La Serna in title game for the first time since 1967; West Covina to quick for La Mirada, La Habra's title streak ends with loss to El Toro

Good And Bad news with the venue.

The bad news, that idiot who calls the Lancer's game will be on the mic. The good news, WestCo will shut him up early.

Do the right thing Beltran and correct your wrong. WestCo is going to embarrass you for your chump move.

@Steely Don,

Why do you think that anyone cares what you think. You do not have a dog in this fight. If you don't think there is enough room them stay at home and watch it on the big screen. You have already stated that you don't like LS and you haven't even seen Westco this year so just shut the hell up and cry to yourself.

I haven't seen West Covina this year, but if their running attack is as advertised, then it's not only a great form of offense, it's a great DEFENSE as well. A ball control team on the high school level can gobble-up huge amounts of clock, leaving the opponent precious little time to operate.

Getting back to the stadium choice for a moment, CIF has rules governing the use of noise makers, obscene gestures and so forth, all in an effort to create a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. CIF's motto is VICTORY WITH HONOR. I publicly challenge Margarito Beltran to explain just HOW cramming people into the tiny venue of Cal High (and no doubt turning away angry fans for lack of room) comports with the CIF mandate of playing fair and winning with honor.

I think La Serna has a great chance at winning this game. There sophomore QB is the best in the area. There young defense is very talented and physical. OJ Medina runs harder than any running back in the Del Rio League. There offensive coordinator (an ER Alumni) knows what it takes to win the big game. He is a CIF champ as a player and he helped lead Wilson High School to two CIF Championships!!

With that said, I'm really impressed how the La Serna staff was able to turn this program around in a short period of time. Hopefully they can pull it off this year. However, I do see them in the finals and winning it for the next two years.

West Co is a huge favorite. However La Serna has a chance and very small chance, and here is why; Wesco is strictly a running team. The only way to stop WesCo is to "man up" and tackle all 20 of the west co running backs. La Serna will have to hit all night, and Dig Deep. These Backs are so good. I don't know if you can hold them all night. La Serna's offense is going to have throw, and get up early. They are going to have to pass to do that. If La Serna gets down by more than 2 scores in the 2nd half. It will be over. It West Co can complete some passes, this one will be ugly.

Football Fan,

Where is WC talking smack? They are a disciplined group who knows better that to give an opponent any free motivation.

I am a chieftain at heart, to bad Santa Fe was eliminated early on but glad to hear a Del Rio League school is still alive. Muir talked so much crap about Santa Fe, its all about "Karma", I was glad to have heard news that La Serna beat Muir, you get what you deserve. Now West Covina is talking smack so.....in football anything can happend, and I hope La Serna beats West Covina. Best of Luck Lancers from a chieftain!!!!!

Have the game at the Rose Bowl.

Steely Don,

That's why they play the game of course, but after having seen both teams, I have my own ideas about what is going to happen Friday evening...

I'm not so sure about all this talk of West Covina wiping-out La Serna. The Lancers have shown that they can play with a physical team (Mayfair) as well as an athletic team (Muir). My estimate is that West Covina is a more potent version of Mayfair, and so it's likely that they will prevail, but not in a rout.

Still, the factor of EMOTION, which is the greatest thing about high school football, can propel a team like La Serna to great heights, and it might just be enough to claim the title. Stranger things have happened.

To repeat what I've said earlier, this is a very big game, and it should be played on a grand stage. This precludes the use of all the high school fields being mentioned here. Given the huge turnout for last year's Southeast final, it's clear that only a venue such as Cerritos College will have the necessary room to accomodate the expected crowd.

Remember, Santa Fe rarely sells out its side of Pioneer Stadium, yet drew 9,000 fans out to Cal State Fullerton to see the Chief's first finals appearance. There are many generations of La Serna fans who, I assure you, are making plans to attend this game. Let's do this right, OK?

Why not consider Bassett High School? It's huge!

Anonymous

Maggiore won't let that happen, (although I believe the Bulldogs could win by that much), he will keep the score respectable and win by 21 is my prediction.

This game wont even be close WC is going to run through LS like flowing water. LS has absolutely no chance at all against WC. WC is too strong and way more athletic then WC yeah i know you beat an athletic muir team but WC is athletic disciplined and much bigger. WC will win by at least 35 no doubt in my mind.

Correction: My wife and the qb's mom are cousins. Good luck to both teams.

Whittier area fan,
Last years championship game between West Covina and Bonita had over 10,000 fans at Walnut stadium, I believe it may have been 12,000 plus.
Walnut stadium visitor section, which is about 15 rows high and stretches from goal line to goal line is bigger than Cal hi stadium and there was not a single open seat left in the stands. Luckily the stands are built into a hill and the dirt area above the top row is flat and stretces the length of the stands so there was standing room above the stands, but even that dirt standing area above the stands was packed full.
If Cal Hi's bleachers only go from 35 to 35 they will be too small for this Championship game.
On a side note I want to congratulate La Serna for there success. I'm a West Covina fan and hope our Bulldogs will keep up the great run they've had. I'm also glad for La Serna to make it to the big game. I have a niece who is now a senior for La Serna and has had a nice 4 year run in track and cross country for the Lancers, I'm sure she will be at the game, also my wife is first cousins with the Lancer starting QB.

Whittier area fan,

I was at the La Mirada/WC game and WC filled 3/4th of the stands on their visitor side. In a championship game you add in our band and their parents and others who only will attend because it's a CHAMPIONSHIP GAME and those bleachers would have been packed. Go to YouTube and search southeast WC/Bonita championship game and you will see just how many WC fans show up to a championship game. Cal Hi will just be too small period. If it was Wc's Home game, we would host it at Citrus or Mt. Sac with out hesitation. And our Home stadium is not that small either.

@ The Chef: What's cookin' Chef? See, sometimes things aren't all serious, so I hope you are able to recognize humor when it comes your way. This is a blog, and I like to keep things lively, so we can all enjoy life a little.

As for the venue, since this is the CIF CHAMPIONSHIP, a special, once-in-four-decades thing for YOUR La Serna Lancers, do you really think this event warrants no better digs than the same place where you have your preseason games? When the fellows tell their tales about this game later in life, how nice will it be to say that the game was played at the same old local stadium?

If you're getting married, you generally want to wear nicer clothes, go to a nicer restaurant, hotel, etc. But you're saying a CIF CHAMPIONSHIP game isn't a big enough deal to be played at a nice college stadium? Either you haven't thought this through, or you just don't care about the players' right to feel special on this unique night. Holding a championship game at Cal High is like going to church in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals; and I'm not joking.

In any event, West Covina has the right to challenge the use of Cal High, and THEY WILL. I have been to many games at Cal High and Pioneer Stadium (virtually identical) where the crowd for an important regular season game could scarcely be acommodated. It is the height of absurdity to believe those little boxes which span from 35 yard line to 35 yard line can hold all of the fans expected for this contest.

And I haven't even mentioned the condition of the field, which is starved for water and thoroughly worn out, like a barren lunar landscape. Cal High isn't even on the La Serna Campus; the Lancers HAVE NO HOME FIELD. Every Lancer game is an away game, so make this one special by playing at a special place. I say this in a spirit of honest respect for the importance of this high school event.

Keep in mind that several factors will come into play as LS decides on a venue. 1)Cost - how much will Cerritos or Fullerton cost to rent? 2)Capacity - will both teams really fill up any venue? WC only filled half the stands at LM last Friday. Cerritos seats 12,000. No way these 2 teams put more than 6,000 in the stands. Will they really bring that many and will LS really bring that many. Even for homecoming games LS did not fill up Cal Hi. Granted this is for a CIF championship so the crowd should be bigger. 3)Location - how far will fans travel? This is a LS home game and they will want to keep the home field advantage. That eliminates Mt. Sac.

Personally, use La Mirada. Close to home, it will hold everyone and won't cost them too much.

@Steely Don

It is peculiar that you are showing such an interest in location of the La Serna V WC Championship game given your recent volume of negative comments concerning all the local football programs and particularly the La Serna's football program. It seems that you have an intense vested (perhaps conflict of)interest that the game be held anywhere but La Serna's home field. I am calling BS on you.

Having attended SGV/Whittier Area High games for 15 years, I honestly believe that the facilities at Cal Hi are among if not absolutely the largest and nicest for the visitors side of any high school in the area. For information sake do you know what the seating capacity is for each side at Cal High V other local high schools? Combine this with new scoreboard and controlled and separated new concession/restrooms facilities and I simply do not find an legitimate issue with Cal Hi. Also utilizing Cal Hi will keep all facilities rent in the WUHS District which can only help District athletic budgets. Whatever your objection, I would like to invite you to show up for a great football game and support YOUR LA SERNA LANCERS... and don't worry the WUHS Administration will do their job and make the right decision... I have every confidence in them.

Wherever this LS vs. WC game is played I’ll be there, I have nothing against WC they are the defending CIF Champion and deserve respect. However this is us, our league, La Serna did what El Rancho or any other DRL school could not. Let’s fill the stands and have the Lancers back.

My thoughts exactly, Nate: everybody needs to know where this contest will be played. I can't imagine any sane person believing it will be at Cal High; this is the most important football game for La Serna in over FOUR DECADES!!!

I'm hoping the La Serna administrators don't make the WRONG choice of wanting to keep the game in Whittier and choosing Whittier College. Cerritos College is the slam-dunk choice for this game.

Any word on where this game will be played? Hopefully CS Fullerton or Cerritos.

@Steve
While I realize you don't owe me any explantion, I appreciate your rational response to my post. Also, thanks for changing the picutre. Now that makes more sense to me... I get the story line you were angling for with La Habra, but I think the real "intrigue" lies within the story of a number 3 seed out of the Del Rio League playing for a CIF Championship for the first time in 41 years after getting to the semi last year. This season's roster only has two returning starters, a sophomore QB and a whole host of other sophomore and junior talent. For what it's worth, I've heard that the LH coach wants out of his current division so he can prove that his program is worthy of "PAC 5 like" competition. Looks like the streak of walk-overs ended at 4 at the hands of a very good El Toro football team. With any luck, perhaps a new dynasty is brewing a few miles northwest of La Habra? Only time will tell, as we've seen more than several times this season, on any given Friday night...

Next Friday can't get here soon enough!!! Go LS!

Lancer Alum: For you, I changed the photo. I'm sorry you feel that way about the coverage, but it is due to a lot of circumstances, mainly our 10:30 p.m. deadline.
First off, we don't know who is going to win the games, and since the games end between 9:30-10 p.m., and our deadline is 10:30, we have to have plan ahead and make our best guess. It's not a situation where
we have the time to wait for all the results and them put them in the proper spot in the paper based on who wins and who loses.
Secondly, there was a lot of intrigue in the West Covina-La Mirada game, first it featured the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds from the division, and it included tradtional powers from both the Daily News and Tribune (our sister paper) coverage areas. These are trying times in the newspaper industry, and with our limited staff it works better for us to cover cross-over games so we can better stretch our staff. Having La Habra on the front page as well is due to what that school has done and what it was shooting for. Not many schools have won five CIF-SS titles in a row, and that's what was at stake for La Habra. Plus, having both of those games at 7 p.m., makes it much easier to meet our 10:30 deadline.
What limited our coverage for the La Serna-Muir game was the 7:30 p.m. start time. That late of start, means the game is going to end about 10, or maybe a little after, which makes it tough to meet that 10:30 deadline, so to make it easier on our writer, we give him less to write. There was a more complete story in our sister paper, the Pasadena Star-News, because its deadline is about 11, which is a key extra 30 minutes.
We will make it up this week. With La Serna being the lone survivor,
we will have a feature later in the week and it will be the lead story in the paper on
Saturday.

@Steve
First of all, congratulations once again to LH and LM for continuing a tradition of excellence in their respective football programs. This post is not about hatin' on either school, rather this is about love for our boys in crimson. I mean really, Steve? Even you have to admit that the coverage we got in your paper (these past few weeks especially) was blatantly disrespectful. So I show up here to find a picture of a WC guy running away from 3 LM guys. I guess I should be happy that we got top billing for kicking the crap out of Muir (shoulda' said that in addtion to the 1967 reference). We pounded them into submission.
Do you think those LM players are happy about that photo? What a nice way for you to "put a bow" on what was otherwise a very successful season.
Win or lose next Friday, I sincerely hope you give our program the respect it earned this season when the story is written for next Saturday's edition. I get that LM routed us on that evening and, yes, we lost to Cal Hi. However, Coach Beltran filed those games away and our "new" season started with victories against Mayfair, Los Altos and Muir. A victory against WC on Friday would be unbelievable. Never underestimate the power of a well-coached underdog with a ton of momentum and nothing to lose...to borrow the motto from my alma mater
Fight On LS!!!

El Rancho stadium would be ideal, local and easy to get toward not like WC, no FWY entrée. I believe if it’s played local every DRL and other football league’s “student body school” would attend and make lots of money for the CIF.
El Rancho wants La Serna to win!

Have the finales at El Rancho’ stadium, enough seating more than any arena, parking is more than sufficient. West CW knows it’s an easy rout with a few FWY…………… Okay I do want La Serna to be the winner but that’s me, good luck DRL.

Yes, you're right, BULLDOG TIA, La Mirada's stadium is very spacious and college-like. I still lean toward Cerritos College because of the old maxim which says its better to have more (seating capacity) than not enough.

If you've never attended a game at Cerritos College, you'd be amazed at how EASY it is to get in and out of the (free) parking lot, how quickly you get off and on the freeway, and how great the overall experience is. There's a reason that Servite plays all their home games there!

La Mirada High School has a big enough stadium to hold all the fans. What about having the La Serna vs. West Covina game there? If not, then Cerritos College or Mt. Sac but NOT Cal High!!! Not enough room. Especially for the WEST COVINA BULLDOGS. They have alot of fans!!

When Santa Fe made the finals in 2006 (against Schurr), the game was sensibly played at Cal State Fullerton. Since this was the Chiefs' first finals appearance EVER, the home side was filled with over 9,000 Santa Fe fans.

Obviously, in a championship game, we can expect MORE than just the fans of this year's team; we should expect many alumni, many fans from other division teams, and many casual fans as well.

It so happens that we have a situation similar to that Santa Fe - Schurr meeting going on next Friday when La Serna makes its first finals appearance since 1967. I would be amazed if this didn't create a massive demand for tickets among La Serna fans of many generations.

With this in mind, does it make sense to think for one second that Cal High's stadium would be adequate to meet this seating demand? There's no way!

Moving the game to Whittier College would be a mistake because the parking is not only horrible, it's non-existent. Factor in the need to walk mainly uphill for about a MILE to the stadium, along with the one-sided bleacher layout, and this place SUCKS.

What to do? Two words: CERRITOS COLLEGE. Falcon stadium is right off the freeway, has tons of easily accessed free parking RIGHT NEXT TO THE STADIUM, and has two large sides to accomodate whoever wants to come. It would be a CRIME to play this game anywhere else while this place sits unused.

By the way, congratulations to the two teams who made it to the championship. I hope you play a great game and make some great memories.

You know stil laughing, many were saying that exact same thing about La Serna and Muir because Santa Fe lost to Muir and La Serna lost to Santa Fe.

IF LS can beat West Covina next week, it will be one of the biggest upsets in recent memory. West Covina is without a doubt the best team in this division and I know it's going to be La Serna's toughest challenge in the last two seasons under Beltran.

I think LS will keep it close in the first half but I think eventually the power and speed of the defense and running game will allow WC To pull away for victory. The xfactor in this game will be the passing game. West Covina lacks it because they rely heavily on the run game. If La Serna can get the passing game going against that fast Bulldog defense, they could very well make this a game.

The key as always will be the defense. Can La Serna hold a WC offense that has not scored less than 30 points since September? Like against Muir, LS must limit the big plays and tackle efficiently. Should be a good one though, good luck to both teams!

Thewre is no way that the LS- WC game should be played at CALHI- the field is in terrible shape- tis too small and LS should not be allowedto play the game on their home field- Whittier College has major parking problems and only one set of bleachers- the game should be played at either Cerritos College or CS Fullerton- maybe even MT. SAC

Third time's a charm...

West Covina over La Mirada by 29...

Jeez o peeks!

Grrrr, darn technology!
La Mirada over La Serna by 31
West Covina over La Serna by 29
Now La Serna gets West Covina who put up 63 against a team La Serna couldn't even score against...

Let's see...
La Serna La Mirada

Now La Serna vs. West Covina? It could get ugly next week!

WC vs LS? Should have been a repeat of last year, but that's the way the ball bounces (turnovers helped Bonita). LS made great strides last season and paved the way for this years success. And just like last year, not very many thought LS would get past the competition, ut looks who's knocking on the door again. This time, they'll kick in in. Good luck next week.

The West CO & La Serna Championship game should not be played at Cal Hi. These teams deserve a better venue than this. The field is not in good shape.
They should see if Whittier college is available.

No, no and NO!
For all the chest pumping, "best-in-the-area", we belong in D-I, and "Dynasty" BS talk strewn across these blogs all season and forced down everyone's throat, it's great to see all of you LH homers eating crow. Nobody cares how many championships that division 6 program has won whatever-out-of-however many years; only you do. You made your bed, now sleep in it. You shot off your mouth now deal with it. Even the "quality losses" to O Lu and Servite this season now seem less than quality losses with their early exits from the playoffs can be argued those two losses weren't their typical teams of late and not "quality losses" after all.
Come after me all you want, in the end, every attack means I got under your skin. And just like El Toro beating LH last night, I will have won too.
LH doesn't belong in D-I.

West Covina vs. La Serna game at Cal High? The game may be La Serna's home game, but WC can challenge the location if they feel it will not be suitable accomadations for it's fans. Same thing happened last year when Bonita had the home game. Game was played at Walnut HS which has a good size away bleachers, but it was still an overflow crowd for West Covina. Cal is a waaaayyyyy too small a venue for a championship game. Maybe they should have the game at Cerritos College or Mt. Sac. Having a game at a location like a college stadium is also a great experience for some of those kids who will be suiting up for the final time and never play football again.

I can't believe the world beaters La Habra lost to a D6 team. Regardless of what you say they are not a big boy and I guarantee we will beat them next year. Great season Mats!!

I agree with the idea that the teams which made it to the semifinals had a great season. The La Habra-El Toro game showcased a great passing attack vs. a physically tough Highlanders team.

La Habra was able to close the gap with two fortunate onside-type kick recoveries, but failed to get the needed turnover on the third such kickoff. Luck wasn't on the Highlander's side, but then again, you can't expect to win consistently by relying on good fortune.

As Bosco demonstrated, La Habra's vulnerability WAS their pass defense. Not to say it was BAD, only that it wasn't up to the task of stopping the really good aerial attacks. Tonight was history: the first time La Habra has lost a playoff game in FOUR YEARS.

I knew before the LH/ET game that El Toro was the one team that could knock off La Habra. LH's secondary is probably the one weakness that could be exploited as seen by St John Bosco and when you're going up against a quarterback like Connor Manning, it was setting up a tough matchup for LH.

Amazing comeback bid at the end of the game though. Champions never give up and they went down fighting till the very end. Four titles in a row is still an amazing accomplishment and whoever talks smack about LH is simply jealous of their success over the years.

Congrats to Aaron Porter and Brett Bartelone on great careers.

Thanks for the game La Habra, see you next season.