It’s been a spectacular showing thus far by South County high school teams during the San Diego Section’s winter sports playoffs.
It’s not over!
Eight area teams earned the right to play for division championships this weekend. The lineup of finalists includes four girls basketball teams, two girls soccer teams and two boys basketball teams.
The big story for local high school sports fans, however, is the 22 area teams still in contention for championships entering the week, including roller hockey.
That was a monster showing by South County prep programs.
Five different Sweetwater Union High School District schools, plus two private schools in the South County region, will send teams to this weekend’s championship parade: Bonita Vista (girls basketball), Eastlake (girls soccer), Castle Park (girls basketball), Mater Dei Catholic (girls basketball, girls soccer), Olympian (girls basketball), Southwest (boys basketball) and San Diego Academy (boys basketball).
Southwest got the jump on the upcoming championship weekend by engaging fifth-seeded San Diego Academy in an all-South County matchup in Thursday’s Division V title game at La Costa Canyon High School.
The third-seeded Raiders (16-12) advanced to the final after drubbing second-seeded Escondido Charter, 75-50, in Tuesday’s semifinals.
Junior Diego Edwards led Southwest with 21 points while classmate Isaac Gonzalez poured in 20 points.
National City-based San Diego Academy, a coeducational K-12 school that is part of the Seventh-day Adventist school system, improved to 15-12 after eliminating the top-seeded Cambridge School, 69-55, on Tuesday.
The Raiders tipped off the playoffs with a 76-39 win over 11th-seeded Del Lago Academy, 76-39, on Feb. 23.
Almost famous
Some of the local contingent of teams ended their seasons with especially tough semifinal losses.
Fifth-seeded Otay Ranch fell, 76-74, to ninth-seeded Francis Parker in a Division II boys basketball game Wednesday.
Francis Parker (13-12) proved to be wildcard in the division after previously eliminating top-seeded Montgomery (23-6) by an 80-76 score in last Friday’s semifinals.
The Sweetwater girls soccer team lost, 2-1, to top-seeded High Tech High North County on a penalty kick with two minutes remaining in sudden-victory overtime in Tuesday’s Division V semifinal match. Lizete Bustos put the Lady Devils ahead, 1-0, on a first-half penalty kick before the hosts tied the game on a goal with five minutes left in regulation.
In boys semifinal matches on Wednesday, all four local sides lost: Chula Vista (1-0 in overtime to Calexico in Division II), Otay Ranch (6-5 in a shootout tiebreaker to University City in Division III), Sweetwater (3-1 to Central Union in Division IV) and High Tech High Chula Vista (5-1 to Vincent Memorial in Division V).
Chula Vista (12-11-3) lost in overtime to upset-minded Calexico, which ran the table with upset wins, all by shutout margin, over fifth-seeded Bonita Vista, fourth-seeded Castle Park and the eighth-seeded Spartans. The Bulldogs (17-6-3) won a 2-0 play-in match with La Jolla to earn the No. 12 seed in the division.
Chula Vista had upset top-seeded Southwest, 1-0, in overtime in the quarterfinals.
Sweetwater controlled much of the play in Wednesday’s matchup against the smaller, aggressive Imperial Valley visitors, but fell victim to two excellently-placed shots high to the top part of the net by Jose Torres. Both goals came on shots from 35 yards out that bent over the reach of the SuHi goalkeeper.
The Red Devils attacked in waves in the final eight minutes and twice came within inches to sending the match into overtime.
Spartan goalkeeper Nathan Santana tipped a dipping shot just over the crossbar with seconds left in regulation play.
Torres struck his first long-range goal 17 minutes into the first half to put Central Union up 1-0.
Sweetwater tied the game, 1-1, after Luis Pulido put away a bouncing ball in the penalty arc five minutes later.
But the visitors weren’t finished. Carlos Hernandez scored on a head shot with 11 minutes left in the first half to put the visitors up 2-1.
Torres blasted another bomb into the net with 27 minutes left in the second half to catch the hosts off guard and set up a frantic finish.
San Diego Section Championship Playoffs
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Division I
Friday, March 2
(1) Bonita Vista (26-6) vs. (3) Mater Dei Catholic (19-12), 1 p.m. at Viejas Arena, San Diego State University
Division II
Friday, March 2
(2) Olympian (16-12) vs. (4) Vista (15-15), 11 a.m. at Viejas Arena, San Diego State University
Division IV
Saturday, March 3
(4) San Dieguito Academy (11-15) vs. (7) Castle Park (16-11), 1 p.m. at San Marcos High School
Division V
Thursday, March 1
(3) Southwest (16-12) vs. (5) San Diego Academy (15-12) at La Costa Canyon High School, 7 p.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Open Division
Friday, March 2
(4) Eastlake (18-5-3) vs. (7) Steele Canyon (12-6-6), 5 p.m. at Mission Bay High School
Division IV
Saturday, March 3
(3) Mater Dei Catholic (15-5-2) vs. (5) Ramona (12-12-3), 11 a.m. at La Jolla High School
