City Section look ahead: Venice plays Palisades in Western League showdown

It’s time for the annual Western League showdown in football between Venice (3-3, 1-0) and host Palisades (5-1, 1-0) on Friday night. The winner could be in position to take the league title.

Palisades has received solid play at quarterback from Forrest Brock, a 6-foot-3 junior who has passed for 1,069 yards and 13 touchdowns. Max Palees has rushed for nearly 400 yards. Middle linebacker Syaire Riley is averaging 11 tackles a game and must be the focus for the Gondoliers to move the ball on offense behind quarterback Luca Diamont.

Fairfax is the other school in contention for a Western League title and plays at Westchester.

Among other City Section games, Marine League teams will get a break. Narbonne has a bye. San Pedro will play at Banning in a game that could decide second place. Banning has been running the ball effectively behind sophomore Jakob Galloway. San Pedro has UC Davis commit Josh Ward at running back. Gardena is at Carson.

Lincoln (6-0, 1-0) faces its strongest test of the season in a Northern League game against Eagle Rock (3-3, 1-0) at Lincoln. Sophomore running back Andre Watkins leads Lincoln with 609 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns.

In the West Valley League, it’s the battle for charter school supremacy when El Camino Real hosts Granada Hills.