Prep Rally: Trinity League once again flexes its football muscle

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s four games into the high school football season and all six Trinity League teams are in The Times’ top 25. The dominance continues.

Trinity League influence

Another football season, another dominating six-team performance from the Trinity League. It should come as no surprise, since Mater Dei or St. John Bosco have won every Southern Section Division 1 championship since 2015. While the other four teams keep trying to break into the party, let’s see where things stand in the premier league in the nation.

Mater Dei (4-0): Still waiting for someone to detect a weakness in the Monarchs. Quarterback Elijah Brown threw four more touchdown passes last week. Ranking No. 1 in California and the nation, Mater Dei figures only to be challenged on Oct. 13 when it plays at St. John Bosco.

St. John Bosco (4-0). The Braves have found their quarterback in Caleb Sanchez, who keeps delivering week after week. The defense is as good as advertised. A trip to Hawaii beckons this week, then it’s on to Trinity League play.

Orange Lutheran (3-1): Friday’s game against Sierra Canyon is huge for playoff seeding purposes. The Lancers lost to one of Arizona’s top teams, Chandler, last week. Quarterback TJ Lateef has the versatility to make the Lancers the third-best team in the Trinity League.

JSerra (3-1): The Lions’ only loss was a close one, 9-7, to Sierra Canyon. They are making steady progress under a first-year coach and it will be interesting to see how Victor Santa Cruz schemes when he faces Mater Dei and St. John Bosco for the first time.

Santa Margarita (3-1): With running back Trent Mosley, the Eagles have one of the most exciting players in the league and they appear to have solved their quarterback problems with the arrival of 6-foot-7 John Gazzaniga, who passed for 377 yards in his debut after playing for Orange Lutheran to start the season.

Servite (3-1): A big win over Los Alamitos provides more confidence in the Friars after they downgraded their nonleague schedue, leaving questions unanswered. Leo Hannan has only one interception in four games. Freshman Isaiah Leilua leads the team in tackles with 27.

And speaking of the Trinity League. How about letting Bishop Gorman from Las Vegas join the league. It’s only about 300 miles driving. Here’s my column exploring the idea.

Football rewind

Palos Verdes receiver Luke Layton catches the ball in midair as he gets hit by Edison cornerback Jared Schnoor in the first half.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Santa Margarita had quite a rally, coming back from 21-0 and 29-8, to defeat Bishop Amat. Here’s the report.

A week after a close win over Corona del Mar, Palos Verdes remained unbeaten thanks to a field goal with one second left to defeat Edison. Here’s the report on Palos Verdes and its promising freshman quarterback.

Narbonne is part of a strong Marine League this season in City Section football and came through with a win over Venice. Here’s the report.

Taft set a bunch of school records in a 78-41 win over Grant. Quarterback Devon Conroy passed for 535 yards and nine touchdowns. Lior Leshem scored eight touchdowns — seven on receptions and one on a kickoff return. The seven TD catches is a City record.

Here’s a look at top individual performances.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

Here’s this week’s top 10 City Section rankings.

Here’s last week’s score list.

Here’s this week’s prep football schedule.

City Section notebook

Matthew Castillo of Legacy High in South Gate is off to the best start of any running back in the City Section.

With games of 307 yards rushing against Marquez, 309 yards against Fremont and 240 yards against Grant, he has accumulated 856 yards in three games with 12 touchdowns.

Here’s more City Section notes.

Coaching dream

Senior Emily Regitz transferred from Newport Harbor to Santa Margarita to be a coaching intern for the football team.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Wearing aviator sunglasses while carrying an iPad and clipboard, 17-year-old Emily Regitz looks armed and ready for her duties as a coaching intern for Santa Margarita High’s football team.

You’ve heard of seniors transferring to a school for more playing time, for exposure to college recruiters or to try to be part of a championship team. Regitz might be the first to transfer to a school for the opportunity to coach in the Trinity League.

Regitz’s attitude is perfect for her goal to coach in college and the pros, and that is to never say no to any request, whether that means carrying water bottles, picking up trash or breaking down video.

Rams coach Sean McVay started the same way.

A profile of Coach Em.

Ivy League begins

Cornell quarterback and El Segundo native Jameson Wang (right) with former Harvard-Westlake teammate Thomas Glover during a practice last year.

(Courtesy Jameson Wang.)

Destination Ivy League is not for every athlete. There are no athletic scholarships. There are no free meals. There are no special dorms. There’s rarely national TV exposure. Most importantly, “Academics definitely comes first,” said Cornell quarterback Jameson Wang.

Ivy League football teams begin their annual 10-game schedule this week, with 40 former high school players from the Southland listed on rosters. In many ways, it’s becoming the last bastion for an old-school Division I college experience based on love for the game and a four-year focus on earning an Ivy League degree that can open doors for eternity.

“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Wang said. “I’ve really enjoyed my experience.”

Here’s a look at Wang, an Oaks Christian grad, doing his thing in the Ivy League. And here’s the list of 40 SoCal players playing in the Ivy League.

Girls’ volleyball

Tiffany Wu of Temple City continued her impressive early season form with 30 kills last week in a win over San Gabriel.

Palisades won the Venice tournament championship.

Mater Dei defeated Redondo Union in a competitive four-set match.

Water polo

JSerra’s Ryder Dodd is considered the nation’s No. 1 water polo prospect.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Ryder Dodd of JSerra played a little more than three quarters last week in a key nonleague water polo match against Harvard-Westlake before fouling out in the fourth quarter. He still made a huge impact, scoring four goals in a 9-7 JSerra victory.

Harvard-Westlake gained some confidence about being able to play with the Lions. Later in the week, Harvard-Westlake was beaten by Newport Harbor.

Corona del Mar won the Santa Barbara tournament with a 19-12 win over Bellarmine in the final.

Cross-country

The first big meet of the season is set for Saturday in the Woodbridge Classic at the Great Park in Irvine. The two sweepstakes races will be run after 9:30 p.m. in the evening.

There could be a girls’ matchup of Northern Arizona-bound Payton Godsey against Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt.

Last week, Jason Parra of Long Beach Millikan had the fastest boys’ time at the Rosemead Invitational at 14:04. He’ll be running at Woodbridge.

Zac Gibson of Santa Margarita ran 15:27 to win his Division 2 race at the Laguna Hills Invitational. Keaton Robar of Newport Harbor ran 18:80.1 in the Division 2 girls’ race.

Girls’ golf

There’s little doubt that Santa Margarita is the team to beat in Southern Section girls’ golf. The Eagles won the Peninsula tournament last week. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame finished second.

Zoe Sprecher from Arcadia was the individual champion.

Notre Dame has a terrific freshman in Eliana Saga, who will be competing in France in a few weeks in a tournament.

Flag football

Edison is 4-0 and showing it might have one of the best flag football teams. Eagle Rock continues to make waves in the City Section.

Notes . . .

Thanks to Team HEAL, another group of schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District are getting athletic trainers. They include Marshall, Bell, Torres, Fairfax, King/Drew, Jordan and Narbonne. . . .

Quarterback Damon Wrighster of Inglewood has committed to UC Davis. . . .

Santa Paula and Nordhoff have canceled football games this season after players became ill, some with COVID-19. . . .

El Camino Real softball player Rachel Loth has committed to North Dakota. . . .

Newbury Park standout junior girls’ soccer player Siena Meyer has committed to UCLA. . . .

Former Harvard-Westlake outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is expected to be promoted by the Chicago Cubs this week to the major leagues.

From the archives: DJ Uiagalelei

St. John Bosco quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei passes against Oaks Christian during a Division 1 football semifinal in 2018.

(Michael Owen Baker/For the Times)

DJ Uiagalelei, a former St. John Bosco great, resumed his college career with an impressive quarterback debut for Oregon State after transferring from Clemson. He completed 20 of 25 passes for 239 yards for three touchdowns and also ran for two TDs in a win over San Jose State.

Here’s a story from 2019 when Uiagalelei rallied the Braves from a 28-5 deficit to beat Mater Dei 39-34 in the Division 1 championship game.

Here’s a 2017 story about Uiagalelei rallying St. John Bosco when he was a backup quarterback.

Recommendations

From the Washington Post, running backs might have lost value in the NFL but they are still important in high school.

From Yahoo, a story on former Cajon quarterback Jayden Daniels, now at LSU.

From blogs.fangraphs.com, a story on former JSerra baseball standout Royce Lewis.

From TCpalm.com, a story on parents being arrested for involvement in an alleged recruiting scheme in Florida.

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