HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL : Metro Rivals Southwest, Bonita Vista to Meet in 3-A Final

You can almost hear the South Bay wagging its finger at North County this morning. After all, it’s not often any league knocks its brothers from the north out of a San Diego Section final.

Especially a volleyball final.

But the Metro Conference did it in a marathon Tuesday at the 3-A boys’ volleyball section semifinals at University City.

Southwest, after dispensing of defending champion Torrey Pines, 15-4, 15-6, 9-15, 11-15, 15-6 in the first match, was clamoring for a Bonita Vista victory against Poway in the second game.

In fact, there were probably as many Southwest fans cheering for the Barons as there were Bonita Vista fans. Whatever it was, it paid off. Bonita Vista upended Poway in a thrilling two-hour-plus second match, 4-15, 12-15, 15-13, 15-13, 15-6 to set up the first non-All North County final in the short history of the sport.

“Write something nice about the Metro Conference,” Southwest Coach Fred Sills said.

No problem. The play spoke for itself.

Southwest (16-2) was practically frothing at the chance to meet league rival Bonita Vista in the championship, as the Barons were the team that deposited the two losses in the Raiders’ win-loss record, upsetting a Metro Conference victory streak that dated back two years. In the past five years, the Raiders are 90-15.

But Bonita Vista upset the apple cart when outside hitter Jerold Burrow was forced to sit out a week for an ankle injury. Without him, the Barons defeated Southwest in their second meeting, giving the teams a 13-1 league tie. Bonita Vista won the subsequent tie-breaker.

“We want them bad,” said Burrow, who led Southwest with 23 kills.

In reality, much of the credit in both matches belongs to Mother Mo.

That’s Sills’ good-natured name for the momentum he said helped the Southwest advance to Friday’s championship at Rancho Bernardo.

“I kept telling the guys that Mother Mo would turn our way again,” Sills said. “We had it in the first two games, Torrey Pines warmed up and starting eliminating their errors in the second two games, and the momentum turned our way again in the fifth game.”

Good thing Southwest didn’t worry about its record when the Raiders have been stretched to five games . . . They don’t have one. Southwest never forced, or was forced into, into a game five.

“I guess we haven’t,” said Burrow, who led the Raiders with 23 kills. “But we don’t think about that stuff when we’re out there. We think about what’s happening on the court. It’s really hard to play when you’re thinking about a global perspective.”

About the only perspective Torrey Pines was thinking about was how to get out of the way of Burrow, and other Raiders. When Burrow wasn’t stuffing kills down the Falcons’ throats, Jesse Taijeron (14) or Leo Vargas (12) were.

Southwest relies heavily on its hitting and defensive game. With its tallest player 6-5, the Raiders aren’t always effective on the block.

“We don’t do too much of that, that’s why our defense has to be so good,” Burrow said.

Burrow said the fifth game came down to who was hungriest.

“They fought a little, but we wanted it more,” Burrow said.