High School Notebook: CdM may be last team standing in football
What began as a promising year for the five high school football programs in Newport-Mesa might end with only one of them making the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
The one consistent team this year has been Corona del Mar, which is 7-2 overall in Dan O’Shea’s debut season as the head coach. The Sea Kings, who have clinched at least a share of the Pacific Coast League title, are most likely heading into the Southwest Division playoffs as one of the top-four seeded teams.
While the Sea Kings, ranked No. 3 in the Southwest Division poll, look to claim their fourth straight 5-0 league title next week, Estancia and Newport Harbor are fighting to keep their seasons alive past league play.
Coach Mike Bargas’ Eagles are in an Orange Coast League showdown with Saddleback at Santa Ana Valley High on Friday. The teams share third place at 2-2, and the winner takes the league’s third automatic berth into the Southern Division playoffs. The loser has to hope it receives one of the Southern Division’s two at-large entries.
Newport Harbor plays host to Edison in a Sunset League finale on Friday, and it must beat the Chargers for the first time in 36 years to keep its West Valley Division playoff hopes alive. The Sailors share third place with Los Alamitos at 2-2, but Los Alamitos owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Newport Harbor.
Also not helping the Sailors’ cause is that Los Alamitos closes out league with Marina. The Vikings haven’t won a league game in 11 years. The West Valley Division does have two at-large entries, and Coach Jeff Brinkley said for the Sailors to be considered for one, they have to upset the No. 6-ranked Chargers to finish 5-5 overall.
The two Newport-Mesa programs that won’t qualify for the postseason are Costa Mesa and Sage Hill. Both are under first-year head coaches, Glen Fisher with the Mustangs and Abram Booty with the Lightning.
Costa Mesa produced the best start of any team in the area, going 5-1. However, injuries have taken a toll and the losses have piled up for Costa Mesa, which will miss the postseason for the second time in as many years.
The Mustangs have dropped three in a row in the Orange Coast League, two of those are against rival Estancia and Saddleback, which are one game ahead of the fifth-place Mustangs. Costa Mesa’s season wraps up on Friday, when it faces first-place Calvary Chapel at Jim Scott Stadium.
Out of the five local teams, Sage Hill has turned in the worst overall season at 1-8.
Sage Hill finished in last place at 0-3 in the Academy League, forcing it to miss the East Valley Division playoffs for the second straight year. Sage Hill, which last prevailed in a league game two years ago, wraps up the regular season with a nonleague affair at home against La Puente Bassett.
If only CdM reaches the playoffs, it will mark the first time that just one football team in the area competes in the playoffs since 2003.
))
For the past 33 years, the Newport Harbor girls’ volleyball team has made the CIF Southern Section playoffs every time.
The Sailors’ impressive run of postseason appearances is in jeopardy.
Newport Harbor, which is 12-18 overall, cannot qualify for an at-large berth into the Division 1AA playoffs because of a below .500 overall record.
The Sailors are in fourth place in the Sunset League at 4-5, behind 5-4 Los Alamitos. There’s one league match left for both programs.
Newport Harbor has to win at second-place Edison on Tuesday and have Los Alamitos lose at home to last-place Marina to force a league playoff match to determine the league’s third-and-final guaranteed postseason berth. Newport Harbor would then have to defeat Los Alamitos for the first time this year to return to the playoffs for the 34th straight time.
