Fryer on football: Playoffs edition

Laguna Beach won a playoff game for the first time in 21 years by beating Santa Ana, 39-14, in a Southern Division first-round game. How the Breakers won, too, was impressive - they took a 20-14 lead into the fourth quarter and then outscored Santa Ana, 19-0, to win going away. Laguna coach Jonathan Todd predicted this would be a turning-point season for the Breakers, and he was right.

Tustin 76, Magnolia 26 and La Habra 83, Anaheim 0. Tustin coach Myron Miller and La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta are not egotistical coaches who will use high school football players, on their teams or their opponents', as pawns for self-aggrandizement. Both will praise opposing teams' players when we ask about All-Orange County candidates. No comment here on the Anaheim-La Habra game, having not attended it. But I was at Magnolia-Tustin, and on the sidelines, too, for the final minutes. Neither Miller nor Magnolia coach Dave Perkins was willing to budge, in use of substitutes and/or play-calling, to help the game reach a sportsmanship-first conclusion. There also is no acceptable explanation for going for the first down on fourth-and-4 at the opponent's 38-yard line with a 45-point lead with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

It is Mater Dei at Tesoro, Pac-5 second round game Friday. A couple of weeks ago during county top 10 polling, yours truly was the only one voting Mater Dei at No. 1, while the other 10 voters usually went with Tesoro as their No. 1. Now, we shall see.

That's what we called the Los Alamitos-Tesoro game, in which Los Alamitos coach John Barnes was coaching against son Brian Barnes' Tesoro team. Both Barnes kept saying that it was not Barnes vs. Barnes, but we are in the hype business and we help sell tickets although that is not the primary function. And we don't get any of the revenue (not even from Mater Dei). The most memorable moment of the evening: Anita Barnes, wife and mother, flipping the coin for the opening kickoff (Los Alamitos won the flip, but deferred).

THE TOP 10 AND TOP 25

The polling of media members ends when the regular season ends, per tradition. That way, we have an Orange County champion; congratulations, Tesoro. The postseason top 10 and 25 comes from me and me only. I kept two Sunset League teams that did not make the playoffs, Edison and Newport Harbor, in the top 10 because only an unlucky draw kept them out of the playoffs. And I finally had to move St. Margaret's out of the No. 25 position, not because St. Margaret's is playing poorly, because the Tartans continue to dominate their competition. But I had to insert Pacifica and Trabuco Hills in there, and that No. 25 berth came down to this, if Santa Margarita played St. Margaret's, which team would win?

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com