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Greater challenges lie ahead, but San Diego Section teams in the Southern California regional playoffs were successful in three of four Open Division quarterfinals games last night. —The Foothills Christian Knights stunned Santa Ana Mater Dei, dealing the Monarchs their first loss at home in 10 years, 50-46, and moving on to Tuesday’s semifinals and a ...

Despite being seeded in the nether regions of the Southern California regional playoffs, No. 15 Kearny and No. 12 St. Augustine scored significant road victories last night, while most other San Diego Section squads, including all 13 girls’ teams in action, were stowing their gear today. Kearny (31-3) overcame a 53-47, fourth-quarter deficit to upset No. 2-ranked and host Huntington Beach ...

Army-Navy Academy in Pacific Beach couldn’t rely on a six-game County League schedule to complement a full slate of games. As reported in The San Diego Union,”…through an error at the beginning of the County League the eleven was omitted.” If that report is to be believed, the person who drew up the County League schedule “forgot” ...

Records through Monday, March 7: Rank Team Record Points Last Poll 1 Foothills Christian (11) 24-4 110 1 2 Cathedral 20-6 96 2 3 St. Augustine 22-7 79 4 4 Kearny 30-3* 77 7 5 Torrey Pines 25-5** 71 3 6 El Camino 27-6 50 5 7 Army-Navy 21-10 42 6 8 La Jolla Country Day 28-5 33 NR 9 Mission Bay 21-8 25 8 10 Poway 24-8 13 9 **Forfeited 73-64 victory over Manhattan Beach Mira Costa Dec. 26.                                    *Forfeited 57-37 victory Dec. 5 over Horizon.                 ...

San Diego’s eternal quest for respect from the Southern Section renews this week with opening rounds of the state regional playoffs. Respect still is to be earned. Only one of 15 boys teams is seeded higher than its opponent in the six divisions, Open and I-V, brackets for which were announced yesterday by the state CIF office ...

Jerry Ralph made history earlier this week when he was announced as the head football coach at El Camino High in Oceanside, becoming the first to lead five different San Diego Section programs. Ralph has compiled a 123-76-2  (.614) record in 18 seasons, beginning in 1997 at Santana, followed by stints at St. Augustine, Del Norte, ...

Open Division teams, representing the elite of San Diego Section basketball as determined by the power ratings system, don’t get under way in the  playoffs until Friday (Girls) and Saturday (Boys). Divisions I-V begin play tonight (Girls) and tomorrow (Boys). Several factors go into the power ratings, administered by assistant commissioner John LaBeta, who heard some complaints regarding North ...

Assistant commissioner John LaBeta will be up into the early morning hours Saturday and, hopefully after a few hours sleep, at it again when the sun rises. Basketball’s most important weekend is at hand. LaBeta is the ratings maven for the San Diego Section. The regular season ends Friday night and teams will have until midnight to get ...

Who saw the game and who didn’t commanded almost as much attention as Kearny’s semifinals playoff victory over Escondido. President John F. Kennedy’s death and the resulting week’s postponement generated several more days of pregame coverage by area media outlets and contributed to a building buzz about the game. And some unforeseen problems. The estimated attendance of 17,000 was the largest for a high ...

On Nov. 22, 1963, my address was an apartment at 2742 B Street in the Brooklyn-Golden Hill neighborhood.  It was about 9:30  on a Friday morning.  I had a free day until covering the Escondido-Kearny playoff that night in Balboa Stadium. I don’t remember if I was watching television or listening to the radio, but within minutes there ...

Lewis Edward Sanclemente, 92, passed away  recently, leaving behind a multitude of friends and admirers and memories of a lifetime spent in or around baseball. Ed Sanclemente grew up near the University Heights playground, where he shagged baseballs for young slugger Ted Williams and honed a game that would take Sanclemente to national championships on two levels. Sanclemente played for coach Mike ...

Foothills Christian’s national cred will be tested this week when the Knights take on Santa Ana Mater Dei in a Nike event Saturday night. Foothills (16-3)  is  fourth in the latest Cal-Hi Sports rankings,  16th in USA Today,  and No. 1 in San Diego. Mater Dei (21-3) is fifth in Cal-Hi Sports and out of USA Today‘s Top 25, ...

Try playing a game without officials. Hilltop and Escondido tried, with disastrous results for the visiting Cougars, who were upset, 18-13, by the homecoming-enthused Lancers in the season’s final regular season game. Twenty minutes before kickoff Hilltop coach Bob Tomlinson noticed that the game referee and his crew, usually already on site, had not checked in. Tomlinson waited a few ...

Foothills Christian blew past a couple Coastal League opponents last week and retained its ranking as No. 1 in San Diego, No. 4 in California, and No. 17 in the United States. The rankings are from the Union-Tribune, Cal-Hi Sports, and USA Today, respectively. Foothills Christian, which defeated La Jolla Country Day, 68-42, and The Bishop’s, 69-37 ...

Thirty-three players with San Diego Section or Southern Section connections have played in the 49 Super Bowls. Denver and Carolina meet in Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7 in Santa Clara. Carolina Defensive tackle Nate Chandler from Mira Mesa, who signed with the Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2012, is the only San Diego-connected player ...

Eldridge Cooks, the starting fullback on the 1955 San Diego High team that won the Southern California championship and was acclaimed the national high school champion for that season, was at a UCLA basketball game when he passed recently. The 165-pound blocker and runner was a two-year varsity letterman for the Hillers, whose combined record in 1954 ...

Foothills Christian, a weekly, unanimous No. 1 in the San Diego Union-Tribune  poll, went “national” this week when it landed as No. 17 in the USA Today rankings. The thrill-a-minute Knights achieved the honor with another roller-coaster performance against Connecticut’s Waterbury Sacred Heart, which was 17th in USA Today the previous week. The Knights defeated the Hearts, 82-80, in ...

Foothills Christian lost its rematch with Chino Hills but continued as a team of statewide import, still not yet gone “national,” in the eyes of major U.S. ratings entities. The Adidas-influenced Knights will travel again this week, to Springfield, Massachusetts, for the Hoophall Classic and take on Connecticut’s No. 1, 8-0 Waterbury Sacred Heart, averaging 89 ...

John Saleamua took the handoff, cleared the first line of defense, and cut to the outside. Saleamua was running free along the Montgomery sideline when he suddenly went down. Jack Jackson, a Montgomery player, had left his bench area, came onto the field, and tackled Saleamua, short-circuiting a 79-yard touchdown run. “I couldn’t believe it,” said the shocked ...

Foothills Christian, blown off the court, 40-13, in the first quarter and a 106-86 loser to Chino Hills a  couple weeks ago, will have another try at the USA Today No. 1 Huskies in the Sierra Canyon Super Showcase in Chatsworth Saturday. The pressing piranhas of 13-0 Chino Hills, averaging  93 points a game, were champions of the recent City of ...