Get your kicks on Route 101 or I-5.
And be sure to pack for cool…well, maybe cold weather.
That’s the forecast for 3 of the San Diego Section teams still competing in the state football playoffs.
Lincoln knows that it will play next week in Division III-AA but not where after winning the Southern California regional last week, coming from a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to win on the road, 54-42, at Culver City.
The Hornets will take on the winner of the Northern regional, matching Menlo-Atherton of the Central Coast Section and Eureka of the North Coast.
Should Eureka win, Lincoln may find use for a Rand-McNally road atlas.
A Lincoln-Eureka game would arguably represent the longest, in-state trip in the history of the state CIF.
The distance is 772.3 miles from the Hornets’ campus at 49th Street and Imperial Avenue in South San Diego to the Eureka High campus at 19th and J. streets, roughly 270 miles North of San Francisco and about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.
The trip could be longer, if this week’s site is an indication. The Eureka Loggers-Menlo Atherton Bears contest will be played at McKinleyville High, 19 miles north of Eureka.
Should Menlo-Atherton win, the Hornets are looking at an approximate 490-mile trip.
San Diego High and Orange Glen also will make the rubber hit the road.
The Cavers will meet Colfax in the D5-A championship and they are preparing for a 563-mile venture to a community that its chamber of commerce advertises as “above the fog and below the snow”, northeast of Sacramento. Colfax’ 2,425-foot elevation is probably a couple hundred feet higher than Ramona’s in San Diego County.
The odometer will finally rest at 502 miles when Orange Glen visits San Francisco Lincoln in the San Francisco Washington stadium, which is located in an area known as the “Avenues”, several miles west of downtown.
Cathedral also doesn’t know which team it will play, Folsom or Fresno Central, but the Division I-AA state championship game will be at Cerritos College in Norwalk, less than 2 hours from the Dons’ Del Mar digs.
LAST WEEK
CATHEDRAL 24, NARBONNE 21
Cathedral won another tough battle with visiting Harbor City Narbonne, the L.A. City champion, 24-21, when Jalen Dye, son of former major league baseballer Jermaine Dye intercepted a pass on the Dons’ one-yard line with 14 seconds remaining after the Gauchos had fought back from a 21-7 deficit.
Cathedral’s Dean Janikowski broke a 21-21 tie with a 40-yard field goal with 1:42 remaining. Narbonne’s Jake Garcia passed for 334 yards, but Cathedral’s Shawn Poma rushed for 246 yards and touchdown runs of 33 and 80 yards.
Poma ran for 175 yards and four touchdowns in the Dons’ 35-28, DI-AA playoff win over Narbonne in 2016.
SIMI VALLEY GRACE BRETHREN 28, ST. AUGUSTINE 14
The Saints trailed, 21-14, with 2:01 remaining in the DII-AA contest at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks when they were stopped on fourth down at the Lancers’ 49-yard line. Brethren’s Josh Henderson clinched the victory with a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:11 left. The Saints ended coach Joe Kremer’s first season at 10-5.
LINCOLN 54, CULVER CITY 42
The Hornets’ Don Chapman scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, on a 40-yard interception return, 84-yard kickoff return, one-yard touchdown run, and two-yard point after run to seal the DIII-AA victory after Lincoln trailed, 35-26, in the second half.
VISALIA CENTRAL VALLEY CHRISTIAN 30, MORSE 14
The Central Section champion overcame an early, 8-0 Morse lead and dominated the IV-AA game. Shamar Martin, apparently headed to UCLA, led the Tigers with 111 yards in 21 carries and a touchdown.
SAN DIEGO 42, TEMECULA LINFIELD CHRISTIAN 31
The Cavers trailed the DV-A favorite and state’s highest scoring team, 21-0, 24-7, and 31-21. Jayden Wickware’s 94-yard kickoff return got the Cavers close, and then Mo Jackson put the them in front, 35-31, with a 57-yard scoring hike.
ORANGE GLEN 22, L.A. LOCKE 14
Carlos Galvan sacked Saints quarterback Mikel Beime, who fumbled and the Patriots’ Damien Gainey recovered and ran 10 yards to Locke’s nine-yard line. On the next play Cael Patterson scored and then, after a couple penalties on the visitors, punched in a two-point conversion to clinch the DVI-A battle with 2:05 remaining.
