2024 Football Week 15:  Now for the Regionals

Beginning with hot summer practices in late July through close to 1,000 games and 14 weeks of action, six teams still are standing.

Champions Lincoln (Open), Granite Hills (Division I), Poway (D-II), St. Augustine (D-III), El Capitan (D-IV), and Monte Vista (D-V) embark on another season in the CIF State Southern Regional this week.

San Diego Section teams are 28-22 in the regional series, which began in 2014 and includes teams from the Los Angeles City, Central, and Southern sections.

San Diego squads are 16-16 in the state bowl championship series that began in 2007 but do not participate in Open Division championships on the regional or state level.  They compete from 1-AA down to VI-A.

We’re taking a look at the regional matchups this week:

D-1AA

Lincoln (10-2), 12th in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, versus Southern Section Newbury Park (14-0), ranked  ninth in California, @Southwestern College, Friday, Dec. 6.

Lincoln was forced to move its home games this season to the community college in Chula Vista after damage and wear to the field in Vic Player Stadium.

Head coach David Dunn is compiling a record (104-60-1, .633) comparable to Player’s (130-58-3, .688), is 34-4 since 2022, and won a state 1-AA title in ’22.

Lincoln’s 6-foot, 6-inch Akili Smith, Jr., is a legacy quarterback, following his father, Akili Smith, who starred at the school in the early-1990s and played at Oregon, where the son is committed.

Smith’s playmakers include running backs Junior Curtis and Aden Jackson and wide receivers Isaiah Grant, and Ty Olsen.

Lincoln’s 31-13 San Diego Section Open championship over Cathedral was a bow to the art of the running game, all of 394 yards.

Curtis gained 173 yards in 17 carries and scored a touchdown.  Jackson had 154 yards in 24 carries and two touchdowns, and Smith added 67 yards in 10 carries.

RUGGED OPPONENT

Newbury Park also has a tall quarterback, 6-foot-5 Brady Smigiel, who threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-28 victory over Vista Murrieta in the Southern Section 1-AA title game.

Newbury Park is more or less a suburb of Thousand Oaks and was champion of the Conejo Coast League, which includes Santa Barbara, Oxnard Rio Mesa, Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, and Westlake Village Westlake.

The Panthers, coached by Joe Smigiel, the quarterback’s father, will bring a 66.8 Calpreps.com rating, compared to Lincoln’s 63.3.

Newbury Park is ranked 10^th and Lincoln 12^th in California by Max Preps.

The trip South for the visitors will be about 180 miles.  The school is located west of U.S. 101 and about 35 miles Northwest of the Southbound I-405 Sepulveda Pass.

Tomorrow:  Division I-A Granite Hills at Huntington Beach Edison.