They are mighty big for small schools.
Saddleback Valley Christian is 11-0. St. Margaret’s is 9-2. They play each other Friday at St. Margaret’s in a CIF-Southern Section East Valley Division second-round game.
It might be the most lofty Orange County small-schools football matchup ever.
Both are in the California Division V state top 10 compiled by CalHiSports.com. That website’s state divisional rankings usually have major influence on which teams play in the CIF State football regional games that lead to the CIF State Championship bowl games.
Both teams scored 56 points last week. St. Margaret’s beat Hamilton of Anza, 56-14. Saddleback Valley Christian beat Santa Paula, 56-17.
Saddleback Valley Christian is averaging 50 points a game. St. Margaret’s is averaging 44 points a game.
St. Margaret’s quarterback George Krantz leads Orange County in passing touchdowns with 41. He is third in county passing yards with 2,974.
Saddleback Valley Christian can throw it, but the Warriors like to run the ball plenty, too. Running back Dalton Lohman is averaging 109 rushing yards a game and 12 yards a carry.
St. Margaret’s has won six CIF-SS football championships, including an 8-man title in the late 1980s. Saddleback Valley Christian is trying for its first CIF football championship trophy.
TOUGH TIMES
Los Alamitos is 1-9 in playoff games since 2004. The Griffins took another first-round exit Friday in a 38-30 loss to Chino Hills.
NOT ALONE
Los Alamitos was not the only Sunset League team eliminated in the West Valley Division first round. The league’s other two playoff representatives, league champion Edison and No. 2 Fountain Valley, lost first-round games. The Sunset was the only Orange County league that did not win a playoff game.
STAYING, HE SAYS
JSerra coach Jim Hartigan said via text message Monday that he plans to stay at JSerra, where he is also athletic director and has children attending school.
Because of his close relationship with Santa Margarita president Andy Sulick and Hartigan’s excellent reputation, he emerged as a likely candidate for the Santa Margarita coaching position made vacant when the school fired Rick Curtis last week.
HIM, TOO
Tesoro coach Matt Poston is somebody many schools would like to have coaching their football team. Santa Margarita might be one of them.
For his part, Poston said via text message that he is happy at Tesoro and his football thoughts are solely on getting the Titans ready for the next playoff game.
BEST LEAGUES
Two leagues with Orange County teams in them went undefeated in the first round. The Academy and Trinity leagues went 3-0.
All four North Hills teams were in the Southern Division first round. Brea Olinda, Canyon and El Modena won. El Dorado lost.
Freeway League teams went 3-2 in the Southwest Division. It has teams in three of the division’s four second-round games.
FLIPS OUT
The CIF-SS office does coin flips in advance of possible next-round matchups when coin flips are needed to identify playoff home teams.
For results of semifinals coin flips go to cifss.org and under Sports find the 11-man football tab, click it then scroll to “Playoff Home Pre Flips” to take a look.
When two teams meet after the first round of the playoffs, the team with the fewest number of playoff home games at that point of the playoffs is the home team. If the two teams have played the same number of playoff home games a coin flip decides which team is the home team.
FOOTBALL SECOND
“Education First” is the city motto of Santa Ana. Football has been up there, too, this school year.
Five of the city’s six public schools qualified for the playoffs. Three of them – Godinez, Segerstrom and Valley – won first-round games.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
