PREP FOOTBALL / PLAYOFF PAIRINGS : Charter Oak Has Gone From Bottom to Top

When the Covina Charter Oak High football team went 0-10 two years ago, Coach Louis Farrar contemplated whether it was time to get out of the game.

He had enjoyed some success with the Chargers, guiding them to an undefeated season in his first year at the school in 1985. But things had gone downhill from there.

“I did a lot of soul-searching after we failed to win a game in 1990,” Farrar said. “I was feeling a lot of different emotions. But we didn’t have anyone at the school who wanted to take over.”

Farrar’s decision to stick with the team has paid off. Charter Oak, which improved to 3-7 last year, went undefeated this season and is top seeded in the Southern Section Division VI playoffs.

City and Southern Section playoff pairings were released Sunday. First-round games will be played Friday. The Southern Section has 11 divisions and the City two. All but one have 16-team brackets.

Charter Oak (10-0) beat its opponents by a combined score of 345-31, including six shutouts.

Senior running back/defensive back Mike Harris is the team leader. He has rushed for 1,669 yards and 23 touchdowns and has three interceptions.

The Chargers will open the playoffs at home against Pico Rivera El Rancho.

As expected, La Puente Bishop Amat, top-ranked by The Times, was the No. 1-seeded team in the Southern Section’s Division I. Fontana was No. 2.

Division II, considered the toughest in the section this season, has top-seeded Los Alamitos, followed by Pasadena Muir. Newhall Hart is seeded third and Anaheim Esperanza fourth.

There were few surprises in the Southern Section after a weekend of upsets. Arroyo (Division VI), Garden Grove Rancho Alamitos (VII), San Marino (VIII) and North Torrance (IX) were all expected to be top-seeded, but dropped after losing final regular-season games.

In the City, undefeated Sylmar is top-seeded in Division 4-A. Carson (6-3-1) was chosen as the second seeded team. Coastal Conference champion Westchester (9-0-1) and Banning (7-3), the Southern Pacific Conference runner-up, are seeded third and fourth.

Bell is seeded No. 1 in Division 3-A, followed by San Pedro.

Section finals will be played the weekend of Dec. 11-12.

PAIRINGS: C15