palisades

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL

CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

Quarterfinals

OPEN DIVISION

#1 Granada Hills 3, #8 Granada Hills Kennedy 2

DIVISION I

#1 Venice 2, #9 San Fernando 0

#4 Chatsworth 1, #5 Chavez 0

#6 Eagle Rock 5, #3 Port of LA 2

#10 Verdugo Hills 1, #2 Marquez 0

DIVISION II

#1 LA Marshall 10, #9 Northridge Academy 4

#5 Sylmar 12, #20 Cleveland 1

#6 Arleta 11, #19 North Hollywood 3

#18 Taft 14, #10 Sun Valley Poly 5

DIVISION III

#9 Palisades 18, #16 Van Nuys 6

#5 South East 22, #4 Maywood Academy 4

#10 Westchester 10, #14 VAAS 0

#15 Reseda 15, #7 LACES 8

DIVISION IV

#16 Vaughn 17, #9 Smidt Tech 5

#4 Huntington Park 16, #12 Downtown Magnets 2

#14 Franklin 7, #11 Bernstein 2

#18 Diego Rivera 11, #7 CALS Early College 1

WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Games at 3 p.m. unless noted)

Semifinals

OPEN DIVISION

#4 San Pedro at #1 Granada Hills

#3 Birmingham at #2 Carson

DIVISION I

#4 Chatsworth at #1 Venice

#10 Verdugo Hills at #6 Eagle Rock

DIVISION II

#5 Sylmar at #1 LA Marshall

#18 Taft at #6 Arleta

DIVISION III

#9 Palisades at #5 South East

#15 Reseda at #11 Westchester

DIVISION IV

#16 Vaughn at #4 Huntington Park

#18 Diego Rivera at #14 Franklin

Note: Finals in all divisions May 29-30 at TBD.

Make it 17 and counting.

That is how many boys’ tennis titles Palisades has won in a row after its 18.5 to 11 victory over Taft in the City Section Open Division championship match Wednesday afternoon at Balboa Sports Center in Encino.

Freshman Kensho Ford, who reached the CIF singles semifinals at the Ojai tournament four days earlier, swept his four sets at No. 1 as expected — dropping a total of three games in the process — but what co-coaches Robert Silvers and Bud Kling did not anticipate was Zach Cohen sweeping at No. 4 to give the top-seeded Dolphins a split of the 16 possible singles points.

Cohen played No. 1 doubles with Zach Stuffman all season but was itching to play singles for the playoffs and wound up winning all six of his sets including two before being subbed out for the last two rotations in Monday’s semifinal rout of fourth-seeded Marshall.

“I’ve been asking for two years now and when Coach Rob told me Saturday I’d be in singles I was so excited,” said Cohen, who was also the Division I individual champion while pacing the Dolphins to their fifth straight cross-country team title in November at Elysian Park.

Five is nice, but 17 straight is a dynasty unparalleled in City Section history. No team in any sport from a City school has ever produced a longer streak and no coach has more City crowns than Kling’s 55 (33 boys, 22 girls). Palisades has also appeared in 21 straight finals. The last time two other schools met for the City’s upper division title was 2004 when El Camino Real defeated West Valley League rival Granada Hills.

Palisades got another surprise when the sophomore tandem of Josh Glaser and Bennett Murphy, who were bumped up to varsity a month earlier, won all three of ithebsets at No. 3 doubles, beating the Toreadors’ top two duos in tiebreakers.

Taft’s Dannes Djalilov won two sets at No. 1 singles during Wednesday’s City Section Open Division tennis final.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Danees Djalilov took two of his four sets at No. 1 singles and Brandon Celestine did the same at No. 4 for the second-seeded Toreadors, who were the last team to defeat Palisades in the finals — doing so in 2007 and 2008 led by two-time City individual singles winner Josh Tchan.

Moments after Ford finished off his 6-0 victory over Alec Volodarskiy to move his team within half a point of the championship, Stuffman and new partner Jack Plotkowski put the Dolphins over the 15-point threshold by completing a sweep at No. 1 doubles with a 6-2 ousting of Taft’s No. 2 team.

Taft was seeking its eighth City title and first since winning Division II in 2019.

BASEBALL

CITY SECTION

Bravo 5, Franklin 4

Canoga Park 9, Panorama 6

Carson 2, San Pedro 1

Cleveland 2, Taft 0

Collins Family d. Downtown Magnets, forfeit

Eagle Rock 7, Lincoln 2

El Camino Real 6, Chatsworth 2

Fremont 12, Dorsey 2

Fulton 4, AMIT 3

Granada Hills Kennedy 5, North Hollywood 4

Grant 6, VAAS 4

Jefferson 8, Manual Arts 0

LACES 16, Roybal 0

LA Hamilton 16, Fairfax 8

LA Jordan d. Hawkins, forfeit

LA Marshall 5, LA Wilson 3

Los Angeles 7, Diego Rivera 4

Maywood CES 23, Maywood Academy 0

Monroe 11, Arleta 2

Palisades 13, Westchester 2

Rancho Dominguez 4, Gardena 2

San Fernando 1, Verdugo Hills 0

Santee 1, Angelou 0

South East 5, LA Roosevelt 1

Sun Valley Magnet 6, Triumph Charter 5

Sylmar 7, Sun Valley Poly 0

Torres 2, Marquez 1

Van Nuys 8, Chavez 2

Venice 14, LA University 0

Washington Prep 15, Dymally 5

Wilmington Banning 4, Narbonne 3

WISH Academy 5, Stella 1

SOUTHERN SECTION

Arrowhead Christian 10, Woodcrest Christian 4

Arroyo 12, El Monte 0

Bethel Christian 18, NSLA 1

Balsa Grande 14, Western 9

Beaumont 7, Citrus Valley 6

Cajon 10, Redlands 1

Campbell Hall 12, Shalhevet 1

Castaic 5, Vasquez 2

Corona 16, Eastlake Roosevelt 6

Corona Centennial 15, Riverside King 8

Desert Christian 6, St. Monica Academy 2

Etiwanda 12, Chino Hills 11

Grace 5, Channel Islands 3

Hemet 18, San Jacinto Valley Academy 10

Heritage Christian 4, Cerritos Valley Christian 3

Hesperia Christian 6, Palmdale Academy 2

Jurupa Valley 5, Patriot 0

Laguna Hills 4, Irvine University 0

Los Altos 3, Colony 0

Millikan 6, North Torrance 3

Milken 10, YULA 3

Norco 3, Corona Santiago 1

Palm Desert 16, Palm Springs 2

Rancho Cucamonga 4, Los Osos 3

Rosemead 9, Gabrielino 7

Santa Clarita Christian 10, Valley Torah 0

Santa Monica Pacifica Christian 8, Ambassador 4

Shadow Hills 4, Rancho Mirage 3

South El Monte 6, Mountain View 0

South Hills 4, Alta Loma 3

Southlands Christian 23, Legacy College Prep 0

Sunny Hills 12, Bosco Tech 7

United Christian Academy 9, Sherman Indian 8

Upland 9, Damien 6

Yucaipa 23, Redlands East Valley 3

INTERSECTIONAL

Lennox Academy 14, Vistamar 3

SOFTBALL

CITY SECTION

Bernstein 22, Contreras 9

Bravo 17, Franklin 1

Carson 24, Rancho Dominguez 0

Central City Value 14, Animo Bunche 2

Community Charter 22, Valley Oaks CES 5

Downtown Magnets 21, Annenberg 9

Eagle Rock 7, Lincoln 2

El Camino Real 3, Birmingham 1

Fremont 20, Locke 4

Garfield 15, Bell 0

Granada Hills 4, Chatsworth 1

Hollywood 21, Belmont 5

Jefferson 20, Manual Arts 3

LA Jordan 10, Hawkins 4

LA Roosevelt 18, South East 8

LA Wilson 5, LA Marshall 4

Legacy 13, Huntington Park 0

King/Drew 26, Dorsey 26

North Hollywood 20, Fulton 2

Northridge Academy 15, Grant 0

Orthopaedic 14, USC-MAE 10

Palisades 8, LACES 3

Port of LA 5, Harbor Teacher 2

San Fernando 10, Sylmar 1

San Pedro 13, Narbonne 0

Santee 17, Diego Rivera 9

Taft 13, Cleveland 3

Washington Prep 15, Dymally 3

Westchester 12, Fairfax 1

Wilmington Banning 19, Gardena 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

Azusa 11, Sierra Vista 3

Calvary Baptist 27, Crossroads Christian 0

Colton 5, Rancho Verde 2

Crean Lutheran 21, Portola 0

Duarte 12, Garey 2

El Monte 13, Arroyo 3

El Segundo 13, Culver City 1

Gabrielino 19, Rosemead 12

Immanuel Christian 12, Desert Christian 2

Leuzinger 9, St. Monica 2

Linfield Christian 6, Arrowhead Christian 0

Los Amigos 12, Santa Ana Valley 2

Millikan 14, Long Beach Cabrillo 0

North Torrance 12, Peninsula 1

Palos Verdes 3, Torrance 1

Patriot 12, Jurupa Valley 4

Riverside North 3, Ontario Christian 2

Samueli Academy 19, Godinez 9

Segerstrom 33, Estancia 0

Shadow Hills 8, Rancho Mirage 7

South El Monte 17, Mountain View 1

Thousand Oaks 7, Crescenta Valley 1

Westminster La Quinta 19, Saddleback 4

INTERSECTIONAL

Norwalk 3, Marquez 2