Prep Rally: Southern Section Division 1 playoff picture is turned upside down
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. There’s a new No. 1 high school football team in Southern California. With two weeks left in the regular season, the St. John Bosco Braves have replaced Mater Dei at the top. Let’s look where things stand.
Division 1 intrigue
The Southern Section Division 1 playoff picture was turned upside down thanks to St. John Bosco’s 28-0 victory over Mater Dei last week. The Braves have taken over the No. 1 spot, which will lead to new potential matchups and speculation how many teams will be chosen for the Division 1 playoffs.
Last season there were 10 teams selected. There are 10 teams looking likely for this year’s tournament based on CalPreps rankings. The top four are pretty easy: St. John Bosco, Mater Dei, Sierra Canyon and Corona Centennial. Sierra Canyon and Centennial both have challenging games this week, with the Trailblazers hosting Gardena Serra to decide the Mission League title and Centennial playing at always dangerous Murrieta Valley.
There’s likely to be five Trinity League teams in the tournament, with Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita and JSerra taking turns beating each other to join St. John Bosco and Mater Dei. The other teams certain to be in Division 1 are Long Beach Poly and Rancho Cucamonga, which faces unbeaten Damien on Friday. San Clemente is also likely after its win over Mission Viejo last week.
Los Alamitos, Gardena Serra and Servite are possible Division 1 teams depending on what happens in the final two weeks.
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.
Football rewind
More than 19,000 came to SoFi Stadium for the first high school football game played at the Inglewood facility and saw Warren come away with a 28-21 victory over Downey. Here’s the report.
No one predicted that Mater Dei would be shut out for the first time since 2011 in losing to St. John Bosco 28-0. Here’s the report.
Freshman quarterback Sam Thompson rallied Edison to a 31-28 win over Newport Harbor. The Chargers blocked a possible tying field goal as time expired.
Gardena Serra moved toward a showdown this week with Sierra Canyon by defeating Bishop Amat.
Cajon had its 35-game league winning streak ended by Citrus Valley 31-26. Quarterback Dawson Martinez rushed for 127 yards.
Bellflower started its game against Paramount by recovering three consecutive onside kicks to open a 24-0 lead and win 32-14.
Crenshaw pulled out a 37-34 win over Dorsey to move into a tie for first place in the Coliseum League with Dymally, which was upset by King/Drew.
The Marine League continues to produce weekly competitive games. Banning held off Gardena and San Pedro knocked off Narbonne.
John Sanders of St. Francis accounted for five touchdowns in a win over Cathedral. He passed for two, ran for two and caught a touchdown pass from brother Shawn.
Beverly Hills won its first league game since 2015 with a 42-6 win over Morningside. Harvard-Westlake forfeited to St. Pius X-St. Matthias for safety reasons after a number of injuries in recent weeks.
Here’s a look at top individual performances for Week 8.
Here’s the City Section top 10 rankings.
Here’s The Times’ top 25 rankings.
Here’s last week’s score list.
Here’s this week’s schedule.
Girls’ volleyball
The Southern Section girls’ volleyball playoffs begin this week. Here’s the link to pairings. Mater Dei is seeded No. 1 in Division 1, followed by Mira Costa and Huntington Beach.
Palos Verdes has earned the eighth and last Division 1 spot thanks in large part to twin sisters Molly and Mallory LaBreche.
Molly plays libero and defensive specialist while Mallory is a setter and outside hitter for the Sea Kings (21-8), who wrapped up the regular season with back-to-back sweeps over Santa Monica and Peninsula to finish second in the Bay League behind Mira Costa.
The juniors are straight-A students and have committed early to prominent Division I beach programs — but they happen to be exceptional indoor players too. Here’s a report on the twins.
Corona del Mar defeated Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay five-set match. Here’s the report.
Cross-country
The Mt. SAC Invitational is scheduled Friday and Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. It’s the final big invitational before City Section and Southern Section competition begins to reach the state championships.
Top runners from Ventura, Dana Hills, JSerra and Cathedral are expected to compete.
At last week’s Orange County championships, the Dana Hills boys and the JSerra girls won championships. Evan Noonan of Dana Hills had the fastest time at 13:59.4. Holly Barker of Trabuco Hills led the girls’ individual leaders, running 16:08.1.
Ventura dominated at the Ventura County championships. Anthony Fast Horse ran 14:48.4 to lead all boys runners. Sadie Engelhardt ran 17:14.2 in the girls’ race.
Enjoying this newsletter?
Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Become a Los Angeles Times subscriber.
Basketball
Jan. 6, 2024, is going to be a big day for high school basketball fans in Southern California.
A showcase event featuring six games between Catholic high school teams, including the Trinity League matchup of St. John Bosco playing Mater Dei, will take place at Crypto.com Arena, home of the Lakers and Clippers.
Called the “Coastal Catholic Classic,” the Saturday showcase will begin with the only girls’ game of the day matching Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Louisville at noon.
Here’s the report.
Harvard-Westlake guard Trent Perry committed to USC. He’s a big pickup for the Trojans. Here’s the report.
Team on the rise
Darius Benitez is Filipino and lives in Monterey Park. Jaden Erami is part Hispanic, part Japanese and lives in Lincoln Heights. Ryan Osborne is Black, Irish, Hispanic and Filipino and lives in Rosemead. They’ve known each other since second grade, brought together by their love for basketball.
They’re 16-year-old ballers at Don Bosco Tech, where Benitez studies 3D animation and the other two are learning architecture, construction and engineering. They’ve learned through sports that you need each other to succeed.
“It’s almost like a universal language,” Osborne said. “It puts our differences away from everything. We unite together.”
Bosco Tech, the defending 5AA champions, will be a team to watch this season. Here’s a report.
Baseball
There was huge news made in high school baseball when the Ebel brothers from Etiwanda, Brady and Trey, announced they had transferred to Corona. They are the sons of Dodger third-base coach Dino Ebel and top hitters.
It helps make Corona the Southern Section Division 1 title favorites for 2024, because the Panthers are already loaded in the pitching department and return several top hitters, such as catcher Josh Springer and shortstop Billy Carlson.
Here’s a report.
Notes . . .
Left-handed pitcher Anthony Camarena, who was 3-1 last season at Narbonne, has transferred to Banning. . . .
Former Hart baseball standout Pat Valaika is returning to UCLA to become an undergraduate assistant baseball coach. . . .
Junior softball shortstop Brianah Alejandre of Los Altos has committed to UCLA. . . .
Mater Dei linebacker Tanner Williams has committed to Utah State. . . .
Michael Kunipo-Aguirre is the new baseball coach at Carson, which lost to Birmingham in last year’s City Section championship game. . . .
Megan Kelso, the girls’ basketball coach at Chaminade since July of 2019, is taking a leave and has been replaced by interim coach Jason Anceum. The Southern Californiew News Group has reported that Kelso is facing bullying allegations. . . .
Junior infielder Kevin Jeon of La Mirada has committed Boston College. . . .
Palisades has had three basketball transfers denied eligibility by the City Section, including Beverly Hills transfer Jon Mani. The players can appeal to the state CIF. . . .
Mater Dei defensive lineman Aydin Breland has committed to Oregon.
From the archives: Drake London
Former Moorpark and USC standout receiver Drake London continues to make his presence felt catching passes for the Atlanta Falcons.
London also used to be a quarterback in his early days at Moorpark, so seeing him complete a pass last weekend for the Falcons was no surprise to those who remember his passing days.
Here’s a 2018 story on London being a star football and basketball player at Moorpark.
Recommendations
From the Washington Post, a story on school district in Virginia starting a middle school sports program with $600,000 for cross-country and track teams.
From MLB.com, a story on how the Twins found former JSerra baseball star Royce Lewis.
From the Washington Post, a story on the rise of kickers.
From CalHiSports.com, a story on what to do with St. John Bosco and Mater Dei dominating in high school football.
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 [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.
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.
