Lincoln remained first in the second UT-San Diego basketball poll despite losing in the Drew Gooden Showcase in El Cerrito Saturday night.

San Jose Mitty, defending state champion in Division II, defeated the Hornets 71-60 in the event named for Milwaukee Bucks NBA player Gooden, who starred at El Cerrito High, near Oakland.

It was the end of a grueling trip for the Hornets, who rode north Friday in two 15-passenger vans. They returned Sunday afternoon.

Lincoln (5-2) received 10 first-place votes in the poll of 14 sportswriters and sportscasters.  Cathedral Catholic was second with four first-place votes.

SAN DIEGO TEAMS IN LONG BEACH

After a 76-62 victory at Pasadena, Cathedral gears up for the Long Beach Jordan-hosted, 14-team Public-vs-Private Showcase Saturday at Long Beach City College. Three other San Diego teams will participate.

The Dons take on the tough Etiwanda Eagles at 6:30 p.m. Other games:  Army-Navy- Corona Santiago, 12:30; La Jolla Country Day-Santa Monica, 2; Jordan-L.A. Price, 3:30; Montebello Cantwell-Rancho Cucamonga, 5: Riverside J.W. North-St. Augustine, 8.

OREGON TRAIL NO FUN

Two traditionally solid San Diego-area teams were schooled by Portland-area powerhouse and nationally respected Lake Oswego.  Helix fell 68-27 at a tournament in Chico and El Camino sustained its only loss in 10 games, losing 60-36 in a non-tournament contest at the Oregon  school.

Lake Oswego is the alma mater of  Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Love, son of former NBA player Stan Love, who is the brother of “Beach Boys” founder Mike Love.

STILL GOING

The 66th annual San Diego Kiwanis tournament, once a premier Southern California event, opened this week.  Eight boys teams and 20 girls teams will be competing.

1–Lincoln (10); 5-2; 131; 1.
2–Cathedral Catholic (4); 8-1; 127; 2.
3–Hoover, 5-1; 93; 3.
4–Army-Navy, 6-0; 88; 5.
5–St. Augustine, 4-1; 82; 7.
6–El Camino, 9-1; 60; 8.
6–Mission Hills, 4-1; 60; 6.
8–LaCosta Canyon, 7-3; 50; 4.
9–San Ysidro, 5-1; 42; 8.
10–Torrey Pines, 2-3; 10; T10.
Place–Team (First-place votes); Team record; Points; Last Week

Others receiving votes:
San Marcos (9), Eastlake (6), Mount Miguel (5), Morse (4), Helix (1), Santa Fe Christian (11), Valley Center (1).

Down 21-0, Madison battled back to defeat Kentfield Marin Catholic 38-35 in a dramatic State III Championship game at the Stub Hub in Carson.

A 50-yard touchdown pass play, which began with the center snap going over the quarterback’s head and ended with Kareem Coles’ pass to Lee Walker, ignited a 31-point Warhawks run.

After Marin’s  heralded quarterback, Jared Goff, had led his team back to a 35-31 lead, Madison’s Pierre Cormier put the cap on a brilliant career with a 79-yard run  that separated the Warhawks from the Wildcats of the North Coast Section.

The victory was not secured, however,  until Austen Scarville intercepted a Goff pass as Marin threatened on its final possession.

IV ROUT

Modesto Central Catholic thumped Santa Fe Christian 66-7 in a Division IV mismatch, posing the  question:  Why were these teams playing?

There was a paucity of qualified teams from the South, because the Southern Section, whose divisions are based partly on geography, places strong lower level squads in higher divisions in the playoffs.

D-V Santa Fe Christian and Arcadia Rio Hondo  were the only teams in consideration from the South.

Central Catholic would have been a good test for Madison or Marin Catholic.

The Sac-Joaquin champion stormed through regular-season against Division IV opponents and was so far ahead in its last two playoffs contests that the games ended with running clocks.

One of Catholic’s victims was Escalon, 52-10 in  the section final.  Escalon beat Madison 30-14 for the D-III crown in 2010.

Madison and Santa Fe Christian are about to break the oldest record, often tied, in  San Diego County.

The Warhawks (13-1) and Eagles (11-3)  will play their 15th games of the 2012 season when the Southern champions tee up in State Bowl Championship games against Kentfield Marin Catholic and Modesto Central Catholic,  respectively, this week at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson.

San Diego High was the first area squad to play 14 games.  The Hilltoppers, as they were  better known,  were 10-4 in 1922, the season ending in a 17-6, state playoffs loss to Bakersfield.

Sixteen other area prep squads have completed 26 seasons of 14 games,  including coach Herb Meyer’s powerful El Camino Wildcats, who went the long way five years in a row, 1989-93.

Madison has a State Bowl III Championship date with Kentfield Marin Catholic at 4 p.m. next Saturday  at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson.

The Warhawks (13-1) advanced after a pulsating, 21-17, come-from-behind victory at Monrovia (12-3), which managed to shackle Madison’s big-play weapons,  outgained the visitors 448 yards to 119, and led until a 91-yard kickoff return by Lee Walker with 5:30  remaining.

Madison held on until Mason Garner finally put away the Wildcats with an interception in the game’s final seconds.

Marin Catholic (14-1) defeated Sutter 23-7 for the North regional title.  If CalPreps power ratings mean anything, the San Francisco North Bay team will rate a slight favorite with a 46.8 rating to Madison’s 43.5.

Santa Fe Christian’s first venture into the State bowl regional playoffs was against Arcadia Rio Hondo Prep, a Southern California small schools power  for almost 40 years.

‘Hondo had won 10, eight-man championships and was runner-up four times since 1973 before moving up to 11-man football.

But Santa Fe Christian fought to a come-from-behind, 30-28 victory over the Kares, propelling the Eagles into next week’s Division-IV State Bowl Championship at noon at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson against Modesto Central Catholic.

Trailing 14-0, 21-14, and 28-24, coach Nick Ruscetta’s Encinitas squad continually battled back and scored with 2:20 remaining in the game.

Big play in the winning,  52-yard drive was  a 37-yard run by quarterback  Hunter Vaccaro, who rushed 12 times for 165 and two touchdowns.  Vaccaro’s dash set up a three-yard touchdown run by Jerry Harper.

Santa Fe Christian (11-3) faces a formidable foe next week. The Central Catholic Raiders are 13-2 with a CalPreps power rating of 46, compared to the Eagles’ 26.

Central Catholic defeated Oakland McClymonds  42-12 in the Northern regional last week, after knocking off  Escalon 52-10 in the Sac-Joaquin Section finals.

Two years ago Escalon beat Madison 30-14 in the State Bowl III championship.

Will history repeat?

Madison will play at Monrovia in the Division III State Bowl playoffs this week in the first playoff ever matching a San Diego Section team against one from the Southern Section.

San Diego’s last playoff appearance as a member of the Southern  Section was in 1959.

San Diego High’s 53-0 victory over Monrovia for the Southern Division championship (Long Beach Poly won the Northern Division) was a fitting farewell for Cavers coach Duane Maley and a farewell for this area.

Thirty-one San Diego County schools broke away after 45 years in the Southern Section to form the San Diego Section in 1960.

NO RAW DEAL

Huntington Beach Edison got the nod over Oceanside to play Gardena Serra in the State Bowl II Southern playoff.

The selection of the Chargers and other bowl playoff teams was determined by the  10 CIF section commissioners, including Jerry Schniepp of the San Diego Section.

Edison was the correct choice.

Schniepp officially and Oceanside coach John Carroll unofficially said all the right things and provided some strong testimony for the Pirates, but the Orange County team  had a “better” loss than Oceanside.

Edison (13-1) was beaten by Santa Ana Mater Dei, 20-14 in Week 4.  Oceanside (12-1) was a 30-20 loser to Temecula Chaparral in Week 3.

Mater Dei went to the Open Division finals in the Southern Section, posting an 11-3 record and 66.8 power rating, as determined by the dot.com entities Cal Preps and MaxPreps.

Chaparral was 7-1 before flattening out to a 7-4 record and 42.7 power rating.

OCEANSIDE FEELS CHAPARRAL LOSSES

The influential newsletter, Cal-Hi Sports, the final word in state high school coverage for more than 30 years, was almost apologetic when it finally dropped Oceanside below Edison in its Southern California rankings late in the season.

Oceanside’s fortunes were going down with Chaparral’s.

Oceanside (12-1) was missing key players when it was beaten by the Pumas, but, as Cal-Hi honcho Mark Tennis pointed out, teams’ injuries situations and bad luck are given no weight when the selection committee convenes.

Oceanside had a narrow power edge, 59.8 to Edison’s 59.3.

Madison (12-1) has a power rating of 42.5.  Monrovia (12-2) has a 32.0 rating.

Santa Fe Christian (10-3) is the second San Diego team in the bowl playoffs, taking on Arcadia Rio Hondo at Del Norte High.  The Eagles’ power rating is 23.9.  ‘Hondo’s is 25.1.

Rio Hondo has a playoff history with San Diego teams in 8-man football.

The Kares defeated Francis Parker, 55-20, in 1982, during a period in which an 8-man representative in San Diego was let into the Southern Section postseason, almost always against the top-seeded team.

Final Sportswriters/Sportscasters Poll
1. Oceanside (29) 12-1 290 1
2. Poway 10-3 221 6
3. Eastlake 10-3 195 9
4. Madison 12-1 174 8
5. Mission Hills 10-3 173 4
6. Helix 10-2 151 2
7. Lincoln 10-3 105 NR
8. St. Augustine 11-2 65 7
9. Cathedral Catholic  0-10  63 4
10. Valhalla 9-4 48 NR.
First-place votes in parenthesis
Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis
Team+Record+Points+Last Week

Others receiving votes: Olympian (41), Santa Fe Christian (20), Ramona (9), La Costa Canyon (9), Grossmont (5), Francis Parker (2), and San Pasqual (1).