John Maffei’s final The San Diego Union poll:
Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. *First-place votes. Previous ranking in (italics). Previous rankings were before San Diego Section playoffs.
Bold indicates latest. NR–Not ranked. MaxPreps‘ and Cal-Hi Sports‘ are state rankings.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Torrey Pines (5-7, 16 points) Monte Vista (9-5, 11), Rancho Bernardo (9-3, 9), El Capitan (10-3, 7), St. Augustine (4-10, 5), Scripps Ranch (9-2, 2), Del Norte (7-5, 1).

VOTING PANEL

Twenty-nine sportswriters, sportscasters, administrators from San Diego County, plus Max Preps.com.

• John Maffei (San Diego Union-Tribune).
• Don Norcross, Steve Brand, Rick Hoff, Kevin Farmer (Union-Tribune Freelance contributors).
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez (CIF San Diego Section).
• Brandon Stone, Allison Edmonds, John Carroll, Chase Izidor (KUSI, Channel 51).
• Rick Smith (partletonsports.com).
• Braden Suprenant (97.3-FM The Fan).
• Christian Pedersen (San Diego Sports Association).
• Tom Helmantoler, (Southern Conference advisor).
• Rex Johnson, Bruce Ward (CIF Advisory Committee).
• Mike Dolan, Joe Evangelist (San Diego Coaching Legends).
• Raymond Brown (sdfootball.net).
• Bodie DeSilva, John Kentera, Steve (Biff) Dolan, Dennis Ackerman, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, Tom Ronco, Adam Paul (Freelance contributors).

Coach Kellan Cobbs’ Granite Hills Eagles (11-2) take on another tough Orange County opponent when they visit Huntington Beach Edison (10-4) Saturday at Huntington Beach High.

Granite Hills was a 49-21 loser to eventual state champion Mission Viejo in a 2023 regional playoff and Edison dropped a 49-24 decision to Mission Viejo this season.

Another of Edison’s losses in 2024 was 21-17 to San Clemente, a 27-17 loser to La Costa Canyon.  The Chargers lost their first two games, 29-28, to Clovis West and 22-21 to Yorba Linda.

Granite Hills dopped a 39-21 decision to Perry of Gilbert, Arizona, at Cathedral and, in a shocker later in the season, to Cathedral, 52-6.

The Eagles, with a 46.6 Calpreps.com rating, will face one with a 56.1 Calpreps grade and a strong running attack, led by Julius Gillick, who is averaging 163 yards a game rushing and has scored 33 touchdowns.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Edison is not named after Thomas A. Edison, whose many inventions included the electric light.

A contest to name the school, which opened in 1969, resulted in honoring Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated during the 1968 presidential campaign.

School honchos stepped in.

The land on which the campus was built had been donated by Southern California Edison, a public utility, and after some discussion Kennedy High became Edison High.

Perhaps as a bow to electricity and to Thomas Edison, the green and gold-clad school athletic teams became identified as the Chargers.

Granite Hills has never played Edison, but the Chargers have vintage and recent history here.

Coach Dick Haines’ Vista Panthers split a home-and-home series with Bill Workman’s Chargers, winning here, 6-0, in 1982, and losing, 20-15, at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa in 1983.

Helix split a series with the Chargers, winning at home, 38-34, in the 2023 opener and losing this season, 42-14, at Westminster High, near Edison.

Next:  D-II, Poway versus Arcadia Rio Hondo.

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.

The 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.

The Webmaster