friday night

How many rejection letters from the same high school does it take for a football coach to conclude the school doesn’t want to hire you?

Jose Razo, the head football coach at unbeaten Marshall High, applied for the Barristers’ head coaching position in 2019 and 2022, only to be turned down. You’d think that the Marshall grad had gotten the message that somebody didn’t think he could be head coach.

Instead of abandoning a program he had been with since playing linebacker at there since he was 15 years old, he decided to remain as an assistant coach.

“It was never personal for me,” he said. “It was, ‘I’m going to stay and help the kids.”’

When the job opened again in 2025 and Razo interviewed for a third time he told himself, “It’s now or never.”

Razo finally received an email informing him he was being promoted to head coach after 18 years serving as an assistant. Talk about being patient. Talk about having no ego. Talk about complete loyalty to a school.

“He stuck it out for the kids and the program,” said Eagle Rock coach Andy Moran, who coached Razo at Marshall in 2005 and 2006.

Incredibly, it’s Moran and Eagle Rock standing in the way on Friday night trying to prevent Marshall from going 10-0 in the regular season. Moran, who is a mentor for Razo, has never lost to Marshall since leaving in 2012.

Razo remembers asking Moran what he should do after being turned down twice. “They didn’t give it to you because they already have you,” Moran told him.

Said Razo: “I had to prove myself to them.”

Standout quarterback Nathaniel Cadet said every day Razo, 37, passes along insights and offers inspiration to players

“Coach Razo’s loyalty is unmatched,” he said. “He’s a great role model, and his commitment to the team makes players want to play under him. He’s a good father and brings his son to the games. He got a college education, and I believe he comes from a similar background to a lot of our players, so he sets a great example for us.”

Marshall is a school that attracts students from many little communities, but the football team’s success has brought everyone together to form a large community on Friday nights.

Razo deserves a standing ovation for his commitment to the school and his players. There’s not many coaches who would have stuck around when twice told “we’re going in a different direction.”

Rejection usually makes people angry and is motivation to run away.

Razo was different. He stayed, kept teaching and coaching, and waited for his alma mater to give him a chance to lead.

What a lesson of perseverance and patience to pass along to his players.

Marshall always had its coach nearby. Someone just needed to open their eyes. Thankfully, Razo put faith in himself that someone would recognize his talents.

Win or lose on Friday, Razo has proven he deserves to be a head coach.

The energy at The Badlands Stadium on Friday night was too much for Mother Earth to handle. She had to put a temporary stop to it.

Both sets of players for San Juan Hills High and San Clemente were fired up by a full crowd of rowdy fans, and it promised to be one of the best high school atmospheres of the season.

But then everybody was forced into the basketball gym after five minutes and seven seconds of play. For 90 minutes a lightning delay threatened to end the affair all together.

Nothing, however, could force these two teams and communities to give up on this night. After the Norte fire tore through 570 acres across south Orange County, destroying many homes in the process, everybody needed this. The matchup — which hadn’t been played since 2021 — meant so much to both the Stallions and Tritons.

“Between the white lines, for 48 minutes, I expect nothing less than war,” San Juan Hills head coach Robert Frith said before kickoff.

It was San Juan Hills (8-1) that ultimately came through with an 16-0 upset victory, which puts it on the brink of the Alpha League title before next week’s big matchup against Mission Viejo.

This was the Stallions’ first win against San Clemente (7-1) since 2015, and likely knocked the Tritons out of contention for the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. That felt pretty sweet for Arthur Tuverson, who gave a little smack talk to the San Clemente student section after the game, taunting them about the defense’s shutout.

It was the junior defensive back’s 52-yard touchdown interception that sealed the victory. As he ran it down the field, the noise in the stadium reached pre-delay levels.

“I knew they were in desperation mode and needed to pass the ball,” Tuverson said after the win. “I made the play. I was waiting for it.”

Both teams played with backup quarterbacks as Preston Beck for San Clemente and Eiler King for San Juan Hills were out because of injuries.

The Stallions turned to senior Parker Armstrong, who started two years at Scripps Ranch High in San Diego. He finished the night completing 17 for 19 passes for 172 yards, doing enough to manage a low scoring contest and help his team not turn the ball over for the seventh game running.

The Tritons gave freshman Koston James his first taste of varsity action, but it was a tough game to come into as he finished 11-for-16 passing for 60 yards with two interceptions.

San Clemente coach Jaime Ortiz knew that points would be at a premium in this matchup.

“We’re going to have to play good defense and not allow the big play,” Ortiz said pregame.

Frith called it a power of wills. San Clemente let gave up only 20 rushing yards, but San Juan Hills’ two interceptions and swarming defensive line swung the game.

Late in the third quarter, San Clemente attempted a flea flicker and San Juan Hills was on James the second he got the ball back. It was exemplary of the home team’s sustained energy during a long and tiring night.

San Clemente often ran two-way star Jaxson Rex out of the Wildcat formation, letting the Brigham Young commit’s athleticism take center stage. A lot was put on the talented senior’s shoulders to get the offense going. He finished with five catches for 42 yards and 32 rushing yards.

His counterpart, Texas State commit Luke Frith, finished with four catches for 48 yards.

Frith noted pregame that special teams would have a big role to play in the night. He was correct, as San Juan Hills senior kicker Trevor Koko knocked through two field goals in the first half, and then nailed a season-long 44-yarder to put the Stallions up 9-0 in the third quarter. San Clemente missed a field goal when down 3-0.

Penalties also hurt the Tritons as they committed 10 for 105 yards in the team’s first loss of the season after last week’s game against Mission Viejo was cancelled because of the Norte fire.

Before the game, first responders were honored and both coaches made sure to express their gratitude for the swift and effective work of those who protected the communities.

The coaches on both sidelines wore Orange County Fire Authority hats as a token of gratitude.

“[The hats] are a sign that it is sometimes bigger than football, and a lot of programs could take note of that,” Ortiz said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Freddy Peralta threw 5⅓ gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s 29 seasons.

The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals.

Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.

The loss thwarted Cleveland’s chance at a World Series championship, extending its drought to 78 years.

On the 18-year anniversary of their first AL pennant in 2008, the Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the second inning on Richie Palacios’ two-run double and clinched it with closer Bryan Baker on the mound.

The Guardians wouldn’t give up and had the go-ahead run at first base in the eighth when Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to leave the bases loaded after two runs scored.

Peralta allowed one run and five hits to earn his second win in the ALCS in his third appearance. He threw six scoreless innings to win Game 2 and got two outs in relief in Game 4.

A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted “Let’s go Rays!” throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.

The Rays played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at the New York Yankees’ spring training complex, got new ownership before this season and secured a new stadium deal to be ready in 2029 near the NFL’s Buccaneers. They returned to the Trop to win 55 games in the regular season. Only Milwaukee had that many home wins this year.

After sweeping the Yankees in the AL Division Series, the Rays fell behind the Guardians 0-1 and 1-2 in this series before taking three straight games.

Caminero gave Tampa Bay a cushion with his first career postseason homer in the seventh inning. The two-time All-Star sent a drive off the left-field foul pole to give the Rays a 5-1 lead, becoming the first player to go deep on a splitter by All-Star closer Cade Smith.

Caminero turned around before reaching first base, looked toward his dugout and pounded his chest with both arms, cupped his ear rounding second to hear more cheers, stopped before reaching the plate, pointed into the stands and crossed his arms before reaching home.

Caminero hit 42 homers in the regular season but needed 33 at-bats to get his first in October.

The Guardians answered against Tyler Wells and Ian Seymour by loading the bases on two singles and a walk with two outs. Seymour walked Patrick Bailey to force in one run and hit Angel Martínez with a pitch to force in another. Kelly entered and fanned Rocchio on three changeups.

Díaz, who guaranteed a Game 6 victory when speaking through an interpreter on Sunday, gave the Rays a four-run lead with a two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis in the bottom of the eighth.

Caminero led off Tampa Bay’s second with single off opener Shawn Armstrong, who took the loss in his second start in three games. Left-hander Tim Herrin replaced Armstrong. Chandler Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second before Victor Mesa Jr. walked. Simpson advanced to third on Jonny DeLuca’s flyout to center. After Mesa stole second, Palacios looped a double to right-center for a 2-0 lead.

Armstrong, who was the opener in Game 4, faced the first four batters, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history to start a game after pitching both of the previous two days.

DeLuca’s sacrifice fly off Joey Cantillo made it 3-0 in the third but the Rays missed an opportunity to break it open with more runs after they loaded the bases with no outs.

Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single in the sixth drove in Cleveland’s first run.

“For me, performance can’t be everything,” Miley Cyrus declared on Friday night, and you had to admire her choice of setting: onstage at the Hollywood Bowl in front of approximately 18,000 people who’d turned up precisely to see her perform.

A star since her teenage days on the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana,” the 33-year-old musician and actor was maybe half an hour into the first of two sold-out concerts at the iconic hillside amphitheater — a place close to Cyrus’ heart, as she explained in a videotaped intro recalling a gig she and her fiancé, Maxx Morando, caught last year by the French band Air.

“I step into wine, which soaks onto my boots,” she said in the dramatic black-and-white clip. “I don’t mind stained leather — it only adds to their character.”

Cyrus’ shows were billed as part of the rollout of her latest album, “Bass Persuades,” which came out in September (and which found her dropping her last name to go simply by Miley). Yet the two-night engagement is really meant to mark her grand return to the stage after she said a few years ago that she’d sworn off touring because it was too harmful to her mental health.

Is “grand” the right word for a comeback as equivocal as this one? Despite all the hype surrounding this weekend’s concerts, Cyrus spoke again and again Friday about how much less space for performance she has in her life these days than she used to; she talked repeatedly about her quest to balance her fans’ emotional needs with her own.

At one point, after singing a couple of numbers on a small B-stage about halfway up the bowl, she walked through the crowd back to the main stage, gripping and grinning the entire way. Then she described the toll her trip had just taken: “I appreciate each of you guys reaching out and touching me, and me getting to feel you. But I do want to say — it is a lot for me,” she said. “It is a little bit overwhelming.”

In an era of parasocial pop stardom, the radical honesty of Cyrus’ approach — her clear-eyed appraisal of the relationship that binds an idol and her audience — was kind of a thrill to behold. The problem was that her singing for the most part wasn’t.

As she described being overwhelmed, her band slowly revved up her song “Wrecking Ball.” It’s one of the great power ballads of the last 25 years, with a chorus as cathartic as any in modern pop; Cyrus, the showbiz lifer, surely understood the payoff she was building toward. Except when the moment arrived, she inexplicably dodged it, skipping the song’s first chorus and soft-pedaling the second — an anticlimax for the ages.

Indeed, Cyrus let the audience and her backup singers handle vocals for many of her biggest hits, among them “The Climb,” “Party in the U.S.A.” and “We Can’t Stop”; during that last one, she twerked for a second, evoking memories of the infamous 2013 MTV performance that briefly scandalized a nation.

She sang more heartily in songs from “Bass Persuades,” which would’ve been better news if that tuneless mishmash of bleary synths and dated club beats weren’t one of the year’s least likable pop records. (This month Variety reported that, after debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the album took the biggest fall in chart history in its second week of release.)

The paradox of Cyrus’ career at this stage is that she wants to do the thing that nobody wants her to do — “Bass Persuades” is just the latest in a string of crummy LPs — and doesn’t want to do the thing that everybody wants her to do. Truly, her bad taste should be studied: On Friday, she welcomed Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to the B-stage for a duet on “Karen Don’t Be Sad,” from the miserable psych-rock record they made together in 2015. Naturally, Cyrus said it was her favorite of her albums.

One highlight of the show was Cyrus’ tribute to her late godmother, Dolly Parton, whom she memorialized with a rendition of “Jolene” and with a funny and touching account of the time Parton tried unsuccessfully to get Cyrus to sing with her at the Bowl.

I also found myself moved near the end of the night by Cyrus’ performance of the only keeper on “Bass Persuades” — a dreamy little love song called “Let’s Get Married” for which Morando joined her onstage. As he played drums, she ran her hand tenderly over his chest before laying her head on his shoulder; the moment reminded me of that goofy intro video about the Air concert, which she likened to a bubble containing only the two of them.

“That’s how it feels when we’re together,” she said. “I think I’d live in that bubble.”