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.

We’ll return next week.

Rick Smith, Henrik Jonson.

November 23 championship game results at Palomar College: 

Division I— Classical Academy (25-4) won its second consecutive title, led start to finish and dominated Torrey Pines, 42-19, as they’ve done all season, outscoring opponents, 1,014 to 400.

Sophomore quarterback Ella Moore threw for 114 touchdowns, with a 73 per cent completion rate and 123 passer rating, and accumulated more than 6,600 yards for the state No. 4 and national No. 7 Caimans. They topped all local teams, while their 4 losses were to only Southern section teams, including state and national No. 1 Orange Lutheran (23-2), and 2 Newport Harbor (25-3).

Division II— Westview (16-3) QB Mya Omisore tossed six touchdown passes  and the Wolverines defeated Carlsbad, 39-24. The Wolverines outscored all opponents, 566-222, and won 10 of their last 11 games.

Division III— Mater Dei (12-11) played tough defense with four interceptions, to top Scripps Ranch, 25-13. The Crusaders had a sub .500 season, but ended the regular season 4-4 against teams that made the playoffs, and then 3-0 for the title.

Division IV— Olympian (10-9) topped San Ysidro, 21-6, with two TD passes from QB Jaiden Liera to Aubrey Tbayan.

Go here for complete season game results.

Henrik Jonson, Webmaster

The Webmaster

November 23 championship game pairings at Palomar College: 

Division I— State No. 6 Classical, the 2023 D-II champion, meets No. 37 Torrey Pines, which upset the undefeated No. 25 Otay Ranch. The Caimans topped the Falcons, 20-14, and 36-26 earlier this season.

Division II— No. 9 seed Carlsbad pushed past two higher seeds, including 5 Imperial, which had won by forfeit after losing on the field to 4 Calexico in triple overtime, and will meet 2 Westview, which earlier defeated the Lancers, 12-0. 

Division III— No. 2 Mater Dei evened its record at 10-10 and plays Scripps Ranch, a No. 8 seed which dispatched higher seeds 1 Chula Vista Learning and 4 Escondido Charter. The Crusaders downed the Falcons 32-6 early in the season.

Division IV— No. 1 San Ysidro and 2 Olympian split in 2023 and ’24. The Cougars won 19-12 earlier this year but Olympian prevailed, 14-0, last year.

Go here for complete season game schedules and results.

The Division and Seeding selection process divides the top 48 MaxPreps/Calpreps** state-ranked local teams into 4 equal size groups. The top 12 teams become Division I, the next 12 become Division II, and so on.

The top 4 seeds in each division get a first round bye and teams 5-12 are paired into a standard structure, similar to the national collegiate tackle football 12-team playoffs. Some minor adjustments avoid first-round same-league pairings.

**The entirely computer generated and proprietary MaxPreps.com/Calpreps.com ranking algorithm, based solely on wins and losses, plus the opponents strength of schedule, is described here.

Henrik Jonson, Webmaster

Mission Hills played keep away, controlling the ball for 34 plays to 8 in the second half,  and the strategy almost worked, until Lincoln scored an overtime touchdown to win the Open Division semifinal playoff, 13-7.

It won’t be the Hornets’ touchdown that will be remembered.

Mission Hills’ Giovanni Harte, who battled the Lincoln defense, grinding out 129 yards in 30 carries, broke away at left tackle from Lincoln’s 25-yard line on the Grizzlies’ first play in extra minutes.

“Harte was carrying the ball in his left hand and it appeared that the ball broke the plane of the goal line,” wrote The San Diego Union’s Don Norcross, whose view was from the Southwestern College press box.

Trailing Lincoln linebacker Noko Ta’a punched the ball out of Harte’s hand at the goal line.  A nearby official quickly ruled fumble.

Since the ball rolled out of the end zone the play became a touchback and Lincoln took possession.

Grizzlies’ coach Chris Hauser was outraged, but not as vocal as a middle-aged-elderly Mission Hills supporter who came out of the stands and charged the officiating crew after the game, which ended with the Hornets’ Aden Jackson scoring on a 16-yard touchdown run late in the first overtime.

The Grizzlies’ fan/parent/relative chased game officials as they made their way to the locker room.

Unsuccessful, the Mission Hills rooter engaged a Lincoln adult and then was approached by a Lincoln school principal.  The diminutive lady repeatedly pushed the aggressor away before he finally left, spewing profanities.

IT’S ALL IN THE FAMILY

Three generations of Cotas were on hand when St. Augustine, 1-10, defeated 10-0 Holtville, 10-6, in the Division III quarterfinals.

Ron Cota, all-San Diego Section linebacker/center for St. Augustine in 1960, traveled with his son, Stephen, all-San Diego Section linebacker for Point Loma’s 13-0 championship squad in 1987.

After a comfort break in Jacumba, father and son finished the 125-mile jaunt to the Imperial Valley and cold and windy Holtville to watch Stephen, Jr., and his teammates continue their surprising postseason run.

“It was a great high school experience for my son and for me and his grandfather,” said Stephen.  “Seemed like the whole town turned out.”

Full disclosure:  Holtville had been moved from Division V to D-III.  The Saints had played a major, D-I schedule as a member of the powerful Western League.