BASEBALL
MVPs: Travis Santiago, Pitcher, Sophomore, Charter Oak;
Rouric Bridgewater, Infielder, Junior, Diamond Ranch

first team
Brian Tuttle, Bonita
Adam McCreery, Bonita
Matt Gelalich, Bonita
Derek Goodwin, Diamond Ranch
Robert Mier, Bonita
Joe Munoz, Los Altos
Gio Morales, Los Altos
Aaron Henry, Charter Oak
Evan Highley, Bonita
Joe Reynoso, Charter Oak
De Jon Wallace, Charter Oak
Anthony Ramos, Bonita
Chris Holden, Charter Oak
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Pomona High School head football coach John Brown resigned Friday after discovering the school, unbeknownst to Brown, was searching for his replacement as early as the middle of this season, his first as Pomona’s head coach. Brown said Pomona contacted Colony head coach Anthony Rice after the season and Diamond Ranch coach Roddy Layton mid-season about the Pomona head coaching job.

Pomona principal Roger Fasting, however, denied that the school contacted anybody about Brown’s job.

“None of that is true,” Fasting said. “His letter came as a surprise to us because he hadn’t talked to us about resigning. I’m not sure where he got his information or how he heard that story.”

Said Brown: “I’m telling you he’s lying. They interviewed another guy for my job in the middle of the season. They told me the only reason they’re doing this is because they want an on-campus coach. And that’s fine, but don’t go about it like this.”
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Bonita senior wide receiver Codey Sykes caught seven passes for 170 yards, including the 18-yard game winner with 27 seconds left in the Bearcats’ 26-20 victory over Los Altos on Friday.

Colony running back Jamil Austin gashed the Garey defense for 268 yards and six touchdowns on just 12 carries in Colony’s 55-7 win on Friday.

Leave a comment. Ask a question. Or e-mail me at clay.fowler@inlandnewspapers.com

Diamond Ranch High School football coach Roddy Layton has gained a reputation for his ridiculously difficult nonleague scheduling habits – as in Oaks Christian-three-years-in-a-row ridiculous. BUT after a 1-7 start last season, that philosophy landed Diamond Ranch in a CIF title game.

Even Layton might have a hard time topping Damien’s slate this year. The nonleague schedule coach Greg Gano inherited in his first year at Damien included not one, but two defending CIF champions.

Though Damien emerged from its nonleague murder’s row with a 1-4 record, anybody who takes a closer look knows the Spartans are vastly improved from their 3-7 team of last year. I promise the rest of the Sierra League has taken notice.
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Outside of the playoffs, neither Bonita nor San Dimas hide the fact that their game with each other is the most important of the season. After Bonita won the Smudge Pot five out of six years, the cross-town rivalry game has gone to San Dimas the last two. Fresh off its first loss of the season, San Dimas, the No. 4 team in the CIF-SS Mid-Valley division, enters with a 3-1 record while Bonita, having won its first game last time out, is 1-3.

HEATED HISTORY:
The singular devotion to this game is apparent on both sides. Each takes its bye week before hand, so as to allow more time for the hype to build. League play and the playoffs are obviously important but neither side of the rivalry veils the significance of this series that San Dimas leads 20-16-1.

“League still matters,” Bonita running back Deron Holmes said, “but this game is on top.”

“When you’re drawing up plays in the summer,” San Dimas head coach Bill Zernickow said, “you think of the Bearcats first.”
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Charter Oak coach Lou Farrar joked that he used to refer to nonleague games as practice games. With the Fox Prime Ticket cameras encircling the field tonight, Farrar allowed “they don’t feel like practice games anymore.”

When defending CIF champions Rancho Cucamonga (3-0) and Covina Charter Oak (3-0) clash tonight, it could have state-championship implications. Though neither of these teams, who tied 14-14 last season on the way to identical 13-0-1 records, is proclaiming it’ll march to consecutive CIF titles, the significance of tonight isn’t lost on either side.

“It may be just another nonleague game but it feels more like a CIF championship game,” Rancho Cucamonga coach Nick Baiz said. “I don’t know if it’s because its on TV or its two defending CIF champions, but it feels big.”
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Bonita High School head football coach Eric Podley after his team’s 31-28 loss to Claremont on Friday, which included a 24-point halftime deficit:

“We were misinformed about the game today. We thought it was a flag football game in the first half and didn’t show up to play tackle football until the second.”

The loss dropped Bonita, a playoff team the last three years, to 0-2 while Claremont moved to 1-0 after compiling a 2-18 record over the past two seasons.

It was announced Tuesday that a matchup between defending CIF-SS champions will be televised at 7:30 p.m. by PRIME TICKET on Sept. 25 when Rancho Cucamonga visits Covina Charter Oak to settle a score.

A meeting between these two eventual undefeated CIF champions ended in a less than satisfying 14-14 tie in Week 3 of last year. That, it just so happened, turned out to be the lone blemish on each team’s schedule the rest of the season.

Who could have imagined what a colossal game the rematch would turn out to be?
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With the myriad rules concerning CIF playoff pairings – keeping first-place teams from playing anybody that finished higher than third place, preventing potential second-round matchups between teams in the same league, etc. – the top four teams in each bracket are the only ones CIF can truly seed.

Despite facing No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively, Norco and Diamond Ranch advanced to the second round of the playoffs Friday night.

Norco, the Inland Division’s at-large team, handed undefeated Rancho Verde a 19-9 loss Friday night while Diamond Ranch, whose record is still under .500 even with the playoff win, showed third-seeded Pacific League champ Pasadena Muir the door with a 21-7 victory in the Southeast Division’s first round.

Diamond Ranch (5-6) is the equivalent of the 13th seed while Norco (7-4) is the 15th.
In my estimation, these were the two biggest upsets of the first round of the playoffs.

At stake tonight when Bonita hosts four-time defending Miramonte League champion Charter Oak is Bonita’s first league championship since 2004, when it was a co-champion.

With both teams undefeated in league, there will be no shared title this season when CIF-SS Eastern Division No. 2 Charter Oak (8-0-1, 3-0) squares off with No. 8 Bonita (7-2, 3-0). The winner will take all. Here is a breakdown of the matchup
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