Friday Night Final: La Serna advances; Santa Fe eliminated

Posted on by

La Serna’s Frankie Palmer scrambles for yardage during Friday’s CIF-SS playoff game against West Covina. La Serna won, 35-17. (Keith Birmingham / Staff Photographer)

La Serna is headed back to the CIF-SS Southeast Division Finals after defeating West Covina. The Lancers will face Downey, which beat Santa Fe in the Southeast’s other semifinal.

FRIDAY’S FINAL SCORES
La Serna 35, West Covina 17
Downey 35, Santa Fe 3

  • DRL Watcher

    Great game , but the announcer was terrible

  • high school football fan

    Sad to say that the LS announcer is a total embarresment- he shouldnt be the story -you should hear the comments from people at the game upset with the comments that the announcer makes-very sad- big time homer!

  • 84-21

    Aram Tolegian has declared that La Serna achieved revenge for last year’s 84-21 evisceration by posting a 35-17 tally against West Covina. I’m not ready to say that an 18-point win equals a 63-point win. When a team lays 84 on you, your team is not qualified to be on the same field with the opposition. Last year’s embarrassment can never be erased, no matter who is telling the story.

    • Lancer Fan

      “Hatee-Four-21″ You are absolutely incredible in the purist sense of the word…you lack credibility as you continue to be blinded by hatred…Evisceration is a big word and like your continued small minded thinking, is completely irrelevant to THIS YEAR! If our team listened to haters like you they would have never returned to put themselves in a position to be CIF Champions this season. Wake the “F” up! We could have put 2 or 3 more touchdowns on a very tired, beaten down defense that started to quit when their front-running fans began leaving with 7 plus minutes left. However, our coach played it right by not trying to run up the score to prove a point to people like you. Our main focus this season is not or was not revenge, our main focus continues to be a CIF Championship and West Covina did not have what it took this year to stop us! As I’ve said to you previously, last year is over my friend so wake up Rip Van Hater, it’s the year 2012! Oh, by the way, 2011 called and it wants to know why you won’t let it go…

      • 84-21

        Assuming your valiant Lancers can win next Friday at the Hawes Street Hell-hole, I’m guessing you’ll be thinking that the victory should be celebrated for time immemorial and not be “irrelevant” by 2013, and yet this is how you treat the West Covina triumph of 2011. It sounds like you’ve been taking lessons from your announcer on ethics and human relations.

        I emphasize the historical importance of 84-21 because even hopelessly overmatched teams find it virtually impossible to allow that many points, owing to the time required to run three plays and punt. Your team’s collapse in the 2011 encounter was unique, something I’ve never seen on a football field. The fact that this happened in a CHAMPIONSHIP setting makes the event even more astounding.

        Indeed, the only thing more perplexing than 84-21 is the gross inhumanity of subjecting championship game attendees to the barbaric conditions of Cal High stadium, complete with an announcer who conducts himself with the grace of a rabid dog.

        • Lancer Fan

          WOW, I don’t think your high school alma mater, Cal Hi, would appreciate your calling it the “Hawes Street Hell-hole.” The only plausible explanation for your misguided logic and hatred is that you were kicked out of La Serna and sent to Cal Hi. Not only is last year’s final result irrelevant to our program, yesterday’s win falls within the same category as of today. Unlike you, Mr. Glory Days, we don’t live in the past and have most definitely moved on. It matters not that we are 11-1 this season, what matters most is that we are one of two remaining teams in the division left standing. Should we be able to capture the CIF Championship, we will make history, but once Spring practice begins, that victory will be filed away as well in hopes of winning a second title in as many years.

          Your retort with regard to my ethics is also irrelevant and non-sensical, but you continue to thrive upon an intense hatred for all things La Serna. For the record, there isn’t one serious La Serna fan or player that condones the behavior of the announcer. It is most definitely embarrassing at times, however, we find ourselves in a USC like predicament…that being can Lane Kiffin fire his father? All I will say is that efforts have been made to change the situation, but it is good to be King (from his perspective).

        • The Chef

          Sleazy Don err 84. I would have though your Alma Mater El Rancho’s high point this year was scoring 20 points in Garbage time to avoid getting beaten by La Serna 67-13. This would have given your Alma Mater the “revenge worthy” posting that you want to both remind the world and deride La Serna fans about.

  • Wake Up Call

    I know you’re all proud of your kiddos, as you should be. But you’re all arguing about division 7 football. To many, that’s like watching the Grambling-Southern game, tough to watch. Yes, it’s football, but is it worth getting all pumped up over? Some real football will be played next weekend – Poly vs. Mater Dei. That’s championship football. And then there’s Centennial vs. Vista Murrietta. Good football.

  • Jazzbo

    West Covina bulldogs were weak pussies

  • 84-21

    While the Lancers await their date with destiny at the plush Cal High facility, let’s review the high point of each Del Rio league’s football teams. The Santa Fe Chiefs had their defining moment when they knocked-off top seed La Mirada, which may have allowed La Serna to avoid facing this tough opponent in the finals. The Cal High Condors looked best when they had La Serna on the ropes with under one minute to play, even though the Lancers came through with a last-second score. The El Rancho Dons were hampered by a porous defense, but shone brightly in a ferocious battle with Santa Fe, and in their last two league games. La Serna looked invincible in every league game except the Cal meeting, while Whittier and Pioneer continued their traditional battle for the bottom.

    The league featured FOUR new head coaches, and the most successful of these was David Pierson at Santa Fe. Vinnie Lopez of El Rancho was second-best in the new guy category, with no clear favorite seen between Pioneer’s Chuck Willig and Whittier’s Visko Ancich. It appears from my vantage point that in the next few years, there will be an intense rivalry between La Serna and Santa Fe, as guaranteed by their recent success and quality of coaching.

    I’d like to conclude this commentary with my wish for all fans to enjoy the upcoming championship game, but since it will be played at Cal HIgh, this is an event which must be endured rather than savored.

  • CiF GuRu

    Wake up Call?? its time for you to see whats playing in your own backyard? This Division 7 has some well qualified football teams & excellent athletes that have proven that they can play with you so called big boys? You forget that some of those Division 1 schools cant even hang with the top RECRUITING teams in those divisons. Everyone school goes through cycles but non much more than public schools who dont recruit the likes of the cream of the crops of kids from these public schools. I would love to see La Mirada, La Serna, WestCo, Monrovia or Charter Oak etc able to play some of these Divsion one teams durring the playoffs not PRESEASON. I’m sure we would have some great games with some BIG upsets, Just as we saw with Westlake this year or the way La Mirada slugged it out with Amat and so on. On any given Friday night with the right coaching and playoff public schools like the ones I mentioned above can play and win with the BIG boys. Its all about student enrollement that gets you up in division 1 with those big boy leagues anyway?. I wish CIF would look do things different for CIF playoffs maybe two more weeks of high school play off football so that we had a legit champion at the high school level. These kids put in the same amount of time as your big boys do why shouldnt they get the same recognition? Im sure you will probably reply with a bunch of junk but Im only saying what most people already feel anyhow! I’d be willing to bet LA Serna, WestCO, La Mirada, Charter Oak would agree?

    • Wake Up Call

      So why hasn’t any school lower than a D4 ever played in the State Bowl games taking place later this month? They’re top-notch too, right?

      • The Chef

        Wake up wake up call. There are schools lower than D4 in state bowls each year in the level II – IV California State Championships. Have you not read about D11 Monrovia being in position to compete for the Level III bowl series? Though you live in your low information bubble (BS) please don’t try to sell you brand of low information (BS) here.