Top-Seeded Taft Opens Against San Fernando

Taft High is the top-seeded team in the 4-A Division football playoffs that begin Friday.

Taft (9-1), the Northwest Valley Conference champion, will play San Fernando (6-4) in one of eight first-round games.

Defending 4-A champion San Pedro (9-1) is seeded sixth and will host Southern Pacific Conference rival Narbonne (5-5). The most intriguing first-round game pits Fremont (10-0) against Washington (3-6-1), which handed San Pedro its only defeat and ended the Pirates’ 18-game winning streak.

For the first time in years, quarterfinal games had been scheduled for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which would have given athletes a full week to recover from their first-round game and prepare for their next opponent. But Wednesday, the games were rescheduled for Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving, because school district personnel will not be available as supervisors during the holiday weekend.

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Top-seeded Roosevelt, which last year lost to Westchester in the girls’ 4-A Division volleyball final, will get another opportunity to claim the title when the Roughriders play No. 2 Palisades in the championship match Saturday at 8 p.m. at Occidental College.

Poly plays Sylmar in the 3-A final at 5:30.

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Defending-champion Palisades will play Hamilton in the girls’ 4-A Division tennis championship match Friday at the Racquet Centre in Studio City.

Marshall plays Carson in the 3-A final.

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The City Section cross-country championships will be held Saturday at Pierce College at 10 a.m.

Belmont is the defending boys’ champion. Woodland Hills El Camino Real is defending girls’ champion.

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Ten schools have added girls’ soccer for the upcoming season, increasing the number of schools participating in the sport to 47.

The new teams are at Los Angeles, Locke, Eagle Rock, San Fernando, Washington, South Gate, Lincoln, Banning, Hollywood and the Elizabeth Street Learning Center in Cudahy.