The 2019 high school football regular season has come to a close with five SCV schools: Canyon, Hart, Trinity Classical Academy, Valencia and West Ranch advancing to the playoffs and turning their attention to making a deep postseason run after the CIF-Southern Section released the playoff brackets on Sunday.
The Foothill League Champions, Valencia, won their 11th straight league title. The Vikings finished the regular season on a very similar five-game streak, winning its 42nd consecutive league game to advance to the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs after a second shut-out victory of the season in a 45-0 shellacking of West Ranch on Friday.
“It’s a great end of the Foothill League which is awesome,” said Valencia head coach Larry Muir. “I think, to finish the year like that and head into playoffs you have to feel good about that. But it’s a whole new season next week, a whole new deal with teams that are outside of this area and don’t know who we are and we aren’t going to know who they are, it’s going to be a challenge. I like where our team is at and like where they are competing and we will put it together and see where we can go.”
Valencia clashes against the South Coast League’s runner-up San Clemente, which only had one league loss at the hands of Division 1 playoff team Mission Viejo.
The Vikings head into the matchup as the No. 69th ranked team in the state, while the Tritons rank No. 5. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Valencia on Friday.
After back-to-back wins over Canyon and West Ranch, Hart finished the regular season in a three-way tie for second place in the Foothill League with Golden Valley and West Ranch and dropped its final league game, losing in overtime 29-28 to Golden Valley for the first time in program history.
The Indians, however, won the coin toss, along with West Ranch, and advanced to the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs and will host Chaparral at 7 p.m. The location is to be announced.
West Ranch got the Foothill League’s final automatic berth, advancing to the Division 7 playoffs and will host Quartz Hill, the Golden League’s third-place team, at 7 p.m. at Canyon on Friday.
Both teams finished the regular season with back-to-back losses.
Canyon makes a surprise visit as the lone Foothill League at-large bid in the CIF-SS Division 7 playoffs after finishing last in the league standings, knocking Golden Valley out of running to earn its own at-large bid.”l
However, the Cowboys draw the undefeated Mojave River League’s first-place team, Serrano on the road at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Trinity Classical Academy defeated Fairmont Prep 28-22 in its final league game of the season to win the program’s first Academy League title, going undefeated in league play en route.
The Knights advance to the CIF-SS Division 14 playoffs and will meet South Torrance, the Pioneer League’s third-place finisher in the first round, who closed out the regular season with a 42-16 road loss to North Torrance
Trinity suffered just one loss on the season, to the top seed in Division 14, St. Pius X – St. Matthias Academy. South Torrance also played St. Pius X – St. Matthias falling by one-point in a 36-35 home loss.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m on Friday. The location is to be announced.
