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Prep Rally: Here are the biggest surprises this high school football season

14 October 2024

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s week eight of the high school football season. Let’s look at some surprises so far.

Surprises

Quarterback Brady Smigiel of Newbury Park signals first down.

(Craig Weston)

What’s been surprising so far about the 2024 high school football season?

The number of teams still unbeaten. There are 22. They include Mater Dei, Mission Viejo, St. John Bosco, Inglewood, Newbury Park, Oak Hills, Simi Valley, El Modena, Bonita, Covina Northview, Beckman, Laguna Beach, Dana Hills, Brea Olinda, Marina, Ramona, Gardena, North Hollywood, La Canada, Los Amigos, Trinity Classical Academy and La Puente. Good scheduling has helped some.

Long Beach Millikan’s win over Long Beach Poly for the first time since 2009 caught everyone’s attention.

Santa Margarita’s 31-15 rout of Corona Centennial way back on Aug. 30 remains puzzling after the Eagles were routed by Mission Viejo and then later lost to Leuzinger 14-13 on Sept. 20.

Who had Narbonne winning on consecutive weeks via forfeit? There could be two more forfeit victories coming and the Gauchos could enter the City Section Open Division playoffs as the No. 1 seed and having not played in five weeks.

Freshmen quarterbacks have been making major contributions, including Koa Malau’ulu of St. John Bosco, Russell Sekona of Leuzinger and Ty Isaia of Murrieta Valley.

Cathedral (6-1) has made a huge jump behind sophomore quarterback Jaden Jefferson and sophomore receiver Quentin Hale owning victories over Loyola, Chaminade and Bishop Alemany.

Finally, we still don’t know really how good Mission Viejo truly is. The Diablos have the best group of skill-position players in Southern California but until they face Mater Dei, St. John Bosco or Centennial, there’s uncertainty about the line play. That will present the most intrigue for the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

Quarterback Dash Beierly of Mater Dei was sharp on Friday night against Servite.

As quarterback Dash Beierly continues to improve, so does No. 1-ranked Mater Dei. Beierly has yet to throw an interception in six games after a 28-6 win over Servite. Here’s the report.

Hart’s Zach Rogozik set a school record by scoring seven touchdowns in a win over Canyon Country Canyon. Here’s a report. Hart will play Valencia for the Foothill League title Friday at College of the Canyons.

Mira Costa upset Culver City, San Juan Hills knocked off Yorba Linda and Palos Verdes stunned Leuzinger among the upsets last week.

Long Beach Millikan earned its first win over Long Beach Poly since the 2009 season with a 53-40 victory and ended Poly’s Moore League win streak at 81 consecutive games behind running back Anthony League, who scored four touchdowns.

In the Battle of the Bay, Newport Harbor defeated Corona del Mar. Here’s the report.

St. John Bosco will face Servite at SoFi Stadium on Friday night.

Here’s a look at top individual performances from Week 7.

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

Here’s Week 7 scores.

Here’s this week’s schedule for Week 8.

Ja'Marion Broughton of Dorsey goes airborne against Crenshaw.

The Marine League continues to be in turmoil. San Pedro became the second team to forfeit its game to Narbonne, refusing to play the Gauchos. Here’s the report.

There also were two more forfeits because of a bench-clearing brawl involving West Adams and Sotomayor. West Adams forfeited to Los Angeles. Sotomayor forfeited to Torres.

Dorsey is making progress as a possible Open Division team after its 28-3 victory over Crenshaw. Here’s the report.

Palisades handed Westchester its first defeat in the Western League. Here’s the report.

Banning will be facing San Pedro at the Coliseum on Friday night. Carson will host Gardena.

Kennedy quarterback Diego Montes passed for 324 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 124 yards and one touchdown in win over Canoga Park.

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

The Southern Section flag football playoff pairings will be released Saturday in the first ever postseason tournament for the section involving five divisions. Playoffs begin on Oct. 22.

Orange Lutheran improved to 19-2 overall and 4-2 in league with a 32-14 win over Santa Margarita.

St. Mary’s in Inglewood is 10-2 in its first season of flag football and gave unbeaten St. Joseph (19-0) one if its toughest games earlier this season, losing 25-22. Quarterback Deja Smith is the top player for St. Mary’s.

Here’s last week’s scores.

Narbonne and San Pedro met in a game that had some tension behind the scenes because of the ongoing Marine League boycott in 11-man football. The players and coaches ignored it all and put together a game with drama and excitement. Here’s the report.

Girls volleyball

Taft seniors (left to right) Aleiah Carr, Francine Baltazar-Shine, Eva Velarde and Gianella Tijamo pose for a photo.

There is no substitute for experience and the Taft High girls’ volleyball team has that in spades.

As the regular season winds down the Toreadors are closing in on the West Valley League title and potentially the No. 1 seed in the eight-team City Section Open Division playoffs, which begin Oct. 30.

Coach Arman Mercado attributes much of this season’s success to the leadership and dedication of his “Core Four,” setter Francine Baltazar-Shine, libero Gianella Tijamo and outside hitters Aleiah Carr and Eva Velarde, who are the key players on a roster that includes 11 seniors and six juniors. Baltazar-Shine’s understudy, sophomore setter Alexa Barajas, is the lone underclassman.

Here’s a report on Taft’s quest to win City title.

Girls tennis

Calabasas upset Westlake 11-7 in a big Southern Section girls tennis match.

Sydney Smith and Emma Penev were the top performers for Calabasas.

Cross-country

Ventura's Sadie Englehardt runs in the girls' mile at the Arcadia Invitational on April 6, 2024.

After a leisurely run a couple weeks ago at the Woodbridge Cross-Country Classic, standout distance runner Sadie Englehardt of Ventura didn’t hold back on Saturday at the Clovis Invite on the state championship meet course at Woodward Park.

She set a course record with a time of 16:24.2, breaking the old record by seven seconds. And let’s also salute Rylee Blade of Corona Santiago. She gave Englehardt quite a battle before finishing second in 16:31.3. That also would have been a course record if not for Englehardt’s performance.

Beckman won the boys sweepstakes race. Griffin Kushen of Tesoro finished second in 14:43.8

Girls golf

Santa Margarita continues to dominate in girls golf. The only question is who will finish second to the Eagles when the postseason tournaments begin.

Oaks Christian is also performing well with five consecutive Marmonte League wins.

Basketball

Ontario Christian's freshmen phenoms, 5-10 Tatianna Griffin (left) and 6-6 Sydney Douglas.

Ontario Christian’s girls’ basketball team made an appearance Sunday at Crossroads in Santa Monica as part of the Nike Flight Club tournament. There are few sophomores better than Kaleena Smith. She averaged 34.9 points as a freshman.

What makes Ontario Christian a real threat to defending state champion Etiwanda is the arrival of two fabulous freshmen in 6-foot-6 Sydney Douglas and 5-10 Tatianna Griffin.

Ontario Christian will be a must-watch team when the girls’ basketball season begins next month.

On the boys’ basketball front, Hart 7-footer Craig Irons is supposed to be much improved for his senior year. His mother, Sarah Wilson, played at Hart and Oregon.

Windward’s Louis Bond has committed to Idaho State.

Notes . . .

Standout junior defensive lineman Tomuhini Topui (52) of Mater Dei has committed to Oregon.

Standout junior defensive tackle Tomuhini Topui of Mater Dei announced on Sunday he has committed to Oregon.

Junior baseball player Andre Owens from Santa Margarita has committed to Oklahoma State. . . .

Infielder Sofia Hernandez of Whittier Christian has committed to Arizona State softball. . . .

Kicker Dylan Freebury from Palos Verdes has committed to Colorado State. . . .

Jaden Erami, who averaged 22 points last season for Bosco Tech, has transferred to St. Pius X St. Matthias. . . .

Standout senior quarterback Madden Iamaleava was denied eligibility at Long Beach Poly by the Southern Section after transferring from Warren after playing in the first game of the football season. He has committed to UCLA. . . .

Left-handed junior pitcher Jorge Valdez of Gahr has committed to Cal State Northridge. . . .

Pitcher Pierson Howe from Bishop Montgomery has committed to Pepperdine. . . .

Offensive lineman Brandon Meza of Long Beach Millikan has committed to Weber State. . . .

Softball pitcher Jo Marsh has left Los Alamitos for Orange Lutheran. . . .

Redondo Union guard Hudson Mayes has committed to Central Michigan. . . .

The Southern Section has imposed a two-year ineligibility for competition on three Iamaleava siblings after transferring from Warren to Long Beach Poly. The Southern Section is not commenting, but a two-year penalty is imposed when false information is submitted, according to CIF rules. . . .

UCLA's baseball team stretches at Birmingham High on Thursday before practicing.

Birmingham and Harvard-Westlake are allowing UCLA to use their baseball fields for practice while the team is locked out of its Jackie Robinson Stadium facility. Here’s the report. . . .

From the archives: Sam Darnold

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold is a San Clemente grad.

The star quarterback in the NFL this season has been Sam Darnold, the former San Clemente High and USC quarterback playing for the Minnesota Vikings. It’s his fourth team in five years, but Darnold has led the Vikings to a 5-0 record.

Here’s video from his junior season at San Clemente.

Here’s a 2016 story from the L.A. Times when Darnold was battling for the stating position at USC.