Playoffs Offer Confining Format

In its second year, regionalization of the Southern Section soccer playoffs will again lead to many teams taking on familiar opponents.

The Mission League girls’ qualifiers--Chaminade, Notre Dame and Harvard-Westlake--are confined to Region I of the Division III draw.

Santa Barbara, Buena and Ventura, the Channel League girls’ entries, find themselves grouped in Region IV of Division II.

Tri-Valley girls’ qualifiers St. Bonaventure, Oak Park and La Reina will butt heads in Region II of Division IV.

“It’s ludicrous,” La Reina Coach Joe Laraneta said. “Our region is essentially a [Tri-Valley League] round-robin [tournament]. We used to schedule out-of-area teams during the season to get a look at who we might face in the playoffs, but that’s of no value now.”

Laraneta dismisses the argument behind regionalization--that travel time and costs are diminished.

“You’re going to make one or two [playoff] trips most seasons,” Laraneta said. “And when they say it’s keeping transportation costs down, that’s a 15-year-old argument that was good when we had an energy crisis.”

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The Southern Section gave little respect to the Golden League, whose three boys’ and three girls’ teams all received road games in the first round of the playoffs.

The league has earned its reputation as a postseason flop. A year ago, six Golden teams won one playoff game and were outscored, 26-5.

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Several teams from the region are making either their playoff debuts or are returning after lengthy absences.

Making their first appearances are the Lancaster boys’ and girls’ teams, each of which finished third in the Golden League in their second seasons of varsity play.

The Crescenta Valley boys hadn’t qualified in four years, the Nordhoff girls in seven and the St. Bonaventure boys in eight.

In contrast, the Saugus boys’ team missed the playoffs for the first time in six years and the La Canada boys are absent for the first time in Coach Lou Bilowitz’s 11 years with the Spartans.