Prep Rally: A closer look at the state football playoff pairings
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Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. The state football playoff pairings have been released. And teams are still celebrating winning section championships on Friday and Saturday.
State playoffs
It’s time for the state football playoffs, and in the CIF state championship Open Division, Santa Margarita and unbeaten De La Salle were chosen to meet on Dec. 13 at Saddleback College. Here’s a look at how De La Salle hopes to give Northern California its first win in the highest division since 2015.
Every sectional champion in the state received a regional playoff bid, and those games start this weekend.
The only game matching unbeaten teams has Rio Hondo Prep playing Solano Beach Santa Fe Christian on Saturday at Carlsbad in 2-A.
Los Alamitos, winner of Southern Section Division 2, will play San Diego Cathedral Catholic on Friday at Veterans Stadium in 1-AA.
City Section Open Division champion Carson hosts Delano Kennedy on Saturday at 6 p.m. in 3-A.
Southern Section champs
What a night it was for Santa Margarita in thrashing Corona Centennial 42-7 at the Rose Bowl to win the Southern Section Division 1 championship. No one was better than Trent Mosley, who scored four touchdowns and had 10 receptions for 292 yards. Here’s the report of the Eagles winning in the rookie season of Carson Palmer as head coach.
In Division 2, Los Alamitos rallied to avenge a league loss to San Clemente with a 33-20 road victory. The Griffins had seven sacks. Here’s the report.
In Division 3, Oxnard Pacifica stayed unbeaten with a 20-10 win over Palos Verdes. Here’s the report.
In Division 5, Rio Hondo Prep improved to 14-0 with a 29-7 win over Redondo Union. Here’s a look how Rio Hondo Prep keeps winning despite being one of the smallest schools in the state.
In Division 6, Ventura coach Tim Garcia and his quarterback son, Derek, celebrated a 63-28 win over St. Pius X-St. Matthias.
Here are the scores from last weekend’s finals.
Here are the top performances from Friday’s games.
City Section champs
South Gate pulled off a wild Hail Mary ending to defeat Marquez 63-58 on the final play of the City Division I championship game. Quarterback Michael Gonzalez passed for 450 yards and six touchdowns. Here’s the report.
Carson is the City Section Open Division champion and won its 12th City championship with a 36-0 win over Crenshaw. Here’s the report.
Santee and running back Darnell Miller won the City Division III championship. Here’s the report.
San Fernando upset top-seeded Cleveland to win the City Division II title. Here’s the report.
Palisades football coach Dylen Smith was honored by the Chargers as their selection and nomination for the Don Shula Coach of the Year Award. He was recognized at halftime Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
Crenshaw rises without its coach
As Robert Garrett reached 300 career football victories while on administrative leave at Crenshaw all season, he has vowed to return. He’s been subject to a district investigation going on four months. He insists he did nothing wrong and doesn’t know what is being investigated.
Here’s a look at how Garrett views his status and future.
Thanksgiving story
Elizabeth Guzman, with a smile and plastic gloves on her hands, was cracking one egg after another on Thanksgiving morning to feed her husband’s Cleveland High football team a hearty breakfast after morning practice. It was a sight to behold. Mario Guzman bought 15 dozen eggs, so that meant his wife cracked 180.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here,” she said.
A look at that special day for teams competing for a championship.
Cross-country
The state championships at Woodward Park turned into a showcase for Summer Wilson of Irvine. She set a course record in winning the Division II girls title in 16:20.
Dana Hills’ Oliver Hunter won the Division III boys title, making it five consecutive years by Dana Hills runners.
Redondo Union won the Division I boys title and JSerra took the Division 4 boys and girls titles. Here’s the report.
Basketball
The top three boys teams — Sierra Canyon, Santa Margarita and Redondo Union — remain unbeaten entering a week of challenging games. Redondo Union is hosting the Pac-Shores tournament, along with a one-day showcase Saturday.
Crespi is 4-0 and facing a three-game challenge this week against Village Christian, JSerra and Redondo Union.
Here’s the new top 25 boys rankings by The Times.
Here’s the top 20 girls basketball rankings.
Etiwanda’s girls’ team won the Redondo Union tournament and is 5-0. The Eagles routed Sage Hill in the final.
Mater Dei showed it’s a top five team by winning its own tournament championship over Oak Park.
From the archives: John Elway
Hall of Fame football player John Elway was also a pretty good baseball player during his days at Granada Hills High. On the Guerilla Sports podcast, he discussed facing Crenshaw’s Darryl Strawberry in the City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium in 1979 and how coach Darryl Stroh pulled him from third base to pitch in relief even though the last time Elway pitched, he was so wild he kept hitting batters. Elway said all he did was throw fastballs.
Elway will be returning on Sunday to be the grand marshal at the Granada Hills holiday parade.
Here’s a story detailing how Elway became the unlikely hero at Dodger Stadium.
Recommendations
From the South Bend Tribune, a story on former JSerra linebacker Madden Faraimo playing at Notre Dame as a freshman.
From the Washington Post, a story on 400-meter star Quincy Wilson committing to Maryland instead of USC or UCLA.
From 11alive, a story on the ongoing dispute in Georgia between a high school football team that had numerous players suspended, then sued to get them back.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time....
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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