Friday Final: St. Francis pulls away to beat St. Paul…Swordsmen win third-place coin flip, which likely ends 9-year playoff drought; La Mirada, Montebello score big wins to secure league titles
St. Paul hasn’t advanced to the CIF-SS playoffs since winning the Western Division in 2007. The drought maybe over.
The Swordsmen lost to St. Francis, but later won the third-place coin flip and likely gets a bid for the CIF-SS playoffs when pairings are released on Sunday.
Here are today’s game stories:
ST. FRANCIS 38, ST. PAUL 21
SANTA FE SPRINGS — St. Francis High School players knew regardless of what happened Friday, it was likely in the CIF Southern Section football playoffs.
The Golden Knights made sure of it.
Michael Bonds accounted for 191 yards and three touchdowns and St. Francis secured second place in the Angelus League and a spot in the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs with a 38-21 win over St. Paul.
Jace Harrick also rushed for 103 yards and touchdown for the Golden Knights (9-1, 4-1), who put themselves in position for a top-four seed in Division 3 when CIF-SS releases its playoff pairings on Sunday.
Nick Redick rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown and Gabriel Bermudez returned a kickoff 85 yards for a score for the Swordsmen (4-6, 2-3), who finished in a three-way tie for third with Salesian (6-4, 2-3) and La Salle (6-4, 2-3), which lost to Salesian on Friday. St. Paul won the third-place coin flip late Friday, likely ending the school’s nine-year playoff drought.
St. Francis, after leading 24-14 at halftime, put it away in the second half on a 2-yard run by Harrick and a 26-yard pass from Bonds to Daniel Scott for a 38-21 lead in the fourth quarter.
St. Francis coach Jim Bonds: “I real happy with the way our guys bounced back (from last week’s loss to Cathedral). Offensively, we scored on six of seven drives. I thought our defense played well enough to win tonight. It was a good win. To be 9-1 going into the playoffs, we feel pretty good about it.”
St. Paul coach Rick Zepeda: “Defensively, we would get real close (to stopping St. Francis), but then they’d make a big play. We just couldn’t stop them on third down.”
— Stephen Ramirez
LA MIRADA 63, MAYFAIR 13
BELLFLOWER >> For the third straight season, the La Mirada Matadores are Suburban League Champions after they defeated the Mayfair Monsoons 63-13 at Ron Yary Stadium.
The Matadores won the game with a balanced attack on offense and a thunderous defense that did not allow the Monsoons to get in sync on offense all night.
Mayfair started off the night on a strong note as they had a 7-play, 56-yard drive on their opening possession that ended with a Traveon Anderson touchdown. All seven of the plays on the drive were runs. La Mirada would score on their opening drive as well as Nick Hernandez hurdled his way into the end zone from 12 yards out. After a Mayfair botched snap that set La Mirada up with excellent field position, Hernandez would get his second touchdown of the quarter, this time from two yards out as the Matadores took a 14-7 lead.
On the first play of the second quarter, La Mirada quarterback Tristan Meyer connected with wide receiver Chad Wilson on a rollout pass for a 38 yard-touchdown. The Monsoons would go three and out on their next drive and La Mirada capitalized as Meyer threw a beautiful deep ball to wide receiver Jeremy Clark for a 37-yard score and La Mirada increased their lead to 21. Mayfair would not go away as Anderson ran it in from five yards out just before halftime and carried some momentum despite being down 15 at the half.
Nick Hernandez got his third rushing touchdown of the game on the Matadores’ first drive of the second half to push the lead to 22. Hernandez, a four-year varsity player who has been a part of all three league titles, finished the night with 13 carries for 147 yards and three touchdowns.
La Mirada, which has been ranked No. 1 in CIF-SS Division 3, is likely the favorite to win that division when the playoffs begin next week. Pairings will be released on Sunday.
La Mirada coach Mike Moschetti: “We are proud of these kids. It’s a Suburban League Championship, which is one of our goals every year. We will wake up on Sunday and find out who we play in the playoffs and then see what we can do.”
La Mirada’s Nick Hernandez: “My offensive line opened the holes and I just shot threw them.”
— Julian Lopez
MONTEBELLO 44, BELL GARDENS 0
MONTEBELLO — Montebello High School wrapped up a fourth consecutive Almont league title with a convincing 44-0 victory over visiting Bell Gardens on Friday night.
It was the 20th consecutive league win for the Oilers (9-1, 5-0), who now head to the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.
Bell Gardens (2-8, 2-3) was the last team to defeat Montebello. That was during the 2012 season when the Lancers were league champions.
Montebello junior quarterback Gabriel Tapia had a game-high 227 yards passing, completing 8 of 14 passes, two for touchdowns.
Tapia, who has thrown for 15 touchdowns this season, tossed TD passes of 59 and 68 yards.
Leading the way on the ground for the Oilers was senior running back Joshua Leon with 63 yards on nine carrie, including a touchdown run of 26 yards.
Senior running back Randy Herrera led the Lancers with 65 yards rushing on nine carries.
Montebello coach Pete Gonzalez: “This (league title) is incredible. The shower feels great. It never gets old.”
Montebello’s Gabriel Tapia: “It’s a wonderful thing to be a part of. We knew we had a target on our back and worked really hard for this (league title). It’s absolutely incredible and a great thing to be a part of.”
— John Sherrard
BISHOP MONTGOMERY 28, CANTWELL-SACRED HEART OF MARY 7
TORRANCE — Eddie Lane has a plan to close out his career on Bishop Montgomery High’s football field in style.
That plan hit a big milestone Friday, when Lane ran for 92 yards and a touchdown as Bishop Montgomery captured its third consecutive South Catholic League title with a 28-7 victory over visiting Cantwell.
The win gives Bishop Montgomery (7-3, 4-0) a guaranteed berth in the CIF Southern Section Division 11 playoffs.
Looking to crash the Knights’ party, Cantwell (3-7, 2-2) cut into a 14-0 deficit late in the second quarter when Dawit Wilson bulldozed his way into the end zone for a 1-yard score.
Bishop Montgomery had an answer. Cody Coleman picked his spots and followed his blockers before returning the ensuing kickoff 93 yards to make it a 21-7 game.
— Nick Ingram
OTHER SCORES
Almont League
Schurr 42, Alhambra 28
Del Rio League
El Rancho 51, Pioneer 27
Whittier 38, California 14
Freeway League
La Habra 49, Sunny Hills 6
Fullerton 42, Sonora 20
HOW THE TOP TEN FARED
1. La Mirada (8-2) def. Mayfair, 63-13
2. La Serna (7-3) def. No. 5 Santa Fe, 49-3
3. La Habra (6-4) def. Sunny Hills, 49-6
4. Montebello (9-1) def. Bell Gardens, 44-0
5. Santa Fe (5-5) lost to No. 2 La Serna, 49-3
6. St. Paul (4-6#) lost to St. Francis, 38-21
7. Schurr (7-3) def. Alhambra, 42-28
8. Whittier Chr. (6-4), idle
9. El Rancho (4-6) def. Pioneer, 51-27
10. Whittier (5-5) def. Cal, 38-14