LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – There wasn’t much in the way of significant surprises during Wednesday evening’s opening-round games of the California State Southern Regional Playoffs.
And those teams in action that were among the 16 clubs that competed for the Southern Section’s first-ever “Open Division” title demonstrated why that playoff field was the strongest ever assembled in California sectional competition.
None of the 10 Southern Section Open teams lost Wednesday night, with the average winning margin of 32.6 points with only one of the games decided by fewer than 22 points (Lakewood Mayfair’s 58-54 decision over San Diego Torrey Pines in Division I).
The Southern Regional’s eight-team Open Division doesn’t begin things Friday night, so the four Southern Section “Open” teams that slid into the same division for state competition – top seed Santa Ana Mater Dei, No. 2 Riverside JW North, No. 3 Redondo Beach Redondo Union and No. 4 Etiwanda – were on the sidelines Wednesday as were Chatsworth Sierra Canyon and Torrance Bishop Montgomery (the top seeds in D-IV, which had byes into the second round).
There was just one “seed upset” in D-I, where No. 6 Riverside Martin Luther King (which toppled Villa Park Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim during the Southern Section I-A title game) fell to visiting No. 11 Fairfax (63-48), which lost to Woodland Hills El Camino Real in the semifinals of the L.A. City’s D-I playoffs.
Villa Park (50-47 at Fresno Edison) and MLK were the only two squads to lose from among the eight Southern Section representatives in the D-I bracket.
In the other divisions, the road winners included Santa Ana Foothill (54-38 over San Diego Francis Parker in D-II), La Mirada (68-57 over Fresno in D-III), Westlake Village Oaks Christian (79-61 over Fresno Washington Union in D-IV) and Palm Springs Desert Chapel (63-54 over Escondido Adventist in D-V).
The best of the second-round games played Saturday night figure to involve the Southern Section’s Open Division, each team from which will be at home: Long Beach Poly at Mayfair and Mission Viejo at Loyola (D-I); Foothill at Compton and La Habra Sonora at Bellflower St. John Bosco (D-II); La Mirada at L.A. Cathedral (D-III); and San Juan Capistrano Valley JSerra at Sierra Canyon, Sun Valley Village Christian at Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart, L.A. Windward at Gardena Serra and Oaks Christian at Bishop Montgomery.
The Open Division games Friday are: San Diego St. Augustine at Santa Ana Mater Dei; Etiwanda at Woodland Hills El Camino Real; Carlsbad La Costa Canyon at Redondo Union; and L.A. Westchester at Riverside JW North.
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