Marmonte Rivals Blaze New Trails for League in Soccer Championship

Tonight’s Southern Section 4-A Division championship soccer match between Royal and Newbury Park is the first appearance for either team in the title game.

The match, which will be played at 8 tonight at Gahr High in Cerritos, also marks the first all-Marmonte League final.

Simi Valley and Camarillo are the only other Marmonte teams to play in the championship game since postseason competition began in 1968. Simi Valley lost in the final, 1-0, to Alta Loma in 1986, and Camarillo tied Dos Pueblos, 3-3, in the 1983 final.

Tonight’s match will be the third meeting of the season between Royal (25-1-2) and Newbury Park (19-5-1)--the teams split two league matches. Royal has shut out 14 of 15 opponents since losing its only game of the season to Newbury Park, 3-1. The Highlanders defeated the Panthers, 1-0, in the teams’ second meeting.

“I think they made us mad,” Royal Coach Peter Schraml said.

Newbury Park Coach Ted Isenburg realizes the Highlanders might still be upset--and looking for revenge in the final.

“I think it’ll be a little extra incentive for them,” he said.

But Isenburg said that the Panthers should be worked up, too; if unranked Newbury Park can knock off league-champion Royal once, the Panthers can do it again.

“It should be a pretty even match,” he said. “We didn’t play a lot of tournaments, so we didn’t make it into a lot of people’s rankings, but the teams in the league know we can play.”

Is it contagious?: The success of Grant’s basketball team has been well-documented. The Lancers made it to tonight’s City Section 3-A Division championship game with a team of overachievers and able role players.

Grant baseball Coach Tom Lucero hopes to employ the same formula.

“I hope to carry over the success of the basketball team to the baseball team,” Lucero said. “They showed that hard work, patience and good chemistry can overcome a lot of things.”

Two-party system: Truancy officers in the North Hollywood area might as well take today off. Any North Hollywood student who bought a ticket to today’s City 3-A girls’ championship basketball game against Reseda may leave school one hour early to hitch a ride on the rooter buses headed for the Sports Arena.

And North Hollywood is throwing a pep rally for the team.

Reseda Coach Andrea Francola has different plans, saying there were no special parties scheduled for the Regents, the defending 3-A champions. She added: “We’re saving it for after the game.”

Coming out of the ‘Woodwork: The Oakwood Gorillas will make their first appearance in the Southern Section Small Schools Division final tonight against Hesperia Christian in Hesperia, which is beyond San Bernardino just short of Victorville in the high desert. They will, however, be far from deserted.

Gorilla Fever has swept the Oakwood community so fervently that the team has ordered four rooter buses to make the trek. That is quite an arrangement for a school with an enrollment of 325 (grades 7-12) that averages 80 to 100 fans for a regular-season home game.

“This is a once in a lifetime thing,” Oakwood Coach Roz Goldenberg said.

The championship game, the first in any sport for the school since it opened in 1953, has taken on twice the significance of the Gorillas’ semifinal game against Boron in Tehachapi. Oakwood rented only two rooter buses for that game.

Hit parade: Birmingham baseball Coach Wayne Sink knew what he wanted, he just could not find it in the neighborhood record rack.

Birmingham currently plays a tape of baseball music at all home games but finding recordings of old standards was not easy. In his quest for peanuts-and-Cracker-Jack authenticity, Sink wanted only organ music.

“I was down at USC at a game and they had music like what I was looking for,” said Sink, who is in his 25th season at Birmingham.

Sink somehow managed to track down the artist and now her tracks are a hot local item. “I’ve had two or three coaches contact me about getting copies,” he said.

Wounded Wolfe: Chatsworth third baseman Joel Wolfe, who has been sidelined for a week because of a pulled left hamstring, said he expects to play today against visiting Serra in the opening round of the Westside tournament.

Wolfe, who this week made a verbal commitment to attend UCLA, pulled the hamstring last week while legging out a double in a scrimmage against North Hollywood. After attempting to warm up Wednesday for the Chancellors’ scrimmage against San Fernando, Wolfe decide he was not ready.

Wolfe served as public-address announcer as Chatsworth defeated San Fernando, 7-1.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Brian Murphy, Chris J. Parker and John Lynch contributed to this notebook.