Torrance

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

First Round

DIVISION I

#1 Venice 38, #16 Bell 0

#8 Franklin 35, #9 Westchester 15

#5 Marquez 17, #12 Granada Hills 12

#13 Van Nuys 36, #4 Wilmington Banning 15

#3 Eagle Rock 62, #14 Taft 37

#11 Dorsey 26, #6 El Camino Real 8

#7 Gardena 30, #10 L.A. Hamilton 26

#2 South Gate 47, #15 Lincoln 21

DIVISION II

#1 Cleveland 24, #16 Legacy 3

#9 North Hollywood 42, #8 Sylmar 35

#5 L.A. University 16, #12 Washington 12

#4 Fairfax 55, #13 Panorama 22

#14 Chatsworth 40, #3 L.A. Roosevelt 12

#10 Arleta 35, #7 Huntington Park 32

#2 San Fernando 33, #15 South East 14

DIVISION III

#1 Santee 40, #16 Locke 8

#8 Maywood CES 34, #9 Fremont 16

#5 Contreras 35, #12 Sun Valley Poly 28

#4 Jefferson 57, #13 Canoga Park 7

#3 L.A. Wilson 42, #14 Rancho Dominguez 14

#11 Chavez 36, #6 Manual Arts 14

#7 Roybal 34, #10 Verdugo Hills 14

#2 Hawkins 34, #15 Los Angeles 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

First Round

DIVISION 2

Murrieta Valley 35, Corona del Mar 14

Rancho Cucamonga 45, Tustin 8

Los Alamitos 35, Yorba Linda 28

San Juan Hills 28, Downey 27

San Clemente 38, Beaumont 21

Vista Murrieta 36, Damien 31

Leuzinger 34, Crean Lutheran 17

Chaparral 63, Chaminade 42

DIVISION 3

Bishop Amat 28, Murrieta Mesa 9

Oxnard Pacifica 42, Oak Hills 21

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 44, Laguna Beach 28

Chino Hills 42, Mira Costa 35

Dana Hills 27, Aquinas 26

Palos Verdes 42, Valencia 34

Edison 31, Huntington Beach 19

Inglewood 40, Capistrano Valley 16

DIVISION 4

Charter Oak 17, Muir 14

San Jacinto 30, Bishop Diego 29

Great Oak 38, Cajon 15

Villa Park 28, Westlake 24

Oaks Christian 16, St. Bonaventure 13

Paraclete 54, Long Beach Wilson 48

Cathedral 40, Western 21

La Habra 41, El Modena 7

DIVISION 5

Redondo Union 21, Torrance 14

St. Paul 38, Etiwanda 19

Bonita 31, Northview 19

Loyola 17, Newbury Park 14

Aliso Niguel 7, Millikan 6

La Serna 7, Lakewood 0

Rio Hondo Prep 50, Thousand Oaks 34

Troy 49, Orange 27

DIVISION 6

Eastvale Roosevelt 33, Crespi 24

Burbank 52, Lancaster 43

St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 35, Alta Loma 6

Upland 42, Los Altos 21
Orange Vista 50, El Toro 31

Agoura 35, Summit 7

Ventura 42, Salesian 31
Moorpark 31, Riverside King 28

DIVISION 7

Palm Springs 33, Claremont 7

Hart 52, Mayfair 24

Barstow 34, Serrano 12

La Canada 30, West Covina 14

Apple Valley 21, North Torrance 20

Victor Valley 34, Segerstrom 14

Saugus 22, Schurr 19

Calabasas 31, El Segundo 24

DIVISION 8

Palm Desert 31, Marina 7

Patriot 48, Elsinore 28

Beckman 41, La Mirada 21

Fullerton 38, La Quinta 21

Irvine 24, Temecula Valley 7

Quartz Hill 41, Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 0

Brea Olinda 21, Mary Star of the Sea 12

St. Monica 28, St. Genevieve 18

DIVISION 9

Ramona 21, Silverado 14

Cerritos 16, Fillmore 7

Hesperia 27, Moreno Valley 21

Norte Vista 28, Vista del Lago 24

Warren 17, Norwalk 7

Cerritos Valley Christian 29, Chino 6

San Dimas 24, Rowland 22

Riverside Poly 34, Corona Santiago 24

DIVISION 10

Oak Park 17, Village Christian 15

Tahquitz 39, Heritage Christian 12

Brentwood 13, Portola 3

Santa Monica 42, Pasadena 16

Garden Grove Pacifica 35, El Rancho 14

Liberty 42, West Torrance 35

St. Margaret’s 16, Redlands East Valley 15

Hillcrest 41, Monrovia 14

DIVISION 11

El Monte 18, St. Anthony 13

Western Christian 27, Bell Gardens 20

Baldwin Park 42, Maranatha 28

Shadow Hills 37, Jurupa Hills 0

Gahr 21, Chaffey 16

Valley View 24, Dominguez 3

Palmdale 39, Diamond Bar 20

South Pasadena 42, San Marcos 17

DIVISION 12

Yucca Valley 43, Costa Mesa 17

Grace 28, Rialto 27

Perris 51, Citrus Hill 22

Coachella Valley 38, Banning 35

Bellflower 14, Nogales 7

Colton 73, Ganesha 53

Santa Paula 27, Ocean View 7

Arroyo Valley 26, Desert Christian Academy 24

DIVISION 13

Saddleback 21, Pacific 17

Santa Rosa Academy 35, Heritage 21

Woodbridge 28, Desert Hot Springs 13

Buena 42, Nordhoff 40

La Puente 26, Kaiser 19

Linfield Christian 47, Hacienda Heights Wilson 20

Montebello 19, Rancho Alamitos 17

DIVISION 14

South El Monte 46, Channel Islands 7

Indian Springs 27, Vasquez 20

Ontario 21, Bolsa Grande 0

Miller 39, San Jacinto Valley 13

Alhambra 25, Bassett 0

Trinity Classical Academy 47, Gabrielino 35

Pioneer 42, Godinez 21

8-MAN

CITY SECTION

Quarterfinals

#1 Sherman Oaks CES 66, #8 USC Hybrid 0

#4 East Valley 28, #5 Valley Oaks CES 22

#2 Animo Robinson 66, #7 New Designs University Park 21

SOUTHERN SECTION

First Round

DIVISION 1

Avalon 45, Thacher 14

DIVISION 2

Cal Lutheran 52, Maricopa 22

Desert Christian 34, Malibu 7

Hesperia Christian 26, Academy of Career and Exploration 13

Lancaster Baptist 57, Downey Calvary Chapel 14

The Torrance Police Department and the California Attorney General’s Office have entered into an “enforceable agreement” meant to reform the troubled agency following a scandal that led prosecutors to toss dozens of criminal cases linked to officers who sent racist text messages, officials said.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced the reforms — which will include changes to the agency’s use-of-force and internal affairs practices, along with attempts to curtail biased policing — during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday morning.

Bonta credited former Torrance Police Chief Jeremiah Hart with approaching him after the scandal first erupted in 2021, leading to collaborative reform efforts.

“The Torrance Police Department has demonstrated a commitment to self reflection to looking inward … to address systemic challenges,” Bonta said Thursday.

The California Attorney General’s Office announced its Torrance investigation in December 2021, the same day a Times investigation first revealed the contents of the text messages and the names of most of the officers involved. Court records and documents obtained by The Times showed the officers made offensive comments about a wide range of groups. They joked about “gassing” Jewish people, attacking members of the LGBTQ community and using violence against suspects.

The worst comments were saved for Black men and women, who the officers repeatedly called “savages” or referred to with variations of the N-word. One officer shared instructions on how to a tie a noose and posted a picture of a stuffed animal being hung inside police headquarters. Another message referred to the relatives of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, a Black man shot to death by Torrance police in 2018, as “all those [N-word] family members,” according to court records.

Sometimes, the officers blatantly fantasized about the deaths of Black men, women and even kids.

One officer shared pictures of tiny coffins intended to house the bodies of Black children they would “put down.” Another imagined executing Black suspects.

“Lucky I wasn’t out and about,” one officer wrote in response to a text about Black men allegedly involved in a Torrance robbery, according to records reviewed by The Times in 2022. “D.A. shoot team asking me why they are all hung by a noose and shot in the back of the head 8 times each.”

The officers also suggested a political allegiance in their hate-filled text thread. In a conversation about needlessly beating a female suspect, Sgt. Brian Kawamoto said he wanted to “make Torrance great again,” a play on President Trump’s ubiquitous campaign slogan.

The texts were sent between May 2018 and February 2022, according to investigative reports made public by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Bonta said Thursday that roughly a dozen officers were involved in the thread. At least seven of those officers are no longer employed by the agency, according to court records and a POST database.

The group of officers that The Times linked to the texts has been involved in at least seven serious use-of-force incidents in Torrance and Long Beach, including three killings of Black and Latino men, according to police use-of-force records and court filings.

The officers actions were initially found to be justified in each case, though prosecutors later revisited Mitchell’s death and indicted Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez on manslaughter charges.

While Concannon and Chavez were investigated as part of the scandal, The Times has never seen evidence that they sent racist text messages. In the past, authorities have said, some officers under investigation were aware of the texts but did not send any hateful messages themselves.

David Chandler is also awaiting trial on assault charges for shooting a Black man in the back in 2018. In total, five officers linked to the text thread have been charged with crimes.

The scandal may not have come to light if not for the actions of former officers Cody Weldin and Michael Tomsic, who were charged with spray painting a swastika inside of a vehicle that was towed from a crime scene in 2021. That incident prompted former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón to launch an investigation into possible hate crime charges. While a hate enhancement was never charged in the vandalism case, it led to the execution of warrants on the officers’ cellphones that unveiled the texts.

Tomsic and Weldin pleaded guilty to vandalism earlier this year and gave up their right to be police officers in California. Disciplinary records made public earlier this year identified Weldin as the “owner” of the group text in which many of the racist remarks were found. The group was dubbed “The Boys,” records show.

By engaging in “collaborative reform,” Bonta chose the least forceful method of reform in Torrance. Often, the attorney general’s office will seek court-mandated reform through a settlement, as it has with the Los Angeles County sheriff’s and probation departments, so that it may ask a judge to force change if a police agency doesn’t comply.

Bonta is now seeking to take over the county’s juvenile halls after the probation department failed to honor its settlement with the state.

In 2021, Hart personally approached Bonta’s office, seeking to work together on reform, which may have led the attorney general to use a softer method. Interim Police Chief Bob Dunn, who came to Torrance in 2023 after a long career with the Anaheim Police Department, said he believes Hart’s actions should show the department is committed to reform in the wake of the ugly scandal.

“It was the department that identified the behavior, the department that did the investigation and the department that took the case for criminal filing on the initially involved officers,” Dunn said of the city’s reaction to the revelation of the text messages in 2021.

In recent years, Dunn said, the department has taken steps to improve its use-of-force and police pursuit review processes by deploying sergeants to respond to any force incident. The hope, Dunn said, is to collect better information from individual cases that can be used to train officers in deescalation. Hart also created a Chief’s Advisory Panel to collect greater community input on issues facing the department, including bias allegations, according to Dunn.

On bustling Western Avenue in the heart of Gardena, Sakura-Ya and Chikara Mochi sit about 250 feet away from each other, frequented by South Bay residents for decades for fluffy mochi and cakey manju. They’re two of the only traditional Japanese mochi shops in L.A., with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it signage.

Just a block away is Meiji Tofu Shop, a nearly 50-year-old producer that churns out fresh soy milk and tofu daily. Cross the street to find Otafuku — where the Akutsu family has been serving traditional Tokyo soba since 1997.

You’ll find similar clusters of diverse Japanese food in strip malls across Gardena as well as Torrance, which has the largest East Asian population in all of L.A. The two neighboring cities are home to the biggest suburban Japanese community in the United States — and a decades-old restaurant landscape that feels like a time capsule, yet continues to flourish as a haven for classic Japanese cuisine and hospitality.

“It’s like we’re stuck in the ’90s,” said South Bay native Daniel Son, the chef and owner of Gardena’s Sushi Sonagi. “These days, when everything is monetizing and content creating has to be so fresh, they don’t care. They’re just gonna make great product and quietly do it.”

Japanese immigrants first came to the L.A. area in the late 1800s and early 1900s — many from San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake — as strawberry farmers. Unlike Little Tokyo, which has been subject to the whims of tourists and the changing landscape of downtown L.A., the suburban South Bay has maintained a more stable identity, according to Emily Anderson, a curator for Little Tokyo’s Japanese American National Museum.

“In places like Torrance and Gardena, you have the development and preservation of Japanese American food — it [has] layers of history and struggle, but food ultimately being a source of comfort and identity,” Anderson said.

When Torrance became the site of Toyota’s North American headquarters in 1967, more Japanese immigrants, and food, came with it. Over the next few decades, dozens of restaurants opened in Torrance and Gardena, along with a growing number of Japanese supermarket chains like Tokyo Central, Nijiya Market and Mitsuwa Marketplace, giving neighbors a taste of home.

By the time Toyota left Torrance for Texas in 2017, these businesses had proved themselves integral to the region’s culinary fabric. Their networks, once primarily composed of Japanese immigrants and descendant families, had extended to residents of all backgrounds.

“My plan is to be the last bastion of Japanese food prepared the Japanese way,” said former Tokyo resident Kristen McIntyre, owner of homestyle Japanese restaurant Fukagawa in Gardena.

Many Japanese restaurant owners in the area have a “serve what you want to eat” mindset, said Otafuku owner Mieko Akutsu. “We never adjusted the flavor for American people.”

In her case, that means serving three types of soba, including sarashina soba — a white noodle made using the core of the buckwheat plant — which became known as an upscale dish in Tokyo, where regular, darker soba became a popular working-class meal during the Edo period.

Today, restaurants like Sushi Sonagi, which opened in 2023, along with Michelin-starred Sushi Inaba in Torrance, lead the way in bringing Angelenos — and diners from across the country — to the South Bay, where troves of Japanese restaurants and shops, many immigrant-run and cash-only, shine in all their old-school glory. Many don’t have PR firms or flashy Instagram accounts; some will give you a handwritten receipt and others don’t have websites.

“I felt like [opening Sushi Sonagi] in the South Bay almost celebrates the diversity and the rich Asian American culture that’s very deep here,” said Son, who blends his Korean American heritage into his roughly 20-course omakase. “It’s just really cool to bring more life to an area that I feel like is L.A.’s little secret.”

But sushi is merely the cusp of the region’s offerings. Torrance and Gardena are L.A.’s storied destinations for every type of Japanese food imaginable: Yoshoku restaurants, which combine Japanese and Western cooking, coexist alongside traditional izakayas, yakitori joints and newer businesses that hail from Japan. Use these 18 spots as a starting point for some of the best — and some of the oldest — Japanese restaurants that have quietly put South Bay suburbs on the L.A. dining map.

It’s another case for Tracker, Magnum, P.I. or Columbo.

The City Section perpetual football trophy is missing — again.

The last time this happened was after Narbonne received the trophy in 2018 for winning the Open Division title. Birmingham won the trophy in 2019 but never got to display it because it went missing until discovered in 2021. It was sticking out of a dumpster in Torrance, handed over to the Southern Section office, then presented to the City Section and cleaned up.

Narbonne won the trophy again last fall but was asked to return it in May after having to vacate the title because of rule violations. The City Section is still waiting for it to be returned.

“They said it’s not where it’s supposed to be,” City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos said when asked where the trophy might be.

If the trophy can’t be found, Narbonne will be sent a bill to replace it, Lagos said.

“We’re putting out a call for all good Samaritans,” Lagos said.