Since losing to Long Beach Poly in the 2004 CIF-Southern Section Division 1 championship game, Los Alamitos has not done well in the playoffs.
The Griffins are 1-8 in playoff games since their 21-6 loss to Poly in ’04.
Their latest disappointment was last week’s 59-21 loss to El Toro in the first round of the West Valley Division playoffs. Los Alamitos went into that game as the No. 1 team from the Sunset League. El Toro was an at-large team out of the South Coast League.
Los Alamitos’ one playoff win since ’04 came last season in a 42-0 triumph over Foothill in a Southwest Division first-round game. They lost to Fullerton, the No. 3 team from the Freeway League, in the second round. There have been six first-round exits since ’04.
This year’s Griffins looked talented enough to advance in the West Valley Division. The prediction here, from watching them look so strong in beating Edison, was that Los Alamitos would win the division championship.
Los Alamitos gets chided here and there for playing a weak nonleague schedule. The Griffins have played Santa Margarita and Orange Lutheran in nonleague games since ’04. This year’s five-game nonleague schedule included three teams still alive in their division’s playoffs.
The Griffins lost five turnovers against El Toro. That comes from either bad luck or insufficient preparation. Insufficient preparation can be a product of over-confidence.
LONG BEACH POLY 34, SERVITE 33
Many people went bonkers when Servite, a loser of four in a row and the fifth-place team in the six-team Trinity League, got a Pac-5 at-large berth.
Servite had a lead Friday in the fourth quarter against fourth-seeded Poly. The Friars missed two extra-point kicks, had a field-goal attempt blocked and were unsuccessful on a 2-point conversion try. They gave up a first down on a fake punt by Poly.
The feeling here was that Alemany of Mission Hills deserved the at-large berth that went to Servite because of the at-large criteria points system. That selection of Servite looked OK, even in the fourth quarter Friday.
EXTRAORDINARY LEAGUE
This was unexpected: The league with the most playoff wins last week was the Garden Grove League.
All four of the league’s Southern Division playoff teams advanced to the second round: league champion Garden Grove, second-place Los Amigos, third-place Rancho Alamitos and fourth-place Santiago, which got in as an at-large team.
The Pacific Coast League once dominated the division before being dragged into the Southwest Division, mostly because of Corona del Mar’s excellence. It is possible that all four Southern Division semifinalists could be Garden Grove League teams, something not even the Pacific Coast League accomplished.
FRYER’S TOP 25
Here is how I rank county teams 1-25: 1. JSerra (10-1); 2. Mater Dei (9-2); 3. Santa Margarita (6-5); 4. Servite (4-7); 5. Mission Viejo (9-2); 6. Tesoro (9-2); 7. Orange Lutheran (4-6); 8. San Clemente (10-1); 9. Corona del Mar (10-1); 10. El Toro (8-3); 11. Los Alamitos (9-2); 12. Trabuco Hills (7-4); 13. Edison (7-4); 14. Villa Park (9-2); 15. Buena Park (10-1); 16. Valencia (10-1); 17. Capistrano Valley (8-3); 18. La Habra (7-4); 19. Newport Harbor (5-6); 20. Cypress (8-3); 21. Troy (7-4); 22. Huntington Beach (3-7); 23. Fountain Valley (5-5); 24. Garden Grove (10-1); 25. Westminster (9-2).
FRYER’S EXPLANATION
Mission Viejo is as hot as any team, so the Diablos keep moving up. Same with Tesoro.
An underrated team might be Trabuco Hills, which plays Corona del Mar this week.
Garden Grove and Westminster return to the top 25. They might be facing off in the Southern Division championship game in a couple of weeks.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
