Dramatic openers set tone for playoffs

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For a slide show of Friday's top action, click on the photo to the right.

The first round produced some dramatic finishes but no real upsets.

It did set up a few rematches in the second round in the CIF-Southern Section football playoffs next Friday.

Mater Dei lost to Bishop Amat of La Puente in a Pac-5 Division game in which Mater Dei would fall behind, battle back to tie it, and ultimately lost by giving up a touchdown in the final minute.

It figured that Pacifica-Fullerton would be a close game in the Southwest Division, and it was. Pacifica won that one, 27-20.

Segerstrom needed overtime to finally put away Mayfair of Lakewood, 41-35.

There were some first-round blowouts, some anticipated and some not.

Top-seeded Edison hammered Long Beach Millikan, 58-14, in the Pac-5 Division. Mission Viejo actually trailed in the second quarter against Long Beach Wilson before turning on the jets in the second half to win by a lot, 41-14, in the Pac-5. La Habra 56, Kennedy 10 in the Southwest Division, and Trabuco Hills 53, Savanna 0 in that division, too.

Servite was an easy pick to beat San Clemente, but the 38-10 score was more one-sided than expected. And Dana Hills beating Orange Lutheran by 20 was at least a mild surprise.

Every Orange County team that was among the top four seeded teams in its division won its first-round game Friday, the opening night of the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.

Dana Hills-Edison is a rematch; Edison beat Dana, 34-17, in a nonleague game this season. Laguna Hills beat Segerstrom, 33-14, earlier this year and they meet again in a Southern Division second-round game.

Servite beat Long Beach Poly, 30-7, in its opening game this season, and will try to do it again at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach next Friday.

Poly advanced by beating its former quarterback. Los Alamitos quarterback Dylan Lagarde played for Poly this season – he was its starter in that loss to Servite – before transferring to Los Alamitos. You can bet that Poly's players were a bit hyped to play their former teammate.

And speaking of scores to settle ... Servite folks have been wanting a chance to play Los Alamitos since 2005, when Los Al coach John Barnes reneged on his commitment to coach Servite to stay at Los Al. Alas, Poly's victory over Los Alamitos on Friday killed that grudge match.

We know that Poly will be the home team against Servite, and we know all of the second-round home teams.

Here is how home teams are determined after the first round: When two teams meet after the first round, the team with the fewest number of home games at that point of the playoffs is the home team; if they have had an equal number of home games, then a coin flip determines the home team.

Coin flips for all potential second-round matchups in which coin flips would be needed were completed this past Sunday at the CIF-Southern Section office, right there in its parking lot, since all the of coaches were there. That allowed home teams to get a head start on securing stadiums for the second round.

Here is a coin flip that was done Sunday, which has turned out to be a pivotal one: the Mission Viejo-Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks coin flip. Neither team wants to take that long road trip. Mission won the coin flip, so it will be Notre Dame doing the heavy traveling.

There were plenty of star performances Friday. Tustin's Anthony Wilkerson so far is treating playoff opponents like he did regular-season opponents. He rushed for 319 yards and four touchdowns on 48(!) carries.

Cypress' Akeelie Muhammad had another great night. He ran for 238 yards and four touchdowns.

But perhaps the most impressive effort came from Fountain Valley's Kyle Middlebrooks. Even in a 41-24 loss to Notre Dame, Middlebrooks was the star as he rushed for 273 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Middlebrooks' athletic year is not over; he was second in the state 100 final this past spring, and just might win it this coming spring.

Not only have excellent players had their seasons curtailed, so have some good teams. Four teams that were in the final regular-season Orange County top 10 were eliminated Friday: No. 4 Los Alamitos; No. 6 Fountain Valley; No. 7 Orange Lutheran; and No. 9 Mater Dei.

Mater Dei has lost five of its past eight playoff games.

So we have some excellent matchups coming up in the second: Dana Hills-Edison; Notre Dame-Mission Viejo; and Servite-Long Beach Poly in the Pac-5 Division.

La Habra-El Dorado is an intriguing one in the Southwest. El Dorado is a lot like La Habra – physical, offensively versatile, but certainly not with La Habra's skill.

The second round is going to be fun.