Recently in Mojave River League Category

Serrano sweeps the superlatives here, as senior RB Taylor Ruize and senior DE/LB Ethan Hillyer were named the offensive and defensive MVPs, respectively.

Offensive MVP: Taylor Ruize, RB, Sr., Serrano
Defensive MVP: Ethan Hillyer, DE/LB, Sr., Serrano

First Team
Offense
Joey Peterson, QB, Serrano
Ben Quiroz, QB, Apple Valley
Jeremiah Armstead, RB, Oak Hills
Jermaine Lowe, RB, Apple Valley
Jacob Tizzard, OL, Apple Valley
Anthony Flores, OL, Oak Hills
Lorenzo Lao, OL, Oak Hills
Anthony Mackesy, OL, Serrano
Dylan White, OL, Serrano
Charles Mouton, OL, Sultana
Cavion Flournoy, WR, Apple Valley
Aaron Alston, WR, Hesperia
Anjaye Peters, WR, Sultana
Ethan Hillyer, TE, Serrano

Defense
Kyle Jerkins, DL, Apple Valley
Jason Curtis, DL, Oak Hills
Joey Nicholas, DL, Serrano
Hector Sotelo, DL Serrano
Anthony Saenz, LB, Apple Valley
Rodney Viramontes, LB, Hesperia
Antwaun Dawson, LB, Oak Hills
Aaron Woodard, LB, Oak Hills
Andrew Reagan, LB, Serrano
Daniel Davis, DB, Oak Hills
Garrett Reece-Scott, DB, Oak Hills
Jordan Rees, DB, Serrano
Taylor Ruize, DB, Serrano

Special Teams
Neil Franklin, K, Apple Valley
Leo Farias, P, Serrano
Marshaun Coprich, Utility, Oak Hills

I could basically copy and paste the Sunkist League breakdown in here, as the three playoff participants have already been decided, with one game to decide seeding to be played Friday.

1. Serrano (8-1, 3-0): The Diamondbacks have clinched the league title and the No. 1 seed no matter what they do Friday against Hesperia due to their head-to-head tiebreaker advantage over Oak Hills and Apple Valley.

2. Oak Hills (6-3, 2-1): The Bulldogs have clinched a playoff spot and are playing Apple Valley for the No. 2 seed. Should Oak Hills lose, it will get the No. 3 seed out of the league.

3. Apple Valley (5-4, 2-1): The Sun Devils have clinched a playoff spot and are playing Oak Hills for the No. 2 seed. Should Apple Valley lose, it will get the No. 3 seed out of the league.

4. Sultana (2-7, 1-3): Eliminated from playoff consideration.

5. Hesperia (1-8, 0-3): Elimianted from playoff consideration.

Victor Valley College hosted the cross country finals for both the Mojave River League and the Desert Sky League on Wednesday.
Granite Hills, as expected, dominated the DSL. The boys' 23 points, led by winner senior Cody Jordan (16:01) easily defeated runner-up Ridgecrest Burroughs (49).
In a race that had only 23 runners and three scoring teams, the Granite Hills girls (ranked No. 1 in the county) scored a perfect 15 with the first five finishers and seven of the top nine. Granite Hills sophomore Chelsea Bennis won in 19:15. Burroughs was second with 54.

As opposed to the four-team DSL, the five-team MRL had close finishes for both team titles. For the boys, Apple Valley, with five finishers in the top 12, edged out Serrano, 31-38. Serrano's Ben Minick won in 16:23, while Apple Valley's Nick Reynolds was runner-up in 16:38.

The MRL girls has two of the top teams in CIF. Sultana entered the week ranked No. 7 in CIF-SS Division 2, while Serrano is right behind them at No. 8.
And that's how it played out Wednesday. Sultana won with 29 points, to edge out Serrano, with 34. Again Serrano had the individual winner (Melissa Fairchild, 18:01), but not the team winner. Sultana's Hannah Munyan was second in 18:04.

Results were received by The Sun late on Wednesday and will not appear in Thursday's paper. Hope is they will run in Friday's paper.

Two years ago, it was as good as it has ever been for Hesperia football. The Scorpions, under head coach Robert Kistner and running back Gavin Santos, rolled through the Mojave River League en route to a school-record 11-1 season. But those moments might as well have been decades ago as far as Hesperia is concerned.

All remnants from the 20 wins in 2007 and 2008, including Kistner, are gone. Left in their wake is a group of three returning starters that are coming back to a team that was 3-7 last year under brand-new coach Jeremy Topete. As Topete enters year two, he realizes that building Hesperia back up isn't a small task.

"I guess you can say we are officially rebuilding right now," Topete said. "We really do not have many kids coming back that have played at this level. It's going to be a challenge but it is one that we are ready to face."

It was a fast decline for the Sultana football team, as the Sultans went from being the 2005 Mojave River League champions and a 2006 playoff qualifier to having the longest losing streak in the county. The streak, which dates back to Nov. 2, 2007, is something that coach Blake Robbins never saw coming.

"I really don't know why it's happened," Robbins said. "I don't know if it's a combination of a down cycle in talent and tough schedules, but we never anticipated something like this happening. There's no question that we want to get a few wins and be back on the way up."

That task is left for Robbins, who takes over for Zane Sweeney after serving as an assistant at Sultana for several years. Robbins' familiarity with the program has allowed for a smooth transition and has even allowed for him to throw in a few schematic changes for the Sultans.

The past four seasons have seen the Serrano football team progress an additional step toward a CIF championship. The Diamondbacks have gone from losing in the first round in 2006 to the quarterfinals in 2007 to the semifinals in 2008 to the Eastern Division championship game last year. Serrano fell in that game, 24-14 to Palm Springs, but logical progression suggests that the Diamondbacks will win a CIF championship this year. Don't expect Serrano coach Ray Maholchic to subscribe to that line of thinking though.

"We haven't talked about the CIF title game since it happened," Maholchic said. "That's not something we are thinking about. It takes a lot of good fortune to get to that point once you get in the playoff. We talk about winning the league title first and then worry about the other stuff when it comes."

Serrano lost two Division I athletes in defensive end Everett Beed (San Diego State) and running back Dionza Bradford (UNLV) from last year's CIF runner-up, but the Diamondbacks won't be hurting for experience, as they return four-fifths of their starting offensive line, their quarterback and their leading tackler.

If there's one thing that you've been able to count on Apple Valley High School for the last few years, its smashmouth football. With physical running attack behind a mammoth offensive line, the Sun Devils have looked to punch people in the mouth. And they were effective doing that last season, defeating Silverado 48-27 in the first round of the Eastern Division playoffs for the school's first postseason win in over two decades.

But the bulk of that offensive line is gone, with its expected replacements expected to be much smaller that the guys who left. Apple Valley also loses its thumper at running back, Daryon Mosley, who ran for 1,628 yards and 21 touchdowns. So look for a much leaner Sun Devils team than what has been seen in the recent past.

"We aren't very big," Apple Valley coach Frank Pulice said. "We are thin in numbers and in size up front. Instead of trotting out 6-3, 250-pound guys like we have been doing, we are going to be throwing out 5-10, 205-pound guys. We can be effective with that type of player, but we'll have to be a bit different."

Typically new schools get the luxury of flying under the radar in their first few years of existence, getting to build their new program slowly from scratch as they watch a mishmash of younger players eventually grow into veterans. Oak Hills screwed up that plan last year, busting out to a 9-3 record as a freelance team and winning its first-round playoff game in the East Valley Division. So any anonymity the Bulldogs might have had entering their first season of Mojave River League play this season is gone.

"I think we have a little bit of a target on our backs," Oak Hills coach Robert Kistner said. "We were able to win some games early and get some confidence and I think that's made everyone else take notice. No one wants to lose to the new guy, so I think we are going to get everyone's best shot."

Having only sophomores and juniors last season, the Bulldogs return their 2009 squad intact. That rare luxury is made even nicer by the fact that one of those returners, senior RB Jeremiah Armstead, ran for 1,700 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago.

There are new CIF divisions in all sports, as has been posted here by TJ Berka, but I thought I'd mention wrestling. By the way, there is still an appeals process that takes place in April, so it's not all a done deal.

In Dual meet wrestling, Bloomington won the D6 title this year and I don't know if that weighed into it, but it's probably only appropriate that the Sunkist League moves up to D5.
The San Andreas League moves up from D4 to D3, and I don't know if that's entirely warranted, while the Citrus Belt remains in D4? Most of the other county leagues stay in the same dual meet divisions: Mojave River (D1), Baseline (D2), Mt. Baldy (D3), CBL and Desert Sky (D4). The Sierra is an exception, moving up from D3 to D1, which will not be easy. Of course many of the leagues have new alignments, too.

According to the CIF, the individual divisions (I'm assuming it's only the individual divisions and not the dual divisions) are comprised based on how many masters meet qualifiers a league gets over a 4-year period.
The four San Bernardino County leagues that had been in the Northern Division the last couple of years, having to go to Oxnard Pacifica (of the Pacific View) to wrestle, are being sent in different directions.
Only the Desert Sky among county leagues remains with the Pacific View. The Mojave River goes into a division in which Sultana should be a favorite. The Sunkist joins the San Andreas in another division, while the fourth league, the Mt. Baldy joins the Baseline in yet another division. The Citrus Belt League is once again alone among Inland Valley leagues in another division. It's too bad more of the local leagues can't be in the same division and wrestle locally.

The division shifts in football got most of the attention by the CIF-Southern Section on Monday, but several other powerful local teams in other sports were impacted by the changes.

One of the teams most impacted was the Redlands East Valley girls volleyball team. The three-time defending CIF-SS champions are being bumped up a class from Division 2-AA to 1-A. The Baseline and Citrus Belt leagues were bumped up in softball from Division 2 to Division 1 and the Citrus Belt was bumped up from Division 2 to Division 1 in girls soccer.

The High Desert also saw its soccer prowess recognized as two-time defending Division 4 girls champion Sultana moves into Division 3, along with CIF-State Southern California Division II regional champion Granite Hills. The boys soccer teams got a bump too, with the Mojave River League moving up to Division 4 and the Desert Sky League going to Division 5.

A quick cheat sheet of what it will look like the next two years.

Football playoff divisions for 2010 and 2011

CENTRAL DIVISION (one at-large)
Mt. Baldy (4 teams)
San Andreas (4 teams)
Desert Valley (3 teams)
Inland Valley (4 teams)

EASTERN DIVISION (one at-large)
Desert Sky (3 teams)
Mojave River (3 teams)
Sunkist (3 teams)
Mountain Pass (3 teams)
Sunbelt (3 teams)

EAST VALLEY DIVISION (four at-large)
Ambassador (2 teams)
De Anza (2 teams)
Mountain Valley (2 teams)
Academy (2 teams)
Alpha (2 teams)
Frontier (2 teams)

INLAND DIVISION (zero at-large)
Baseline (3 teams)
Citrus Belt (3 teams)
Sierra (3 teams)
Big 8 (4 teams)
Southwestern (3 teams)

An expansion of what I blogged about last night in reference to the new football realignments. Got a hold of some coaches on the topic. This will also run in the Sun and Bulletin tomorrow.

The playoff alignments for various sports, including football, for the 2010-2012 seasons were released by the CIF-SS offices Monday, with some interesting changes in football.

The Baseline and Sierra Leagues, which were in the Central Division the last two years, will swap back into the Inland Division to play against the Citrus Belt League, the Big 8 and the Southwestern Leagues. The Inland Valley League will swap out, moving back to the Central Division with the expanded San Andreas and Mt. Baldy Leagues and the Desert Valley League, which moves up from the Eastern Division. The Sunbelt League switches places with the Desert Valley, moving into the Eastern Division.

These changes will make life tough on the Baseline League, which ripped up the Central Division in both seasons in it. Three of the four semifinalists during the last two years were Baseline teams, with the Central Division title game being an all-Baseline affair (Rancho Cucamonga over Upland in 2008 and Upland over Los Osos in 2009) both seasons.

Another change that will impact the Baseline is the zero at-large entries in the Inland Division. Considering that the Central champion this past year, Upland, was an at-large entry from the Baseline, a brutal league will become even more cutthroat.

Or at least, it seems that way.
Five different leagues (De Anza, Desert Sky, Mojave River, Mt. Baldy and Sunkist) with San Bernardino County schools will be sending wrestlers to Oxnard Pacifica High for the CIF-SS Northern Division individual championships on Friday and Saturday.

Four of those leagues: Desert Sky, Mojave River, Mt. Baldy and Sunkist all have wrestlers who are seeded among the top five in their weight class. The top five in each weight class advance to the CIF-SS Masters Meet next week.

Of the 70 wrestlers in the division seeded in the top five, 37 are from San Bernardino County.
Montclair leads county schools with top five seeds, (seven), followed by Bloomington and Colony (five), Sultana (four), Barstow, Victor Valley and Hesperia (three), Kaiser (two), Ontario (two), and one each for Granite Hills, Apple Valley and Rim of the World.

Six of the 14 top-seeded wrestlers in the division are also from the county: Barstow's Sean Silva (112), Hesperia's Ivan Pinto (125), Bloomington's Phillip Hendrix (130), Montclair's Joseph Martinez (135), Hesperia's Chris Sloat (160) and Sultana's Manuel Mazariegos (heavyweight).

An interesting twist in the Division 5 boys soccer playoffs presents itself today, as the Mojave River League and San Andreas League face off in three separate first-round games.

Two of the games, Pacific at D5 No. 2-seed Hesperia and San Gorgonio at Serrano, will take place in the High Desert while Apple Valley will travel down the hill to face SAL champion Cajon. Both Pacific and Apple Valley helped create this unusual triumvirate by winning their wild-card games Tuesday, as Pacific defeated visited Monrovia 2-1 while the Sun Devils went on the road to beat Salton City West Shores 3-1.

It's almost similar to college bowl season, as two of the more notable league in the area get to butt heads in postseason play - definitely providing a juicy little subplot to the boys soccer playoffs.

Here it is. Rim of World running back Dillon Pretzinger won offensive MVP honors while Serrano defensive end Everett Beed was named the defensive MVP.

This is one of the more simple breakdowns I have. Which is probably why I'm doing it at 4 in the morning.

1) Serrano (7-2, 3-0): Has clinched the No. 1 seed in the Mojave River League. Even a loss to Sultana Friday wouldn't change that, as the Diamondbacks own the head-to-head tiebreaker with Rim of the World.

2) Rim of the World (9-1, 3-1): Has clinched the No. 2 seed in the Mojave River League.

3) Apple Valley (4-5, 1-2): Earns a playoff berth and the No. 3 seed out of the MRL with a win over Hesperia Friday. Eliminated from consideration with a loss.

4) Hesperia (3-6, 1-2): Earns a playoff berth and the No. 3 seed out of the MRL with a win over Apple Valley Friday. Eliminated from consideration with a loss.

5) Sultana (0-9, 0-3): Eliminated from playoff consideration.

Got back from the releaguing meeting at Norte Vista High School a couple of hours ago and here are the new leagues. A detailed story of the proceedings can be found in Saturday's paper.

Here are the schools that moved:
Banning - Mountain Pass League to a brand-new league
Carter - Citrus Belt League to San Andreas League
Hemet - Sunbelt League to Mountain Pass League
Hemet West Valley - Sunbelt League to Mountain Pass League
Menifee Heritage - Mountain Pass League to Sunbelt League
Rialto - Citrus Belt League to San Andreas League
Rim of the World - Mojave River League to a brand-new league
Riverside Notre Dame - Mountain Pass League to a brand-new league
Riverside Rubidoux - Mountain Pass League to a brand-new league
Temescal Canyon - Southwestern League to Sunbelt League

Brand-new schools:
Citrus Valley - brand-new league
Jurupa Hills - brand-new league
Mesa Murrieta - Southwestern League
Oak Hills - Mojave River League

And now, the actual leagues:

BIG XII (remains the same)
Corona Centennial
Corona High
Corona Santiago
Eastvale Roosevelt
Norco
Riverside King
Riverside North
Riverside Poly

CITRUS BELT LEAGUE (drops from 8 teams to 6)
Eisenhower
Fontana
Miller
Redlands
Redlands East Valley
Yucaipa

DE ANZA LEAGUE (the same)
Big Bear
Desert Hot Springs
Desert Mirage
Twentynine Palms
Yucca Valley

DESERT SKY LEAGUE (the same)
Barstow
Granite Hills
Ridgecrest Burroughs
Silverado
Victor Valley

INLAND VALLEY LEAGUE (the same)
Moreno Valley Canyon Springs
Moreno Valley High
Moreno Valley Rancho Verde
Moreno Valley Valley View
Moreno Valley Vista del Lago
Riverside Arlington
Riverside La Sierra
Riverside Ramona

MOJAVE RIVER LEAGUE (Oak Hills for Rim)
Apple Valley
Hesperia
Oak Hills
Serrano
Sultana

MOUNTAIN PASS LEAGUE (8 teams to 6)
Beaumont
Hemet High
Hemet Tahquitz
Hemet West Valley
Perris Citrus Hill
San Jacinto

NEW LEAGUE (6 teams)
Banning
Citrus Valley
Jurupa Hills
Rim of the World
Riverside Notre Dame
Riverside Rubidoux

SAN ANDREAS LEAGUE (6 teams to 8)
Arroyo Valley
Cajon
Carter
Colton
Pacific
Rialto
San Bernardino
San Gorgonio

SOUTHWESTERN LEAGUE (Mesa Murrieta for Temescal Canyon)
Mesa Murrieta
Murrieta Valley
Vista Murrieta
Temecula Chaparral
Temecula Great Oak
Temecula Valley

SUNBELT LEAGUE (Temescal Canyon and Heritage for West Valley, Hemet)
Lake Elsinore Lakeside
Menifee Heritage
Menifee Paloma Valley
Perris
Temescal Canyon
Wildomar Elsinore

SUNKIST LEAGUE (same)
Bloomington
Kaiser
Riverside Jurupa Valley
Riverside Norte Vista
Riverside Patriot
Summit

No real drama here, as everything is basically decided, especially since there are no at-large berths in the Eastern Division. But whatever, I'll give equal time.

1. Hesperia (9-0, 3-0): The Scorpions have clinched the No. 1 seed out of the league for the MRL playoffs by virtue of their victory over Serrano a couple weeks ago. Hesperia will likely be the No. 2 seed in the bracket behind Perris Citrus Hill if it defeats Apple Valley Friday.

2. Serrano (6-3, 2-1): The Diamondbacks have clinched the No. 2 seed by virtue of their victory over Rim of the World in the league opener. Serrano will likely clinch a first-round home game with a victory over Sultana Friday.

3. Rim of the World (5-4, 2-2): The Fighting Scots have clinched the No. 3 seed by virtue of their win over Apple Valley two weeks ago. They'll be starting the playoffs on the road no matter what.

4. Apple Valley (4-5, 1-2): Eliminated from playoff contention.

5. Sultana (0-9. 0-3): Eliminated from playoff contention.