Lewis Picked for California

Glenn Davis Award winner Whitney Lewis of Ventura St. Bonaventure and 54 other California high school football players have been selected to play in CaliFlorida Bowl IV on Jan. 4 at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

Lewis, a wide receiver who was selected the top player in the Southland by The Times, will be joined by defensive back Dennis Keyes of City Section champion Lake Balboa Birmingham, defensive lineman Lawrence Jackson of Inglewood and running back Maurice Drew of Concord De La Salle when California battles the top Florida players. Kickoff is 11 a.m.

Florida’s top players include Ernie Sims of Tallahassee North Florida Christian, a 5-foot-11, 220-pound running back and linebacker who is considered one of the nation’s top prospects, and Antonio Cromartie of Tallahassee Lincoln, a 6-3, 190-pound wide receiver and defensive back.

Florida, which won 34-24 last year, has a 2-1 lead in the series. California won the inaugural game, 21-11, then lost 17-14 in the second meeting.

Other top Southland players on the roster include linebackers Drean Rucker of Moreno Valley Canyon Springs and Michael Okwo of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, defensive backs A.J. Tuitele of Wilmington Banning and Desmond Reed of Temple City, wide receivers B.J. Vickers of Venice and Mark Bradford of L.A. Fremont, defensive linemen Sedrick Ellis of Chino, Junior Lemau’u of Long Beach Poly and Brandon Mebane of L.A. Crenshaw, and quarterback Richard Irvin of Pasadena Muir.

Tickets, available through Ticketmaster, are $10 before Jan. 4 and $12 at the gate.

-- Dan Loumena

John Rodriguez had never forfeited a soccer game during his first 23 years of coaching, but he pulled his inury-depleted La Puente Nogales boys’ team out of the Huntington Beach Marina tournament Thursday afternoon after suffering a 2-0 loss to Fullerton in the first round that morning.

Nogales (7-4-2), seventh in The Times’ rankings at the start of the week, was scheduled to play Los Angeles University in a consolation game after losing to Fullerton. But Rodriguez felt his team was too banged up to continue.

“We had five [starters] sitting out with injuries,” Rodriguez said of the Fullerton game. “I just felt it was best for our team to withdraw after that. We need to heal up and start getting ready for league play. We have to forget about records, rankings and all that. We need to get healthy.”

With that in mind, Nogales won’t practice again until Thursday. The Nobles open San Antonio League play against visiting Walnut on Jan. 9.

-- John Ortega

When Maureece Rice of Philadelphia Strawberry Mansion High made a three-point shot with less than two minutes left Friday, it not only helped his team to a 76-63 victory over Olney, it gave him 2,209 career points to break Wilt Chamberlain’s 47-year-old city record of 2,206.

Rice, a 6-foot senior guard, has been on the varsity since his freshman year. He averaged 32.1 points as a junior when he scored 63 points in a game. Chamberlain, who played three varsity seasons at Overbrook, has three of the top four scoring marks in the city’s history, including a 90-point game in 1955, his senior season.

“A lot of good players have come through the Public League and didn’t break it,” Rice said. “It feels great.”

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Associated Press contributed to this report.