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Coach Mike Morrow’s team started with an uneven, 2-3-1 record and needed a tie-breaking playoff win over Long Beach Poly for the Coast League championship and berth in the Southern Section playoffs. Vance Randolph, sidelined a few games because of illness, was the Hilltoppers’ most-valuable player, with a .521 season batting average and pitched the 8-2 ...

Cathedral’s 42-21 victory over Los Alamitos last week in the state regional Division I-AA playoffs was the 251st in coach Sean Doyle’s career. That’s right, 251.  The Dons’ victory over Carlsbad in the San Diego Section finals had been hailed on the Southwestern College scoreboard as No. 250 for Doyle, sending the Dons into the regionals, ...

MAFFEI MADNESS John Maffei’s The San Diego Union-Tribune final 2025 poll: Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. *First-place votes. Previous rankings in (italics). NR–Not ranked. MaxPreps, Cal Preps, and Cal-Hi Sports are state rankings. RANK TEAM/RECORD POINTS MAX PREPS CAL PREPS CAL-HI SPORTS 1. Cathedral (10-2) 30* 300 (2) 10 63.0 13 (14) 2. Carlsbad (10-2) 259 (5) 16 54.1 15 (13) 3. Granite Hills (10-3) 226 (6) 15 54.3 20 (26) 4. Mission Hills (9-2) 201 (1) 14 55.7 18 (20) 5. La Costa Canyon (9-2) 187 (3) 17 51.6 19 (21) 6. Lincoln (10-3) 158 ...

Six area teams, from Granite Hills in the East suburbs of El Cajon to Valley Center in the rural North, won San Diego Section championships and are moving on and (possibly/maybe/who knows?) moving up in the super postseason. Regional playoffs are this week, with winners advancing to State championship games Dec. 12-13  at Saddleback College in ...

This is perhaps the finest pair of Open Division and Division I championship game matchups  since the San Diego Section was formed in 1960. Mainly because of the four coaches leading their teams, veterans who have stood the test of time and turn out winners annually,  as their records attest in the table below. Championship week ...

Eight more underdogs overcame seeding challenges last week as the San Diego Section playoffs tightened in the quarterfinals. A second week of 26 games saw two No. 1-ranked squads go down, with additional upsets by 12, 11, 10, and six, and five seeds. Most significant was No. 9 Hoover’s 52-49 win over top ranked Sweetwater in Division ...

Rankings and favoritism didn’t matter to eight underdogs in the 26 San Diego Section first-round playoff games. Two each of 11, 10, and 9 seeds prevailed over sixes, sevens, and eights in the divisional brackets.  The most significant reversal saw 12 seed Scripps Ranch put it to No. 5 La Jolla, 42-0.  Clairemont, another No. 5, ...

The finals results displayed the overall skill quality and parity of the leagues in the San Diego Section’s third season, plus  the effect of 2025 defensive rule changes. Not a single top seed found the finals! All finalists were 2-to-7 seeds, plus 12 seed Canyon Crest. The ability to rush the quarterback unheeded was particularly effective. Full ...

Originally posted Dec. 10, 2019. DECEMBER, 1994 —Six-foot, 11-inch Jelani McCoy started the season with 41 points and set a San Diego Section record with 16 blocked shots in an 85-82 win in the Hilltop/Pizza Hut tournament. El Camino’s Dee Boyer blocked 15 shots in a 1989 game. —Dimitri Hodgkinson scored 37 points and El Cajon Valley reached ...

The postseason begins this week and the Open Division is so stacked that season-long  No. 1 Lincoln is out and placed in Division I. Mission Hills, Open Division-seeded No. 1 and the leader in John Maffei’s last regular-season poll,  meets visiting No. 4 Cathedral and  No. 2 La Costa Canyon is host to No. 3 Carlsbad.  ...

Sixteen games tonight and 28 more Friday will settle the San Diego Section regular season and determine league champions not yet clinched.  Playoff pairings are expected Sunday afternoon. Coming down to the wire Cathedral, Lincoln, Mission Hills, Carlsbad, and La Costa Canyon are alive for  berths in what will be a stacked, four-team Open Division bracket.  ...

Division I games begin Saturday, November 1, with unbeaten and No. 1 Bonita Vista a favorite to repeat its 2023 championship campaign, starting against No. 8 Steele Canyon, which tested the Barons  in Week 6 in an overtime squeaker, 25-18. All other brackets held true to regular-season form, except: No. 10 San Marcos upset No. 7 Escondido ...

The five division, 56 team playoff seeds and pairings are set.  First games are Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the site of each higher (lower number) seed. All championship games are Saturday, Nov. 8, are at Escondido high. Full brackets are listed below, chosen per the official CIF postseason process*. Complete 2025 season schedule and results are here. Division ...

Game(s) of the Week: End of the regular season is two weeks out, but host Lincoln and Cathedral should settle the Western League championship and Carlsbad will attempt to close the Avocado League race against visiting La Costa Canyon this week. The showdowns will bring together four of the San Diego Section’s most successful coaches. DOYLE AND DUNN Sean ...

All teams are putting a finer edge on their weapons this last week of the regular season, as playoff seeds and pairings come out Saturday, Oct. 25, with first games on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The top eight seeds, per MaxPreps‘ ranking system, become the Division I bracket. The next 12 are D-II, and so on, ...

The narrative originally was posted Oct. 20, 2016. “Power, deception, speed, coordination, all wrapped in 11 (blue and) white packages from the Border City.” Such was the observation of a Los Angeles Times reporter who witnessed San Diego High’s 27-0 victory over host Santa Barbara along with 5,000 others at Peabody Stadium in the Southern California playoff ...

Bonita Vista cast aside Mater Dei (11-3), 40-0, and Olympian (3-11), 52-31, to reach an unblemished 15-0 record  while there was only minor elbowing in the top spot queue. In their 2023 Championship run, the Barons’ were 19-1 with a win streak of 14 at season’s end, as the lone loss came in  week 6 to ...

Three weeks ago I wrote it was “not likely” that Point Loma, standing at 4-0 for the first time since 2005, would run the regular season schedule out to a 10-0 record, with La Jolla, San Diego, and Cathedral its next three opponents. Now, in their 100th football season, dating to 1926, here are the Pointers ...

Carlsbad, Avocado League champion five consecutive years from 2019-23 before being unseated by La Costa Canyon in 2024, finds itself in a four-way battle this season and with a showdown against Mission Hills this week. The Grizzlies, under interim coach DJ Zapata while Chris Hauser is sidelined by an administrative order, matched Carlsbad’s 6-0 record after ...

Bonita Vista marched on, topping Mater Dei (11-2), 40-0 , while Torrey Pines (14-9) stubbed its toe on San Marcos (8-7), 31-26. Carlsbad (16-4) topped  Oceanside (3-8), 45-0, and Mission Hills (13-5), 20-14. Steele Canyon (13-4) crashed the Top 10 with a win over Santana (7-8), 21-7. John Maffei’s The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 7 Girls Flag ...