Prep Rally: Previewing championship week in high school football
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s championship week in high school football.
The matchups
To no one’s surprise, Mater Dei is playing St. John Bosco for the Southern Section Division 1 title on Friday at Veterans Stadium for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. Mater Dei has won three times, St. John Bosco has won three times. Mater Dei won the league game 59-14. It would be a stunning upset for the unbeaten Monarchs to lose, which means St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro will love the challenge.
The most entertaining final figures to be in Division 2, where unbeaten Newbury Park travels to Murrieta Valley on Saturday night. Since Bear Bachmeier returned at quarterback, Murrieta Valley is 5-0 and hasn’t scored fewer than 49 points. Newbury Park has quarterback Brady Smigiel and an improving defense.
In Division 3, Simi Valley is playing Edison in a battle of two schools with unbelievable coaching staffs. Jim Benkert of Simi Valley won titles at Westlake and Oaks Christian. Edison coach Jeff Grady has Dave White and Troy Thomas on his staff, both of whom won Division 1 titles.
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Southern Section football
Julius Gillick rushed for 253 yards and six touchdowns in Edison’s Division 3 semifinal win over Vista Murrieta. Here’s the report.
Mater Dei’s defense came through with a dominating Division 1 semifinal performance in a rout of Corona Centennial. Here’s the report.
The sites have been announced for the state football championship games Dec. 13-14. They will be held at Saddleback College, Long Beach City College and Fullerton Union High School District Stadium. Regional pairings will be released Sunday.
Here’s a look at top individual performances from last weekend.
City Section football
Narbonne became the first City Section football team to defeat Birmingham since the 2017 season with a 27-7 victory. The streak had been 48 consecutive victories. Here’s the report.
The game of the night was San Pedro rallying from a 24-0 deficit in the third quarter to beat Carson in overtime 40-34 in the City Open Division semifinals.
King/Drew and Palisades made it to the Division 1 final after impressive semifinal victories. Palisades quarterback Jack Thomas passed for 274 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for two touchdowns in the win over Eagle Rock.
Flag football
Banning won its first City Section Open Division flag football championship with a comeback win over Marine League rival San Pedro.
Here’s the report.
TV look back
Kevin Rooney, the football coach and athletic director at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, was on vacation in Lake Tahoe during the summer of 1997 when he received a call asking if he’d be willing to allow his team’s game against Bishop Alemany to be part of the first high school sports telecast by Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket.
“I knew the players would be excited,” he said. “You always worry about distractions but felt it was worth it.”
So began a 28-year journey of Southern Section football games on TV. Here’s a look how it all started and where it’s going in the future,
Cross-country
The state championships in cross-country will be held Saturday morning at Woodward Park in Fresno. Here’s a look at the entries.
Here’s a look at Saturday’s championship results from the City Section and Southern Section finals.
Boys basketball
Brayden Burries of Eastvale Roosevelt started his senior season with a 47-point performance against Orange Vista. Coach Stephen Singleton said Burries is on a mission to show he’s the best player in the state.
“He’s just kind of doing his things, a couple big plays, a couple dunks,” he said.
La Mirada (5-0) came through with huge wins over Anaheim Canyon in double overtime and Damien to win the Sunny Hills tournament and move up in rankings.
The biggest upset belonged to Pilibos, which defeated Crespi in a road game 69-67 behind 40 points from Anto Balian.
Chatsworth completed the week 4-0 with wins over Westchester and Etiwanda behind junior Alijah Arenas.
Here’s a look at this week’s top 25 boys basketball rankings by The Times.
Girls basketball
It was No. 1 vs. No. 2 on Saturday in the championship game of the Harvard-Westlake girls basketball tournament. Unbeaten Etiwanda, the two-time defending state champions, took on No. 2 Ontario Christian with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley watching from the bleachers.
What happened might be a sign of the changing of the guard. Ontario Christian led by as many as 16 points before prevailing 74-66. There were so many future stars on display. Here’s the report.
The big surprise was Etiwanda relying too much on returnee Grace Knox, who had 30 points. Ontario Christian had much more balance. But give coach Stan Delus a month or two and Etiwanda still will be the team to beat.
Girls tennis
Palos Verdes won the Open Division in girls tennis and Westlake won Division 1. Here’s the report.
Comeback in name of brother
The photo was taken in the fall of 2019 on a hot afternoon at Reseda High. Dranel Rhodes, a 16-year-old senior receiver, held up his smiling 12-year-old brother, Amare, on his shoulders. They were inseparable, little brother following around big brother everywhere.
Except there was a family tragedy. On Jan. 7, 2022, Dranel was attending Ottawa University Arizona. Players were in a dorm room fooling around with a gun. It went off. The bullet killed Dranel. He was 19.
Amare would drop out of school and give up football. Two years later, he enrolled at Granada Hills Kennedy, got back off the floor, became eligible academically and returned to playing the game he has always loved.
He has an incredible journey to tell. Here’s his story.
Play on
What’s a high school basketball team supposed to do when, a week before its season begins, the starting point guard and a former player are found shot to death?
Sotomayor High faced that dilemma.
At 12:15 a.m. on Nov. 7, police found Juan Melendez Jr., 17, the senior captain for Sotomayor, and former player Denzell Guzman, 18, shot on a cliffside lookout in Mount Washington. A car had driven up while the victims were standing outside a residence. Multiple shots were fired. The suspect vehicle fled. Both were pronounced dead at the scene after first responders attempted lifesaving measures.
Here’s the decision of the team to honor their fallen former teammates.
Lorenzo Hernandez steps down
Lorenzo Hernandez announced Friday he is stepping down as football coach at Garfield High after 24 years.
He helped develop the program into one of the best in the City Section and tried to generate community support beyond the annual Garfield vs. Roosevelt game.
Here’s the report
Prep talk
Every day, there’s a blog by The Times about the positive things happening in high school sports.
The first seven have run and you can find them all at this link.
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Notes . . .
Catcher Dylan Arborio of Calabasas has committed to Emerson College. . . .
Andrew Patterson is out as football coach at Marshall. . . .
Aaron Huerta has resigned after five years as football coach at Harvard-Westlake. . . .
Kevin Oberlander has resigned as football coach at Sonora. . . .
The interim title has been removed from James Stewart, who has been named football coach at Damien. . . .
Trent Jackson is the new girls volleyball coach at Edison. . . .
Senior Wyatt Hanoian of Orange Lutheran has committed to Air Force baseball. . . .
Jackson Tyler of Chaminade has signed with San Diego State baseball. . . .
Griffin Kushen of Tesoro, a cross-country standout, has committed to Duke. . . .
Chris Varner has resigned as football coach at West Ranch. . . .
Jason Sabolic has resigned as football coach at El Camino Real under pressure. He said he was exhausted after more than two years of dealing with field issues that still haven’t been completely fixed. The school also wanted to go in a different direction in the latest example of El Camino Real losing a veteran coach. Previous coaches leaving were in softball and basketball. Sabolic said he will get his administrative credential and switch his focus. “I have a new calling to be an amazing administrator for people who work their butts off,” he said. . . .
Rina Kawasaki of Palos Verdes won the state golf individual girls championship on the second playoff hole after tying Zoe Jiamanukoonkit of Torrey Pines with a 69 through regulation. Torey Pines won the team title. Here’s the individual results. . . . .
Former Santa Margarita basketball coach Jerry DeBusk has died. He won two state titles. . . .
SoFi Stadium will be the site Monday morning for a second flag football all-star game matching Los Angeles and Orange County. . . .
Taft’s Francine Baltazar and Aleiah Carr are the co-players of the year in City Section girls volleyball. . . .
Nate Guangorena of Gahr has committed to CSUN baseball. . . .
Jamal Adams has been named president at Loyola High. He was the school’s principal and is a former basketball coach. . . .
JSerra’s water polo team played the role of spoiler, winning the Division I regional and handing Newport Harbor its first defeat after 33 consecutive wins. Connor Colman scored six goals for JSerra.
From the archives: Caleb Sanchez
Caleb Sanchez waited three years to become the starting quarterback at St. John Bosco, then led the Braves to the Trinity League championship and a spot in the Division 1 final. He also got great grades and ended up going to Columbia in the Ivy League.
Last week, in his first collegiate start, he passed for 241 yards and three touchdowns. Then he led Columbia to a share of the Ivy League championship. Patience and placing trust in himself have always been strengths for Sanchez.
Here’s a story from 2023 about the rise in Sanchez during his senior year.
Recommendations
From lsc-pagepro, a profile of St. Francis freshman golf phenom Jaden Soong.
From the San Diego Union Tribune, a preseason look at the top basketball teams in San Diego.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on how DeShaun Foster at Tustin High became motivated to beat USC.
From Sportscasting.com, a story on the McLain brothers, Matt and Sean, playing on the same baseball team in Arizona and showing off their competitiveness.
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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Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
