UCLA’s Dorrell Lands Duo From St. John Bosco

New UCLA football Coach Karl Dorrell picked up his first two top commitments from Southern California players with the Tuesday announcement that running back Derrick Williams and receiver Joe Cowan from Bellflower St. John Bosco High had chosen the Bruins.

They led St. John Bosco to the Serra League championship, considered the strongest football league in the Southern Section.

Other football commitments:

Lance Broadus, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound All-City linebacker from Woodland Hills Taft, has committed to Nebraska.

Offensive lineman Cliff Stanford of L.A. Jefferson has committed to Arizona.

Quarterback Eddie Miller and receivers B.J. Vickers and Antwuan Giddens of Venice have committed to Louisville.

Compton Dominguez multipurpose standout Anthony Wheat has committed to Oregon State.

Long Beach Poly defensive lineman Josh Tauanuu has committed to Oregon.

Carson receiver Greg Chatman has committed to Colorado State.

Edwards AFB Desert multipurpose standout Rudy Burgess has committed to Arizona State.

Calabasas linebacker Ezra Butler-Beaton has committed to Nevada.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Mike Burnett has been hired as football coach at Santa Monica High.

Burnett, 36, coached the Santa Monica junior varsity football team the last two years.

“He commands and demands the respect of the kids,” Athletic Director Mike Griswold said. “It’s been a no-nonsense program at the JV level for two years. He seems to be able to connect very well with them.”

Burnett replaced Norm Lacy, who resigned after 26 years over two different stints at Santa Monica. Lacy will be the boys’ golf coach.

-- Mike Bresnahan

Ron Huesser, Garden Grove Santiago girls’ basketball coach, won his 400th game Saturday with a 48-40 victory over Westminster La Quinta.

Huesser won 204 games coaching the Santiago boys’ team from 1961 to ‘76, and began coaching the girls’ team in 1989.

-- Martin Henderson

Corona del Mar’s Jessica Harkins has been accepted at Princeton, where she plans to play water polo.

-- Dan Arritt

Kinsley Mittel of Simi Valley Royal has committed to The Master’s College, where she will play women’s basketball.

Santa Ana Mater Dei apparently didn’t need any extra motivation heading into last Wednesday’s Serra League boys’ soccer game against Santa Margarita, then the top-ranked team in the nation by Student Sports.

But the Monarchs could have gotten plenty had they looked at Student Sports’ weekly rankings, which are released every Tuesday.

Mater Dei was 16th in the rankings, but the comments that followed said the Monarchs wouldn’t “be penalized for a loss to No. 1 Santa Margarita.”

“We were not aware of that,” Mater Dei Coach Martin Stringer said of the comments on the Student Sports Web site. “We don’t give any credence to any rankings.”

Mater Dei won, 2-1, for their first victory over Santa Margarita in a Serra League game.

Forward Sammy Ochoa scored five goals in his first five games since joining the Riverside Poly boys’ soccer team earlier this month, but Coach Tom Tilson said the Bears, who were 12-3-2 before playing Tuesday, are still adjusting to the presence of Ochoa and teammate Brett Hiroto in the lineup.

Ochoa, a junior forward, and Hiroto, a senior midfielder, missed Poly’s first 12 games while completing the club soccer season. Their talents are great enough, however, that some of their teammates have been guilty of letting them do too much in games, according to Tilson.

“Everyone was starting to stand around and watch those two play,” Tilson said. “Some of the kids realized what was happening, but they were afraid to say anything until we brought it up in a meeting. Even Sammy said, ‘Yeah, I’m getting the ball too much.’ ”

Scott King, the track and field coach at Lake Balboa Birmingham, doesn’t usually pop off. But his remarks Monday at a news conference for next month’s L.A. Invitational indoor track meet at the Sports Arena could inspire West Valley League rival Woodland Hills Taft.

“We have the best sprint coach in the City,” King said about Birmingham assistant Kertic Carruth, who is entering his 10th season at the school. “He’s proved that in the past and he will again this season.”

Birmingham prevented Taft from winning its third consecutive City Section boys’ title last May. But 1992 Olympic 400 champion Quincy Watts was hired as the Taft coach last summer and has brought on 2000 Olympic 100 champion Maurice Greene as an assistant.

High school track and field athletes from Long Beach Poly, Riverside North, Duarte, Irvine Woodbridge, North Hollywood Oakwood Academy, Birmingham and San Clemente were present at Monday’s L.A. Invitational news conference at USC. But no athlete came from as far away as Thomas Mack.

The defending state champion in the boys’ 110-meter high hurdles and 300 intermediates is a senior at Bakersfield.

-- John Ortega