California’s Robert Rosa (56) tries to stop Muir’s Andreece Brown (5) during the first half of Friday night’s CIF-Southern Section Southeast Division playoff game. Muir rolled, 44-17.
Staff Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz
It’s five up and four down for the area during the first-round of the CIF-Southern Section divisional football playoffs. Four of the five area winners were expected as favorites Monrovia, Muir, San Marino and Rio Hondo Prep all scored easy wins. The upset special of the night was Flintridge Prep beating Ribet Academy in overtime. And I’m a bit shocked that La Salle was knocked out, losing 12-10 at home to Centennial/Compton. Temple City, Arcadia, and St. Francis also lost.
FEATURED GAME
Muir 44, California 17
PASADENA – The myth about the Muir High football team is that the Mustangs have athletes who play football.
But the reality is that Muir just happens to have football players who can also run fast.
The Mustangs showed it again Friday night.
Andreece Brown rushed for 134 yards and three touchdowns and Joshua Muema-Washington accounted for 234 yards and two scores as Muir overwhelmed visiting California in the second half en route to a 44-17 victory over the Condors in a CIF-Southern Section Southeast Division first-round game.
Muir, which held California to 92 yards in the second half, improved to 8-3 and will play two-time defending division champion West Covina in next week’s second round.
California, which got 80 yards rushing from Aaron Garcia, finished 8-3, losing in the first round for the second consecutive season.
Muir coach John Hardy: “Everybody knows we’ve got speed. But we have football players here at John Muir High School. I’m tired of hearing about how much speed we’ve got. We design plays and we have guys who execute. We’re not just speed guys over here.”
Cal coach Jim Arnold: “Second half, we didn’t finish. We did the same in the last three games (of the regular season). We had the game where we wanted it. They made a couple of good adjustments, but we had three turnovers in a span of three to four minutes. If you do that against these guys, you’re going to pay.”
Muir’s Joshua Muema-Washington: The second half we knew we just had to come out and play harder. We knew we made mistakes in the first half, and we just had to come out and play hard and get the job done.”
FRIDAY’S RECAPS
La Mirada 42, Arcadia 17 — Adam Carrasco rushed for 229 yards and three touchdowns as the Southeast’s top seed rolled to an easy win. Arcadia, getting a 45-yard interception return for a TD from Nick Ryor, finished 4-7.
Rio Hondo Prep 57, Bell-Jeff 6 — The Kares, getting 198 yards rushing from Nate Tayco and 149 and three scores from Colby Rivera, looked every bit like they are going to repeat in the Northeast Division.
Flintridge Prep 34, Ribet 28, OT — Stephan Smith scored on a 2-yard run to force overtime and Clayton Weirrick conected Kareem Ismail for the game-winner in the extra period to win it.
San Marino 42, Schurr 7 — Matt Wofford and Ryan Woods combined to rush for 115 yards in the opening quarter and the Titans rolled into the quarterfinals.
Monrovia 50, Viewpoint 0 — Blake Heyworth threw for 149 yards and four touchdowns as the two-time defending Mid-Valley champs showed they are playoff ready.
Centennial/Compton 12, La Salle 10 — Chris Rabine’s 37-yard field-goal with 9 seconds left was blocked as the Lancers’ dream season came crashing down.
Lompoc 42, St. Francis 7 — Jared Lebowitz was limited to 137 yards passing as the Golden Knights season came to an end.
Paraclete 49, Temple City 7 — The Rams changes proves to be no match for top-seeded Paraclete.
NEXT WEEK’S QUARTERFINALS
Mid-Valley Division
South El Monte at Monrovia
San Marino at San Dimas
Southeast Division
Muir at West Covina
Northeast Division
Rio Hondo at Desert
Mission Prep vs. Flintridge Prep, site TBA
All games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
