Crespi needs to think about the big picture against Loyola on Saturday

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Now that Joseph Fauria, pictured, is back from his South Bend adventure, I really didn’t feel like hydroplaning my way to the west side of the Valley on Thursday night to see a game I knew the Crespi boys’ basketball team would win by 15 or 20 points. OK, so the Celts fell a smidgen off my expectations with their 64-50 victory over Chaminade, but, from the sound of it, the game seemed to be just another speed bump on the way to greater things for the Celts.

That’s why I’ll definitely be in the Alumni Memorial Gymnasium at 7 p.m. Saturday when the Celts play Loyola in a pivotal Mission League matchup. The Celts are looking for a little redemption after their 71-61 loss to Verbum Dei last week, and Saturday’s game is basically a must win if they don’t want to get paired against teams like Simi Valley, Santa Margarita or Compton in the first round of the Southern Section Division I-AA playoffs.

I understand coaches and players don’t like to talk about these sort of things with six league games left to go, but it’s true. If Jerramy King, Blake Stanton, Reggie Coates, Fauria and the rest of Celts bunch can’t find a way to stop Hollis Thompson & Co., Crespi is only going to be the fourth-best team in the Mission League. And it’d be a shame if three nonleague tournaments (including one in Texas) and a hard-nosed trek through one of the toughest leagues in Southern California culminated in a first-round matchup with a regional titan.

So come on Crespi! It’d be well worth the water-logged trip to Encino to see you guys pull off an ‘upset’ and kick up a mess at the top of the Mission League standings.

Oh, by the way -- I should have made the drive to Chaminade yesterday because it probably would have been interesting to see the Eagles tie Crespi in boys’ soccer.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- (thanks!)