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October 10, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Anywhere from one to two matches remain for the area girls volleyball teams and as many as six of the eight area teams have a legitimate shot of the CIF-Southern Section divisional playoffs, which begin on Oct. 23. The regular season also ends on Wednesday for girls flag football with the playoffs beginning on Oct. 23.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
605 LEAGUE
Cerritos High clinched second place in the league with a 25-20, 25-21, 25-9 win over Artesia High this past Tuesday to improve to 16-11, 6-2 while the Pioneers fell to 7-8 overall, 4-4, tied with Oxford Academy for third place. Artesia visits league-leading Whitney High on Friday before hosting last place Pioneer High on Tuesday while Cerritos goes to Pioneer on Friday and John Glenn High on Tuesday. In the event there is a tie for third place, a tie-breaker match will be played on Wednesday.
Whitney swept Glenn 27-25, 27-25, this past Tuesday to notch its 20th victory, the most the program has had in more than 27 seasons. The Wildcats (20-7, 8-0) also won a league title for the first time since 2000 and will travel to Oxford Academy on Tuesday to end the season, while Glenn (12-9, 2-6) can’t earn an automatic playoff berth, but is alive for an at-large berth as the Eagles will go to Oxford Academy on Friday.
GATEWAY LEAGUE
Gahr High was officially eliminated from the playoffs when league-leading Downey High swept the Gladiators 25-22, 25-19, 25-17 this past Tuesday, putting Gahr’s record at 15-18, 0-6 as it visited Warren High on Oct. 10 before hosting Norwalk High on Tuesday.
La Mirada High’s 25-16, 24-26, 25-21, 25-16 win over Gahr last Thursday enabled the Matadores to go to 10-11, 2-4 and move to within a game of third place and the final automatic playoff berth. La Mirada went to Downey on Oct. 10 and will host Warren on Tuesday and will need to beat both in order to potentially tie Norwalk for third place.
Warren swept third place Norwalk 25-18, 25-22, 25-23 this past Tuesday to fall to 12-14, 3-4 and if the Lancers defeat Gahr on Tuesday, will clinch third place.
OLYMPIC LEAGUE
Valley Christian High went out of the league to face Pacifica Christian High of Orange County this past Tuesday and posted a 25-19, 26-24, 25-22 victory The Defenders, who lost to first place Village Christian High 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 26-24, are 19-5 4-2 in the Olympic League as they hosted Heritage Christian High on Oct. 10 and will conclude the regular season at Maranatha High on Tuesday. The Defenders can do no worse than third place.
GIRLS FLAG FOOTBALL
Artesia blasted Whitney 47-0 this past Monday to complete a season-series sweep and improve to 6-5 in its first season of fielding a team. The Pioneers hosted a doubleheader against this past Wednesday and will travel to Pioneer on Monday for a season-ending doubleheader.
Gahr dropped to 10-4 overall following a 39-12 loss to Downey on Sept. 30. The Gladiators defeated La Mirada 13-6 and faced Dominguez High this past Wednesday to improve to 11-4, 1-2 as they will visit Mayfair High and Warren on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.
Glenn, another first-year team, lost to Pioneer 14-12 and 24-20 this past Monday to drop to 3-11. After facing Artesia, the Eagles will close the season on Monday at Whitney while La Mirada (4-9, 1-4) hosted Warren this past Wednesday. The Matadores will then go to Dominguez and Paramount High on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.
Norwalk, also in its first season, lost to Mayfair 20-6 this past Monday and is 8-10, 1-3. The Lancers hosted Paramount on Oct. 9 and will end the season at Warren on Monday and at Bellflower High on Wednesday.
FOOTBALL
Don Lugo High (2-4) @ Cerritos High (4-2)-After a well-deserved week off, Cerritos gets back into action on homecoming night in its final non-league contest of the season. The Dons cruised past Westminster High 32-7 on Sept. 27, snapping a two-game skid. Senior wide receiver Ruben Castro caught a pair of touchdown passes from junior quarterback Justin Sagun. Sagun is completing 61 percent of his passes and has passed for 605 yards and five touchdowns. The Dons have rushed for over 1,000 yards, but no one has reached the 500-yard mark. Senior running back Dikshanta Adhikari leads all Cerritos players with seven touchdowns while Sagun and senior running back Josiah Ungos each have found the endzone four times. Castro is the leading receiver with 452 yards on 39 receptions with five scores.
In the four Cerritos victories, the Dons have yielded 21 points and have posted a pair of shutouts. Junior lineman Makai Ortiz has four of the team’s six sacks. The defense will need to have a big game because Don Lugo has scored an average of just over 26 points.
The Conquistadores lost to Brentwood School 31-21 last Friday for their fourth loss in the last five games. The Q’s have allowed 10 more points than they have scored, and their two victories have been one-possession outcomes.
Don Lugo is clearly a passing team as Kalib Pacheco has thrown for 1,726 yards and 16 touchdowns, but also has eight interceptions. The team have rushed for only 413 yards, and no one has more than 156 yards on the ground. On the other side, four players have caught at least 24 passes and all four have over 260 yards.
Prediction: Cerritos 35, Don Lugo 21
GAME OF THE WEEK
Gahr (3-3, 1-0 in the Mid-Cities League) @ Norwalk (5-1, 1-0)-This is a pivotal Mid-Cities contest, and the winner will have a leg up on potentially claiming the title. Gahr defeated Lynwood High 31-7 last Friday and has won three of its last four. Senior running backs Markell Slaughter (11 carries, 126 yards, one touchdown) and Ja’Shon Wallace (27 carries, 145 yards, three touchdowns) paced the Gladiators. They also combined for all three completions thrown by junior quarterback Roman Acosta for 49 yards. However, Gahr’s defense, which has given up at least 35 points in four games and recorded five sacks for 28 yards in losses against Lynwood, will be reintroduced to Norwalk’s double wing offense.
The Lancers thrashed Compton Early College 56-6 last Friday, the third straight game they have scored over 50 points. Norwalk also scored 49 and 48 points, respectively, in its first two games of the season and for the season has put together close to 300 points.
Senior running back Ezra Meuller had 212 yards and four touchdowns against Compton Early College, and for the season has over 1,200 yards with 15 scores. Junior running backs Diego Cerritos and Derek Sandoval each scored twice last Friday and for the season have combined for over 1,100 yards and 17 touchdowns. The defense also had five sacks for 31 yards in losses plus two interceptions.
Gahr stunned the Lancers two seasons ago at Norwalk, 26-6, forcing a three-way tie for first place in league with Bellflower High. The Gladiators also won the 2005 meeting (10-7) and the 2004 meeting (26-14), but this will be Norwalk’s homecoming game with more incentive to win.
Prediction: Norwalk 42, Gahr 21
La Mirada High (1-5, 0-1 in the Gateway League) @ Dominguez High (2-4, 1-1)-La Mirada’s league opener didn’t go so well as the Matadores were trounced by Downey High 45-7 last Friday. Junior wide receiver Aaron Castro caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Santino Garcia on fourth and three for the game’s first points in the second quarter.
He came into the game with close to 900 yards through the air with three touchdowns.
Dominguez lost to Warren High 17-0 last Friday and enters the contest on a four-game losing streak in which the Dons have been outscored 116-70. They began the season with two shutouts and a combined 56 points.
Entering the Warren game, quarterback Mikaele Fitu-Ahkui was 50 of 93 for 796 yards and six touchdowns, but five interceptions and 26 carries for 274 yards and five more touchdowns. Running back Kahmi Williams is second in the rushing department with 26 carries, 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
The positive for the Matadores is that they have won the last three meetings with Dominguez-21-14 last season, 43-21 in 2022 and 38-13 in a 2015 playoff contest.
Prediction: La Mirada 31, Dominguez 24
Valley Christian (6-0, 1-0 in the Ironwood League) @ Aquinas High (4-2, 1-0)-If there was ever a time for Valley Christian to record a big time upset, it would be against the kings of the Ironwood League for the past few seasons. V.C. is coming off an impressive 33-13 win over Capistrano Valley Christian High, in its first season in the league. Senior quarterback Austin Abrahams was masterful again, completing 15 of 18 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns. He threw to six different receivers while the Defenders had five different ball carriers rush for 183 yards. V.C. has scored 100 more points than they have allowed and might have some success over the Falcons.
Aquinas notched a 27-13 win over Ontario Christian High last Friday in which it was 13-13 at the half. The Falcons use two quarterbacks and Malachi Jones was three of three for 47 yards and a touchdown while Charlie Reyes was eight of 11 for 128 yards and a touchdown last Friday. As a team, the Falcons rushed for 101 yards against the Knights with Jusyes Solis gaining 52 yards on half a dozen touches.
Aquinas is on a four-game winning streak, outscoring its opponents 151-37 over that stretch. But in the two losses, the Falcons scored just 15 points. The San Bernardino-based team blanked the Defenders 48-0 last season and won the 2022 game 50-14.
“Aquinas is a really tough football team,” said V.C. head coach Brendan Chambers. “They play a tough schedule. They have some big boys up front and that defense is [tough]. The offense is doing well with two quarterbacks and that running back they have. We know we have a tough task and an uphill climb. But we’re going to go up there and compete and give it our best shot, and at the end of the day, let the pieces fall where they may.”
“It’s definitely the toughest team we’ll probably see all year,” said senior quarterback Austin Abrahams. “This is going to be a tough week, and we know coming into that, but we’re going to give it our all and just prepare the best we can.”
Prediction: Aquinas 24, V.C. 21
Last week’s predictions: 5-1
Season to date: 29-11
CROSS COUNTRY
The Cerritos boys had five runners finish in the top nine and picked up 28 points as the Dons won the Cerritos Invitational on Oct. 2. Freshman Vincent Valenzuela had a time of 16:13 and after Mayfair had a pair of runners claim the next two spots, senior Howard Lee finished in fourth place with a time of 16:46. Mayfair came in second place with 41 points and Downey was third with 57 points.
Rounding out the top 10 for Cerritos was sophomore Allan Woolley (seventh,17:46), senior Alton Chan (ninth. 17:57) and senior John Gillespie (18:16).
Sophomore Anna Field was the top runner for the girls with a time of 17:40, but Downey would have five runners finish within the next seven places to pick up 28 points. Cerritos had 31 points, followed by Mayfair (85 points). Sophomore Daisy Lee (20:34) and junior Dani Romero (20:36) finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively).
The next two Cerritos runners were sophomore Nandini Panchal (13th, 21:55) and sophomore Yuying Sun (18th, 22:22).
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