For the first time in years, the Southern Section and Urban Section soccer playoffs will begin with some uncertainty as to which team will win the top division.
Since 2016, every Southern Division 1 championship game has been won by either St. John Bosco or Mater Dei. Mater Dei has losses to Corona Centennial and Santa Margarita this season. St. John Bosco’s invincibility was broken with a 35-31 loss to Mater Dei in the final game of the regular season.
“We have to bounce back. We’re still a good football team,” St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro said.
Next up is Sierra Canyon, which is 10-0 with five shutouts and one of the best defenses anywhere, and is still ranked No. 4 by the computer that determines the Southern Section playoff brackets. Do you think the Trail Blazers have something to prove?
“We’re kind of the newcomers,” coach John Ellinghouse said. “I gained valuable experience. We have assembled a team that is suitable for the stage.”
Sierra Canyon opens the playoffs in two weeks, hosting Santa Margarita as part of eight teams. John Bosco is the No. 1 seed, Corona Centennial is the No. 2 seed and Mater Dei is the No. 3 seed. The championship game is scheduled for Friday, November 28th at the Rose Bowl.
Sierra Canyon will face a tough opponent from a Trinity League team, but they have prepared for it by playing against Trinity teams in nonleague and playoff games over the past two seasons. Santa Margarita’s matchup features perhaps two of the best defensemen in the Southland region, with six of the players in the game committed to USC.
Remember, the best quarterback in Southern California is from No. 6 seed Mission Viejo. Ohio State’s Luke Fahey passed for a school-record 569 yards last week against Los Alamitos. And while the Diablos have a 9-1 record with wins over Santa Margarita and San Diego Lincoln, injury issues on the defensive end will make it a tough task to beat defending champion Mater Dei.
And Centennial coach Matt Logan, who has surpassed the 300-win plateau, is preparing his team for big games ahead with an offense that has scored 59 points and 60 points, respectively, over the past two weeks. His team will play at home against Servite, who won 42-14 in August. St. John Bosco hosted Orange Lutheran and won 48-0.
Carson won the Marine League championship and is improving week by week behind junior quarterback Chris Fields III and is the No. 1 seed in Birmingham, which is on a 54-game unbeaten streak against City and will enter the Open Division playoffs as the No. 2 seed.
City Section is full of interesting stories. The Palisades fire left coach Dairen Smith scrambling to assemble a team without a weight room or home field, and players were left homeless. The team has won several close games with a dynamic passing attack led by quarterback Jack Thomas, who boasts 42 touchdown passes.
Crenshaw won the Coliseum League title despite veteran coach Robert Garrett being on vacation all season. The total number of wins is 298. Interim coach Terrence Whitehead plans to send his team to the game against San Pedro.
The Colts, 11-time city champions, will open the season against King/Drew, who lost to Crenshaw in the Coliseum League championship game but had hoped to play in the Open Division. Be careful what you wish for.
Birmingham coach Jim Rose is busy coaching his team and the school’s flag football team in next week’s Division II playoffs, and he’s teaching everyone how to multitask. Last week, after the flag team won the game, I wanted to stop the bus at Chick-fil-A.
“No, the boys are practicing,” Rose said.
It was a strange season, with more than 40 transfer players sentenced to two years of ineligibility for violating CIF Rule 202, which prohibits providing false information to the Southern Section regarding the preparation of transfer documents. Norco was stripped of six wins last week after an investigation found it violated CIF Rule 510, which prohibits undue influence by contacting multiple players before registering them. San Juan Hills forfeited nine games but qualified for the Division 2 playoffs. Despite finishing second in the Moore League, Long Beach Poly decided not to participate in the playoffs after six players were declared ineligible.
And on Saturday, J.Serra announced it was parting ways with third-year coach Victor Santa Cruz after posting an 0-5 record in the Trinity League. Jaysela’s season ended without qualifying for at-large.
It’s been a season full of unusual events, so prepare for a similar postseason.
