Prep Rally: This could be the biggest week of the football season

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s the week for big games. St. John Bosco is playing Mater Dei at Santa Ana Stadium and Garfield is playing Roosevelt at SoFi Stadium.

Showdown week

Mater Dei linebacker Nasir Wyatt celebrates a 17-7 victory against St.John Bosco in 2022.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

It’s Week 9 in high school football, and two games that fans have been waiting all season for will take place. St. John Bosco (8-0) will face Mater Dei (7-0) at Santa Ana Stadium. Garfield (6-2) will play Roosevelt (3-5) in the East L.A. Classic at SoFi Stadium.

Mater Dei and St. John Bosco have gotten used to playing twice a season. This game will decide the Trinity League championship, and perhaps it’s not a great idea to win the matchup in league play. Since 2016, the team that lost in league won the rematch in the Division 1 final when they played again except for 2017 when Mater Dei won both games.

Mater Dei is favored because of a defense that recorded seven sacks last week against JSerra. Linebacker Nasir Wyatt must be stopped to give freshman quarterback Koa Malau’ulu time to throw.

“Playing Mater Dei typically brings out the best in our kids and program,” coach Jason Negro said. “We are extremely excited to play this game and see how much we’ve improved from last week. Another step in our journey towards peaking at the right time.”

Garfield is the team to beat against Roosevelt thanks to sophomore running back Ceasar Reyes, who has scored 18 touchdowns and rushed for 1,278 yards.

Southern Section football

Braylin Drake of Corona Centennial had a big night rushing against Murrieta Valley.

(Craig Weston)

Corona Centennial looks ready for the Division 1 playoffs after a 28-9 win over Murrieta Valley. Here’s the report.

St. John Bosco knocked off Servite at SoFi Stadium, Mater Dei routed JSerra and Orange Lutheran held off Santa Margarita in the latest weekly battles in the Trinity League.

Edison could be the prime challenger to unbeaten Mission Viejo in the new Alpha League after a 13-10 win over Los Alamitos.

San Juan Hills routed Newport Harbor behind three touchdown passes by Timmy Herr. Here’s the report.

The big news of the week was starting quarterback Matai Fuiava of St. John Bosco moving to Hawaii. His brother told a Hawaii radio station that the transfer was made for family reasons involving his father getting a new job.

Bear Bachmeier of Murrieta Valley practicing his throwing while waiting to heal from a knee injury.

(Craig Weston)

With two weeks left in the regular season, a big question looming is when three top players could return from injuries and thus have a huge influence during the playoffs. Murrieta Valley hasn’t had quarterback Bear Bachmeier all season. Santa Margarita is still waiting for Trent Mosley to return. And Servite is close to getting back quarterback Leo Hannan.

Oaks Christian has made 15 interceptions this season, returning nine for touchdowns, including three by Davon Benjamin.

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

Here’s a look at some of the top performances by Southland athletes.

Here’s this week’s schedule.

City Section football

Carson High’s Craig Walker tries to outrun Gardena defenders during a 23-7 win Friday night.

(Nick Koza)

Carson has moved in position to be second-best in the Marine League after a 23-7 win over Gardena. Here’s the report.

Gardena is scheduled to play Narbonne this week, but coach Monty Gilbreath indicated his team will be the third straight to forfeit to the Gauchos in protest over allegations of rule violations that the City Section and Los Angeles Unified School District have been unable to prove. Carson will end the regular season next week with a fourth forfeit against the Gauchos unless something changes. Then the Open Division playoffs will begin, and the forfeits will likely end because teams would be banned from the 2025 playoffs if they refused to play Narbonne.

One of the craziest endings occurred in the Venice-Palisades game. A Jack Thomas 55-yard touchdown pass with two seconds left gave Palisades the chance to tie. But the Dolphins decided to go for the victory. A two-point conversion attempt failed. Down by one point, Palisades successfully recovered the kickoff at the Venice 20-yard line. Only one second went off the clock. The Dolphins then missed on a potential game-winning field goal in a 45-44 loss. Jaiden Noel passed for five touchdowns for Venice.

At the Coliseum, San Pedro stopped a two-point conversion attempt in overtime to defeat Banning 34-33. Sophomore kicker Dylan Moreno of San Pedro had two field goals. His father made a field goal for the Pirates at the Coliseum in the 1997 City 4A final against Taft.

Sophomore running back Edward Rivera of South East rushed for 211 yards and three touchdowns in a 22-10 win over South Gate, giving him 1,459 yards rushing in eight games. Junior quarterback Diego Montes of Kennedy had 148 yards passing and four touchdowns in win over Sylmar and also rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns.

Here’s a look at this week’s top 10 City Section rankings.

Flag football

Orange Lutheran High’s Brookelynn Vanderkallen tries to rush past Santa Margarita’s Mackenzie Young during a Trinity League game.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Orange Lutheran is seeded No. 1 in the first Southern Section Division 1 flag football playoffs. Action begins on Tuesday, with Orange Lutheran opening on Saturday against Eastvale Roosevelt. Here’s the pairings. There are five divisional championships.

Here’s a look at the playoffs and the teams to watch.

A star on campus

Agoura sophomore George Hastings shows emotion after win over Calabasas.

(Lynn Brennan)

Jamie Foxx, the actor, is standing in the Agoura High parking lot talking on his cellphone next to his white Rolls Royce SUV, apparently waiting for girls’ volleyball practice to begin since his daughter plays for the team. There are no TMZ photographers hiding in the bushes.

Football coach Dustin Croick arrives in his golf cart to transport me to the football office to speak with a 15-year-old sophomore who never would be mistaken for a celebrity.

George Hastings sounds like a name from a 17th-century English novel. He’s a 5-foot-10, 175-pound football player who could star for any team if a coach saw what he does. His mom is sports psychologist for the Rams. His father played football at Princeton. This is a family that probably puts on eyeblack before going to sleep.

Here’s the profile of a teenager who loves football and is delivering game after game.

USC’s Mater Dei connection

Mater Dei’s Tomuhini Topui (52) starts celebration in win over Bishop Gorman.

(Craig Weston)

The announcement of star junior defensive tackle Tomuhini Topui of Mater Dei High committing to Oregon might invoke nostalgia for USC fans wishing for a return to the old days when top Mater Dei players were almost a guarantee for landing at USC. Remember the days of quarterbacks Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and JT Daniels and receivers Bru McCoy and Amon-Ra St. Brown?

Times have definitely changed, with Oregon and Alabama among the schools taking away Monarch players in growing numbers.

Here’s the report.

Girls volleyball

The Southern Section girls volleyball playoffs begin Wednesday. Sierra Canyon is seeded No. 1 in Pool A of the Division 1 tournament. Mater Dei is seeded No. 2 and leads Pool B.

Here’s the complete pairings. Finals are Nov. 9 at Cerritos College.

Water polo

Unbeaten Newport Harbor traveled to De La Salle for the North vs. South Challenge and came away tournament champion. Newport Harbor looks as dominant as JSerra was last season in boys water polo.

The runner-up was JSerra, which lost to Newport Harbor 16-7 in the final, with Oaks Christian third and Harvard-Westlake fourth.

Cross-country

Oak Park won the boys and girls team titles at the Ventura County championshps.

J.R. Lesher of Hueneme won the boys title with a time of 14:49. Aelo Curtis of Ventura took the girls title in 18:10.

At the Orange County championships, Griffin Kushen of Tesoro continued his strong running by winning the boys sweepstakes title in 14:22.4. Summer Wilson of Irvine took the girls title in16:22 at Oak Canyon course. Trabuco Hills won the girls title and JSerra took the boys title.

Basketball

A group of teams traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the Border League. Playing teams from around the nation with the possibility to be shown on ESPN was motivation to spend money for travel and lodging expenses.

St. John Bosco clearly has one of the most talented teams in California thanks to the trio of Brandon McCoy, Christian Collins and Elzie Harrington.

Defending state champion Harvard-Westlake is getting comfortable with Crespi transfer Joe Sterling firing up threes. He had seven in one victory. Eastvale Roosevelt has heavily recruited Brayden Burries looking as effective as ever. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has its own impressive trio of Tyran Stokes, Lino Mark and Zachary White.

Roosevelt, St. John Bosco, Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame are the consensus top four teams for the official basketball season that begins next month.

The girls basketball teams from Etiwanda and Ontario Christian also made the trip to Las Vegas. Kaleena Smith scored 23 points in one game for Ontario Christian.

Three basketball players who transferred from City champion King/Drew to Washington Prep won’t be eligible until Dec. 27 under sit-out period rules. They are Donald Thompson, Jayden Nelson and Semaj Howard.

After weeks of traveling and thinking, Harvard-Westlake’s 6-foot-9 Nikolas Khamenia is expected to announce his college choice on Tuesday. UCLA has been recruiting him hard, sending coaches to practices and to games in Las Vegas last week. They are trying to fight off Duke.

Notes . . .

Paul Rodriguez has resigned as football coach at Mountain View. . . .

Basketball player Dillan Shaw from Heritage Christian has committed to St. Mary’s. . . .

Junior outfielder Carson Cerny of Moorpark has committed to San Diego. . . .

Pitcher Jake Frohn of Huntington Beach has committed to San Diego State. . . .

Junior softball player Kale’a Tindal of Harvard-Westlake has committed to Stanford. . . .

Jack Epstein, who coached Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon at Hamilton High, has died. He was 91. Here’s a look at Epstein’s legacy. . . .

Wrestler Christian Garcia of Walnut has committed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. . . .

Sara Soltani is the new track coach at Cathedral. . . .

Devyn Kiernan of Mater Dei has committed to Southern Utah for women’s basketball. . . .

Max Sutherland, a 6-foot-7 senior center at Foothill, has committed to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. . . .

Servite baseball player Tomas Cernius has committed to Princeton. . . .

Defensive end Kaylin Booker of Newbury Park has committed to Portland State. . . .

Klea Miloti of Santa Margarita has committed to Northeastern for women’s volleyball. . . .

Standout point guard Aliyahna Morris of Etiwanda has committed to California,

From the archives: Lincoln vs. Wilson

This week, Lincoln will play Wilson in a Northern League football game. It marks 47 years since the most publicized forfeit in City Section history when Lincoln decided not to come out for the second half on Nov. 4, 1977, after falling behind 63-0 to Wilson and took a forfeit.

It became national news and a front page story on the L.A. Times sports section.

Here’s a story from 1985 explaining what happened, why Lincoln’s coach decided not to play the second half and repercussions.

Here’s a story from the New York Times in 1977.

Recommendations

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on the pitching performance from former Harvard-Westlake star Jack Flaherty.

From ESPN.com, a story on Camarillo’s Jaquez family and their impact on Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on how Jim Harbaugh has created a way to show the many paths to the NFL from having no stars as a high school player to five stars.

From the Atlantic, a story on the Jewish quarterback at a Mormon college.

From SI.com, a story on the issues facing the Marine League in ongoing protest against Narbonne.

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