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St. Francis, Northview get first look at their…

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Friday, April 26th 2024

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High School Sports |
St. Francis, Northview get first look at their opponents at CIF-SS football luncheon

Northview and St. Francis are playing championships on Friday and Saturday, respectively

St. Francis players, from left, Max Garrison, Mayze Bryant, Duncan Sprengal and Myles Shannon were among the attendees at the CIF Southern Section football championships luncheon Monday in Long Beach. (Photo by Fred Robledo, Southern California News Group)
St. Francis players, from left, Max Garrison, Mayze Bryant, Duncan Sprengal and Myles Shannon were among the attendees at the CIF Southern Section football championships luncheon Monday in Long Beach. (Photo by Fred Robledo, Southern California News Group)
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By | frobledo@scng.com | San Gabriel Valley Tribune
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

The food always tastes good at the CIF Southern Section football championships luncheon because everyone invited to the event in Long Beach is part of the 14 divisional championships that will be contested Friday and Saturday.

Everyone will have their big feasts during family and team gatherings for Thanksgiving later in the week, but Monday’s event was a chance for teams like Northview and St. Francis to bring selected players to enjoy an early hearty meal, listen to keynote speakers and size up their competition sitting nearby.

The 45th luncheon presented by the CIF-SS had a little extra meaning Monday, especially after having the season and championships canceled last fall for the first time since World War II due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most teams played a shortened season in the spring to make up for the fall season, but there were no playoffs.

Northview (7-6), which will be trying to win its first championship since 1987, reached the finals with a 28-14 victory over Palmdale on the road. Now it gets to play the Division 10 championship game Friday night against Long Beach’s St. Anthony (9-4) at Covina District Field.

“It’s a great feeling, it’s been a long time coming,” Northview coach Marcel Perez said.  “We’ve been close several years and getting to be here today is a great honor.”

St. Anthony advanced to the final by avenging a loss in league to Salesian with a 49-48 victory.

Perez said the Vikings will be ready.

“I don’t think we’re going to do anything different than we’ve been doing,” he said. “The expectation and preparation is going to be the same. We just want to show up Friday night and do our best. We’ll have a pancake breakfast (on Thanksgiving), do our walk-throughs and hopefully have some family time Thanksgiving night before we play.”

St. Francis (10-2) has a gigantic task when it hosts Long Beach Poly (10-3) in Saturday’s Division 4 championship game at 7 p.m.

Poly, the winningest football team in CIF-SS history with 19 championships, normally plays with the big boys in one of the top two divisions. But Poly dropped to Division 4 with the new playoff format that uses Calpreps’ computer rankings to place teams in divisions based solely on the current season.

It was a surprise to many that Poly dropped to Division 4 and grabbed the top seed, and it has looked like the most dominant team of all the divisions, especially over the last two weeks.

Poly whipped Upland 49-3 in the quarterfinals, and did the same to Cypress in the semifinals, winning 35-0.

“They should be,” St. Francis coach Dean Herrington said of Poly being the favorite. “They’re big, they’re fast, they play well together. It’s going to be quite the challenge for us to be there at the end.”

St. Francis advanced to the final with a workmanlike 20-0 win over La Serna. It will get to a chance to play for its first title since 1964, and it has reached the finals for the second time since 2017.

ST. FRANCIS AND NORTHVIEW PLAYERS TALK ABOUT THE FINALS

 

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