Cleveland Relives Past With Fairfax

When Reseda Cleveland takes the floor tonight against top-seeded Los Angeles Fairfax in a City Championship semifinal game at Loyola Marymount, the Cavaliers might be remembering how close they came to an upset victory over the Lions last season.

Fairfax twice scored after offensive rebounds in the final 1 minute 30 seconds to win the quarterfinal game, 53-49.

“I know that like it was yesterday,” said Coach Andre Chevalier of fifth-seeded Cleveland (25-3), which hasn’t faced Fairfax (22-4) since then.

Dan Arritt

*

Girls’ Basketball

Fairfax (23-3), led by sisters Tiffany and Brittany Henderson, will try to get past four-time defending champion Harbor City Narbonne (18-7) at 5:30 p.m. today at Loyola Marymount in a semifinal of the City Championship playoffs.

Narbonne picked up two wins this week despite playing one game. A 58-46 loss to Oceanside El Camino last month became a victory by forfeit after it was discovered El Camino used an ineligible player.

Sylmar (17-6), which lost to Narbonne in last season’s City title game, will try to end the 25-game winning streak of host L.A. Crenshaw (26-1) in the other semifinal beginning at 7 p.m.

Martin Henderson

*

Boys’ Soccer

Riverside Poly is headed back to the semifinals of the Southern Section playoffs for the first time since 2000 after defeating Calabasas, 1-0, in overtime in a Division II quarterfinal at Westlake Village Oaks Christian on Thursday.

Sammy Ochoa, who transferred back to Poly late last month after improving his grades in continuation school, scored on a right-footed shot from 25 yards out with three minutes left in overtime to propel the Bears (22-4-2) into Tuesday’s semifinal against the winner of today’s Loyola-Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula game.

Goalkeeper Aaron Gordon made a couple of superb saves near the end of the second half for the Coyotes (18-5-5).

In other playoff matches Thursday: Casey Jenison scored in the 50th minute for the game’s only goal and Mike Davis made six saves as Quartz Hill (19-6-1) upset top-seeded and No. 1-ranked La Verne Damien (26-3-2) in a Division I quarterfinal.... Jason Leopoldo scored in the fifth minute of sudden-death overtime and Kenny Negron had four saves for Thousand Oaks (25-3-3) in a 1-0 victory over Newport Harbor (16-7) in a Division II quarterfinal.... Jesus Martinez and Abran Madrigal each scored twice to help L.A. Jordan (12-1-4) upset second-seeded Sylmar (22-5-2), 4-0, in a City Section quarterfinal.

John Ortega

*

Girls’ Soccer

In case the dominance of Orange County teams was in question after two South Coast League teams -- Dana Point Dana Hills and Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills -- lost in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs, today’s quarterfinal pairings serve as a decisive answer.

Seven of the eight teams come from Orange County, one more than advanced to this round in last season’s playoffs. In Wednesday’s second round, each Orange County team defeated a team from outside its region. Long Beach Wilson (20-4-2), which today visits top-seeded San Clemente (15-2-7), is the only outsider. The Bruins lost a home contest to the South Coast-champion Tritons, 1-0, on Dec. 9.

Orange County “is a hotbed for soccer,” said Coach Matty West of Santa Ana Mater Dei, which plays host today to Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley. “It’s played at such a high level by so many talented players.”

Elia Powers

*

Wrestling

North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake set a school record by qualifying three wrestlers -- junior Kenji Porter at 215 pounds, senior Jeremy Stuart (160) and senior Nate Meyer (152) -- for the Southern Section’s Masters Meet, today and Saturday at Fountain Valley.

Porter went 4-0 with three pins to take the championship at the Coastal Division on Saturday at Huntington Beach Edison. Stuart was second, and Meyer was fourth.

The top eight wrestlers in each weight class advance from the Master Meet to the state tournament March 5-6 in Bakersfield.

-- Rafer Weigel