Prep Rally: Sierra Canyon vs. Gardena Serra is a key matchup with playoff implications

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s the final week of the regular season in high school football and the last chance to move up or down for playoff seeding purposes.

It’s ending

It’s the final chance to earn automatic football playoff berths or clinch a league title in Week 10 of the high school season.

Among the most intriguing games is Sierra Canyon playing at Gardena Serra to decide the Mission League championship. Sierra Canyon is on the bubble for a Division 1 playoff berth. A win would lock up a spot. Serra could be one of the top seeds in Division 2 with a victory.

“I don’t think anyone has scored a touchdown on them in a month,” Serra coach Scott Altenberg said.

Sierra Canyon’s defense has recorded consecutive shutouts against Loyola and Bishop Amat. Madden Riordan has nine interceptions. Serra is relatively healthy, which means the Cavaliers are dangerous.

“We have to be able to block them up front and compete at the line of scrimmage and limit their big plays,” Altenberg said.

Orange Lutheran will get to test unbeaten Mater Dei at Santa Ana Stadium. The Lancers have played the type of strong schedule that makes them ready to give the Monarchs a tough game.

The Southern Section playoff pairings will be announced Sunday morning. The City Section pairings will come out Saturday afternoon. The Division 1 final for the Southern Section is set for Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. The City Section final is uncertain.

After missing his team’s first eight games because of a knee issue, quarterback Bear Bachmeier of Murrieta Valley made his return in a 57-55 win over Vista Murrieta. The Stanford commit ran the ball on his first carry of the game, got smacked by the safety and went back into normal mode. He passed for three touchdowns and ran for another.

“I felt good. It was exhilarating,” Bachmeier said.

Meanwhile, his two older brothers, Hank and Tiger, faced off in college football when Wake Forest defeated Stanford.

Also returning from injury last week were receiver Trent Mosley of Santa Margarita and quarterback Leo Hannan of Servite. Mosley caught 13 passes in a loss to JSerra.

The game matching No. 1 Mater Dei and No. 2 St. John Bosco turned into a mismatch, with Mater Dei winning 59-14. Here’s the report.

Long Beach Millikan won its first Moore League championship since 1973.

Future Hall of Fame coach Matt Logan of Corona Centennial became the Inland Empire’s winningest coach after his team delivered victory No. 293 against Norco. He’s been head coach since 1997. He passed Hall of Fame coach Dick Bruich.

Crespi has clinched its first playoff berth since 2019. Defensive lineman James Moffat has 24.5 tackles for losses this season. Quarterback Masyn Harvey rushed for 238 yards and five touchdowns last week against Cantwell-Sacred Heart.

Journee Tonga of Leuzinger is closing in on 2,000 yards rushing after gaining 252 yards against Mira Costa. He has 1,919 on the season.

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

Here’s the list of top performers.

Here’s the Week 9 scores.

Here’s this week’s final regular season schedule.

The East Los Angeles Classic attracted a crowd of more than 15,000 at SoFi Stadium, with Garfield defeating Roosevelt 38-28. Here’s the report.

Dorsey only needs a win over Washington Prep on Friday to win the Coliseum League title after defeating King/Drew 20-14. The Dons are on the verge of making the Open Division playoffs under coach Stafon Johnson, a former Dorsey standout.

Defending champion Birmingham closes out the regular season playing Granada Hills. The Patriots have outscored their four West Valley League opponents 211-14.

Carson has gone 3-0 in the Marine League and would be playing Narbonne for the league title on Friday if it wasn’t forfeiting. Chris Fields accounted for four touchdowns in a win over Banning last week.

L.A. Jordan is headed to the Metro League title after 333 yards rushing from David Sandy in a win over Rancho Dominguez.

Here’s the top 10 City Section rankings.

Marine League standoff

Narbonne is facing seven weeks off before opening the City Section Open Division playoffs on Nov. 15. That’s the result of four fellow Marine League teams forfeiting games to the Gauchos in a protest.

Here’s a look at the issues that have yet to be resolved.

Riley Crooks from Edison had three interceptions in a first-round playoff victory. Here’s the report. Then she scored the only touchdown in a second-round playoff win.

Ventura held off Agoura in a Division 1 opener. Here’s a report from the Division 1 playoffs.

Here’s the updated pairings.

Girls volleyball

The Southern Section girls volleyball playoffs have begun. There were no upsets in the opening matches of the Division 1 pool.

There’s some showdown matches Tuesday, with Marymount at Sierra Canyon and Redondo Union at Mater Dei.

Here’s the results and pairings.

The City Section announced its playoff pairings, with Taft seeded No. 1. Here’s the pairings.

Cross-country

At the Mt. SAC Invitational, where more than 5,000 runners competed, Braelyn Combe of Corona Santiago won the girls sweepstakes individual race for Division 1 and 2, finishing the course in 17:20.

The top girls time belonged to Abby Errington of South Pasadena in 16:57.

Beckman won the boys team title. Mason Nguyen of Beckman placed second in 15:03. Trey Caldwell of De La Salle took first in 14:46.

Issaiah McCorvey of Lancaster won his individual race in 15:08.

Girls golf

The Southern Section individual regionals begin on Monday. The top 24 players from the three regionals will advance to the individual finals. Regionals will be held Monday at Bear Valley and Wednesday at Los Robles Greens and Los Serranos.

The individual championships are Nov. 7. The team championships are Nov. 4.

Here’s the team rankings.

Water polo

Unbeaten Newport Harbor is the No. 1 seed for the Southern Section Open Division water polo pairings released on Friday.

The 10-team bracket begins action on Tuesday. The same top four teams have been battling each other all season — Newport Harbor, JSerra, Harvard-Westlake and Oaks Christian.

Here’s the pairings.

Khamenia picks Duke

Duke won the recruiting battle for 6-foot-9 Nikolas Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake. UCLA and Gonzaga were other finalists.

Here’s the report.

Basketball

The Intuit Dome will be the site for a series of games involving the Trinity and Mission League on Jan. 10, including St. John Bosco taking on Mater Dei. Here’s the link for games and tickets.

The Mission League held its boys and girls media day. Among the newsworthy items: Top junior Tyran Stokes of Notre Dame is recovering from a wrist injury. There’s no indication when he will return and it could be weeks.

Two of the top girls players in the league, Bella Spencer of Harvard-Westlake and Leia Edwards of Sierra Canyon, are both healthy and ready to go after missing their junior seasons because of torn ACL injuries.

Notre Dame’s Hamiley Arenas is a freshman guard with high expectations. Her father is former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas. Her sister, Izela, was a star at Sierra Canyon and her brother, Alijah, is a junior standout at Chatsworth.

Heritage Christian was the site for a tournament Saturday. Among the top players courtesy of Devin Ugland: Jeremiah Hampton had 20 points in a win over Chatsworth. Alijah Arenas scored 29 points for Chatsworth.

Nikolas Khamena scored 17 points in a Harvard-Westlake win over Campbell Hall. Isaiah Johnson scored 36 points for Campbell Hall. Dillan Shaw had 26 points in win over Crespi. Joe Hickey scored 21 points in St. Francis’ win over Viewpoint.

Notes . . .

Junior pitcher Tristan Ramos of Orange Lutheran has committed to Long Beach State. . . .

Girls water polo goalie Abby Shapiro of Calabasas has committed to UC Merced. . . .

Starting Nov. 13 for the early college signing period, high school seniors will be signing a binding grant in aid. There are no more letters of intent. Core values of the letter of intent will be incorporated in the grant in aid. . . .

Mission Viejo offensive tackle Joshua Bates has committed to Northern Arizona. . . .

Woodbridge football coach Aaron Craver has been suspended for the remainder of the season for violating a Southern Section rule when his team did not complete a game against Oxnard Pacifica on Oct. 11. . . .

Junior baseball player Ryan Williams of Newport Harbor has committed to Cal. . . .

Junior pitcher Kai Bratton from Mater Dei has committed to Tennessee. . . .

Caleb Versher of St. Bernard has committed to UC Riverside basketball. . . .

Former St. Bonaventure football coach Jon Mack has been named the school’s Athletics Collegiate Recruiting Coordinator. He’ll be helping the school’s athletes in the college recruiting process. . . .

Shortstop Billy Carlson of Corona has changed his commitment from Vanderbilt to Tennessee. . . .

Junior outfielder Warren Gravely IV of Santa Margarita has committed to Notre Dame. . . .

Hart girls basketball standout Morgan Mack has committed to Long Beach State. . . .

Junior linebacker Samu Moala of Leuzinger has committed to Texas A&M. . . .

Junior infielder Trey Ebel of Corona has committed to Texas A&M. . . .

From the archives: Giancarlo Stanton

When it comes to all-time great athletes in Southern California high school sports history, Giancarlo Stanton is near the top. He was All-CIF in football, basketball and baseball during his two years at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. He chose pro baseball over accepting a scholarship to USC. The rest is history.

He got to return to Los Angeles last weekend for the World Series at Dodger Stadium as a member of the Yankees and hit a two-run home run in Game 1.

About the only sports attribute that Stanton struggles with is free throws. He was not someone you wanted at the line in a close basketball game. He also played some volleyball when he attended Verdugo Hills.

Here’s a story from 2007 about Stanton’s athleticism when he was going by Mike Stanton.

Here’s a story from 2016 on Stanton recommending playing multiple sports in high school.

Recommendations

From the Washington Post, a story on how a Maryland high school football team went from average to great with a change in coaching philosophy.

From Childrensmercy.com, a story on how to keep youth sports fun.

From Pressenterprise.com, a story on Corona Centennial’s Matt Logan memorable night winning his 293th career victory.

From ESPN.com, a story on former Crespi basketball standout Keith Owens needing a bone marrow transplant.

Tweets you might have missed