Pure Preps | High School Sports in the South Bay

It was brutal. It was painful. It was the worst loss in Victoria Sanders' 20-year coaching career.

The new Narbonne era in girls basketball did not begin well with a 69-25 loss to Pacific Hills in the opening round of the Brea Olinda Tournament on Monday.

Narbonne had 29 turnovers. The Gauchos made just 8-for-25 free throws and were just 6-for-33 from the field. And no Gaucho recoded double digits in points.

"They were nervous. They couldn't buy a free throw, and the balls were rolling off their feet. It was utterly ridiculous," Sanders said. "The numbers speak for themselves. It was like they weren't taught anything."

The encore is today against Riverside Poly at 4:30 p.m. at Brea.

San Pedro boys soccer coach Paul Butterfield found out the hard way that  soccer officials are striking against the L.A. City Section, a strike that's been ongoing for about 10 days over wages.

Except Butterfield was not made aware of the situation until 30 minutes before game time against Palisades on Monday when the officials refused to work the junior varsity match. forcing the teams to cancel it.

And the weird thing is that Butterfield should have been in on the loop: he's on the advisory board.

"It's been going on for a week-and-a-half, and no one bothered to tell me," Butterfield said. "I don't have a problem with them striking, but I have a problem about not knowing it sooner. We made the kids miss two periods of instruction for no reason.

"I'm not saying that the referees aren't justified or that my adminstration is wong, but we needed to know in advance. In the end, the kids suffered."

No. 4 seed Mira Costa tops Warren, 28-14, in a CIF Southern Section Western Division quarterfinal and El Segundo tops St. Joseph of Santa Maria, 24-20, in a CIF-SS Northwest Division game. Both advance to semifinal games next week, either Friday or Saturday.

Alemany eliminated Culver City, 31-15, in a Northwest Division game.

Top-seeded Narbonne built a 35-14 lead, then held on for a 45-35 victory over No. 9 seed Birmingham that sends the Gauchos (11-1) to next week's L.A. City Section semifinals. Narbonne is likely to host No. 4 seed Crenshaw.

Second-seeded San Pedro also improved to 11-1 with a 31-0 rout of No. 7 seed Venice at San Pedro High. San Pedro will host No. 3 seed Taft in next week's L.A. City Section semifinals.

Taft (11-1) is led by USC-bound running back D.J. Morgan. The junior put on a show Wednesday despite wet, muddy conditions, rushing for 176 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries and adding 62 yards receiving in a 40-17 victory over visiting San Fernando.

Taft's only loss is to unbeaten Serra, the No. 2 seed in the CIF Southern Section's Northwest Division.

Top seed Narbonne was leading its L.A. City Section semifinal game with ninth-seeded Birmingham, 35-14, at halftime, at Narbonne High. Josh Moten had passed for 135 yards and rushed for 61, and Melvin Davis had a pair of touchdown runs for the Gauchos.

Both teams fumbled twice in the first half, but Narbonne recovered both of its drops. Birmingham lost both of its fumbles and was held to just 18 yards of offense in a first quarter dominated by Narbonne (10-1).

Word through the grapevine had No. 2 seed San Pedro (10-1) leading No. 7 seed Venice, 14-0, in its City semifinal.