as well,” Kaleb Runkle said. “He’s just a sophomore.”

The backfield has also grown deeper. Taj Carrillo, a sophomore transfer from El Capitan, joins Morones and returning junior Cole Howarter.

“He’s going to be mixing with Julian when Julian needs a breather,” Runkle said of Carrillo. “He’s fast. He’s a little bit smaller than Julian, but he’s going to be very good.”

Sophomore Kayne Hubbard could provide another impact addition at tight end and defensive end.

“Once he starts playing, he’s very good,” Runkle said. “Kayne’s going to be very hard to stop on the edge.”

Sophomores Genesis Malo and Jaden Jones are among the other newcomers Morones believes have already changed the atmosphere at practice.

“They definitely add depth and they add strength,” Morones said. “At practice, you can see they’re just going at it, wanting to hit. They step up to the front and really show that they want to be here and play.”

Patriots have size up front

Christian has won plenty of football games without possessing one of the county’s largest offensive lines.

This group could be different.

Senior Grant Yeagley, a 5-foot-11, 260-pound returning lineman, anchors a group that includes 6-foot-3, 265-pound senior Reed Rundlett Gardner, 265-pound senior Ryker Leeman, 235-pound junior Ryan Berry, senior Xander Molina, junior Joshua Taylor and Hudson Easley.

Senior Cameron Kirkpatrick and sophomore Jaden Jones add additional size and depth.

“We finally have a decent amount of depth,” Yeagley said. “Especially with Jaden Jones and Cameron Kirkpatrick coming in this year, it’s definitely going to be a big help for the team — especially having more size on our side.”

Yeagley said new offensive line coach Vince Contreras has also emphasized an area Christian needed to improve.

“The biggest thing for us last year was technique,” Yeagley said. “Our technique wasn’t the best, especially on zone blocking. This year it’s definitely gotten a lot better — our blocking technique on pass and run blocking.”

For an offense returning a 2,870-yard passer, a 1,100-yard receiver and a running back who averaged nearly seven yards per carry, improved protection and run blocking could make an already dangerous unit considerably more difficult to defend.

An offense built to score again

Christian football has traditionally been associated with quarterbacks, receivers and points, and Runkle expects the 2026 offense to look much more like the explosive Patriot attacks of the past.

The Patriots expect to incorporate plenty of run-pass option concepts while using their expanded collection of receivers and backs.

“We are going to be very hard to stop on offense,” Runkle said. “It’s going to be a lot of RPO, just passing. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

Asked whether four or five touchdowns per game was a reasonable expectation, Runkle didn’t lower the bar.

“That’s what I’d expect from us this year,” he said. “It’s going to be very hard to stop. I can promise you that.”

There is also some succession planning already underway. Sophomore quarterback Joel “LJ” Hardy IV is listed behind Runkle and has impressed the senior starter.

“The thing I like about LJ is that we have a lot of things in common,” Runkle said. “We’re very similar play-style quarterbacks. He’s going to be the future of Christian High School for sure. He’s going to be very good.”

Defense must replace major production

The offensive outlook is easier to project than the defense.

Only four defensive starters return, according to the Union-Tribune’s preseason assessment, and Christian lost substantial production from a unit that became increasingly important during its championship run.

The Patriots allowed only seven points against San Diego and then held Brawley, Army-Navy, Central and Valley Christian between 13 and 17 points during four of their five postseason victories.

Everick Randall is a major piece of the rebuild after recording 94 tackles last season, the second-highest total on the team.

Morones returns after his 64-tackle, 12½-TFL freshman season, while Rosier had 49 tackles and two interceptions. Lucey contributed 33 tackles and two interceptions.

Leeman and Rundlett Gardner provide experience up front, while Hubbard and some of the newcomers could be asked to fill important roles immediately.

That depth matters to Rosier, who identified the lack of it as one reason Christian struggled through portions of last season.

“A lot of our losses, and the reason games were so close last year, is because we had a lot of injuries and we had no depth,” Rosier said. “But this year we’ve got depth. So I think we’re going to make a good run for sure.”

A program accustomed to championships

The dramatic nature of last year’s run shouldn’t obscure the larger picture: Christian winning championships is hardly unusual.

The Patriots have captured San Diego Section titles in 2006, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2025 and have won league championships in 2007, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024.

They’ve won so many different league championships, they can’t all fit on one t-shirt.

Bugg’s first four seasons illustrate just how unpredictable Christian can be in league play.

The Patriots went 4-0 in the Eastern League in 2022, fell to 0-4 in 2023, rebounded to 4-0 and won the league in 2024, then slipped to 1-4 in 2025 before winning the Division III championship.

That makes the ratings projection of a 5-5 regular season — and the significant roster-based downgrade caused by graduation losses — particularly difficult to accept at face value.

Christian did lose considerable production, particularly on defense. But the raw returning-player calculations don’t fully capture the additional depth the Patriots say they have added, nor the presence of Runkle, Rosier and Morones at the offensive skill positions.

The ceiling appears considerably higher than the preseason numbers suggest.

2026 CHRISTIAN SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent	Site
Aug. 28	Valley Center	Away
Sept. 4	Bishop’s	Home
Sept. 11	Olympian	Away
Sept. 18	Calexico	Home
Sept. 25	Monte Vista	Away
Oct. 2	San Diego*	Home
Oct. 9	University City*	Away
Oct. 16	La Jolla*	Home
Oct. 23	St. Augustine*	Home
Oct. 30	Scripps Ranch*	Away

*Eastern League game

The nonleague schedule is substantially different from last season. Bishop’s is the only repeat opponent among Christian’s first five games, and the Patriots will get an immediate opportunity to avenge last year’s 21-7 loss to the Knights.

The opener at Valley Center is another intriguing test. After that, Christian faces Olympian, Calexico and Monte Vista before beginning the five-game Eastern League grind.

EASTERN LEAGUE OUTLOOK

Christian’s 2025 season provides the clearest warning against judging this league strictly by standings.

The Patriots finished only 1-4 in the Eastern, yet the competition they faced helped prepare them for six postseason games and a trip to the state championship. This year, San Diego, University City, La Jolla, St. Augustine and Scripps Ranch make up Christian’s league schedule.

There isn’t an obvious reason to expect the Eastern to become comfortable for the Patriots. Their path back toward the top will require navigating programs capable of punishing mistakes and matching Christian athletically.

St. Augustine figures to present one of the league’s most significant challenges and enters the season as Christian’s highest-rated regular-season opponent, according to the ratings. The Saints beat Christian 20-7 last season, making their Oct. 23 meeting at Christian one of the Patriots’ most important measuring-stick games.

Scripps Ranch should again be a factor, and Christian knows firsthand how little separated the teams last year. The Patriots escaped with a 16-15 nonleague victory. This time they meet in the Oct. 30 regular-season finale, with the possibility of both league and playoff implications.

San Diego also deserves Christian’s full attention. The Patriots’ 13-7 victory over the Cavers last October proved to be the turning point of their entire season. Stephen Cooper takes over as coach of the Cavers this season after Syd Reed, now head coach at El Cajon Valley, made a notable improvement to the program during his tenure.

“Once we played San Diego, we started to really lock in, have some discipline, and then it just took off from there,” Runkle said.

La Jolla presents another revenge opportunity after beating Christian 41-24 last season, while University City gives the Patriots another difficult road assignment in the middle of league play.

For Christian, though, the question isn’t whether the Eastern League will be difficult. It is whether this version of the Patriots is better equipped to withstand it.

Yeagley believes last year’s experience has created some additional motivation.

“There are a couple teams that we faced last year in league that we are going to see again this year,” Yeagley said. “We’re definitely excited to face them again and get our rematch.”

OUTLOOK

There are legitimate questions.

Christian lost several major defensive contributors. Only four starters return on that side of the ball. A 39-player roster still isn’t enormous, and the Eastern League offers few weeks in which the Patriots can afford to be anything less than sharp.

But there may not be many teams in the section with a more intriguing collection of proven offensive talent.

Runkle is a 4,398-yard career passer entering his senior season. Rosier is coming off an 1,146-yard receiving season. Morones produced 795 yards from scrimmage and 64 tackles as a freshman. Lucey caught six touchdown passes. Randall made 94 tackles. Yeagley leads what appears to be a bigger and deeper offensive line.

Then add the newcomers.

That’s why Christian’s internal expectations are considerably greater than merely getting back to the playoffs.

Rosier went considerably further.

“With the depth we have now, we’re definitely going to make a better run than last year,” Rosier said. “We’re going to win state this year. I feel it.”

That’s an enormous goal for a program that was 3-7 entering the playoffs only one season ago.

Then again, after what Christian did last December, telling the Patriots something can’t be done might not carry much weight anymore.

Head coach: Patrick Bugg, fifth season (27-22).

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