The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Franklin, Garfield Eye Each Other

The City 3-A football race will resume Friday with a subplot. It’ll be Franklin (7-2) facing Palisades (6-3-1) and Garfield (8-2) going against Manual Arts (7-2) in the semifinals in what has turned out to be a very competitive division, hardly the cakewalk predicted by some in September for Locke.

But be sure that Garfield and Franklin will be watching one another, and not just in case they meet in the championship game Dec. 11 at East Los Angeles College. Pride will be at stake, too.

“It’s real important,” Franklin Coach Armando Gonzalez said. “We’re real proud of the performances of our quarterbacks. Since I’ve been the head coach, we’ve always had someone in the top five.”

And this season will be no different. It’s just a matter of whether the Panthers will take first or second. Such is the race within the race:

Johnny Gomez of Garfield finished the nine-game regular season No. 1 in the City with 1,582 yards passing. He had 115 completions for an average gain of 13.8 yards. He also threw for 12 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions. Franklin’s Ricky Lopez was second with 1,517 yards, on 176 of 192 for 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. The next closest, Joey Speakes of L.A. Poly, had 1,215 yards.

In the first round of the playoffs, though, Lopez passed for 263 yards in a 28-24 upset of top-seeded Canoga Park, and has thrown seven scoring passes in the past two games. Gomez had 179 yards in the Bulldogs’ 36-7 victory over Van Nuys Birmingham.

“That was one of Ricky’s finest games,” Gonzalez said. “Last week, to be down, 24-0, to the No. 1 seeded team and come back to throw three touchdowns, to throw when he had to and to throw with efficiency.”

And then there’s the battle of the receivers. Garfield and David Morales still hold the top spot there, with 51 catches for 804 yards and 7 scores. But Franklin’s Eric York, who wasn’t even among the top 10 in Week 4, is close behind--45 for 630 and 5 touchdowns.

Ironically, York started picking up the pace after he was moved to running back in the seventh game, when starter Torance Ragland, No. 2 in the City at that point, injured an ankle.

“But we don’t run many screen passes,” Gonzalez said. “We usually motion him from the regular pro set and we usually catch a linebacker trying to cover him. . . . Putting a linebacker on our best athlete, there’s no way he can cover.”

Add City playoffs: Senior Janice Lum, undefeated and pushed to three sets only twice in her career at Eagle Rock, both times in championship matches, is the clear favorite to win her third girls’ individual tennis title, with the first round Wednesday at the Racquet Centre in Studio City.

“She’s steady, very cool,” said Coach Sonya Most, whose Eagles defeated Hamilton last Tuesday for the 3-A team title. “She’s not a net rusher and doesn’t make very many mistakes. She lets her opponents make the mistakes.”

Lum will play Stacey Cohen of Hamilton in the first round. Alisha Portnoy of Granada Hills is the No. 2 seed, with Kyra Johnson of Fairfax No. 3 and Sonja Panajotovic of Hamilton No. 4.

Prep Notes Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, unbeaten in 25 matches and the top-ranked girls’ volleyball team in the nation according to Volleyball Monthly, will play Los Altos (25-2) of the Central Coast Section near San Jose, and Mountain View (22-7), also of the Central Coast Section, will play host to Oxnard Hueneme (19-1) tonight in the semifinals of the state Division I playoffs, with the winners meeting Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. The Mira Costa-Los Altos match is set for 7:30 p.m. at Aviation of Redondo Beach. Also tonight, South San Francisco, looking for its third straight California championship, will play Santa Cruz Harbor for the right to meet Ojai Nordhoff for the Division II title. San Diego Francis Parker and San Jose Valley Christian are in the Division III championship match. . . . Three-time City 3-A baseball champion Venice has stepped up to the 4-A and will play in the Marine League. Locke will take the Gondoliers’ place in the Western League. . . . All three Sierra League teams are still alive in the Eastern Conference football playoffs. . . . Skip Adams, a former assistant coach at New Mexico State and Texas, is the new basketball coach at Antelope Valley.

It was a big night for the Meza family of Bellflower St. John Bosco Friday night. Oscar Meza, the Braves’ star running back, was impressive in rushing for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns. Not to be outdone, his father won $233 in the 50-50 raffle among 5,000 fans. . . . Senior Daryl Hardwick of Visalia Redwood broke the state record for single-season reception yards with 1,486 yards on 72 catches, breaking the mark of 1,448 by Steve Martinez of L.A. Wilson in 1977. . . . The state’s final regular-season football leaders, according to Cal-Hi Sports: George Hemingway of Colton in rushing with 2,022 yards, Stan Greene of Redwood in passing yardage with 2,641, Jim Bonds of Newhall Hart in passing for touchdowns with 31, Mauricio Pavon of Glendale Pater Noster in receptions with 79, and Sonny Martini of Clovis in scoring with 174 points. Eric Bieniemy of La Puente Bishop Amat finished second in rushing with 1,738 yards, and in scoring with 170 points. Hemingway’s total is sixth best of all time in California, Bonds’ the fourth best. Also, Benji Smith of Norwalk Leffingwell Christian set state regular-season eight-man records with 40 touchdowns, 244 points scored and 2,282 yards rushing. . . . The Kinney Western Regional cross-country meet will be held Saturday in Fresno, with the top eight runners in the boys’ and girls’ 5,000-meter races, and from the three other regionals, advancing to the only prep national meet, Dec. 13 in San Diego. Senior Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park finished sixth in last year’s final, and junior Tracey Williams of El Monte Mountain View was 23rd.