You know what they say about defenses ...

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Defense wins championships? Well, it certainly wins semifinals.

Among the 30 Southern Section and City Section Championship Division semifinal games on Friday and Saturday, in 21 games the winning team didn’t allow more than 14 points to the losing team.

That’s a striking number. There wasn’t any division in which both losing teams scored more than two touchdowns.

In three games both teams failed to score as many points, and perhaps coincidentally, they came in the Southland’s marquee divisions: Carson’s 6-0 victory over Dorsey in the City Section, Long Beach Poly’s 2-0 victory over Orange Lutheran, and Crespi’s 13-10 overtime victory over Servite.

In the Southeast Division, both winning teams threw shutouts at their opponents: Fullerton defeated Schurr, 26-0, and La Habra defeated California, 44-0. It was the fourth shutout of the season for Fullerton, which has allowed only one touchdown in its last two playoff games.

All told, there were eight shutouts, and at least two other defenses -- Orange Lutheran’s in its loss to Poly, and Trabuco Hills in its 27-3 victory over Charter Oak -- that kept the opposing offenses out of the end zone.

-- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.fabqb.com