By Joe Torosian
Four of the top five teams in the division face each other this week. It’s truly a North-South affair. Up the coast Mission Prep goes to Nipomo to decide the fate of the Northern League and 237 miles to the South Linfield Christian faces Notre Dame/Riverside to settle business in the Ambassador League. So as not to feel left out 29Palms goes to Desert Hot Springs to decide the De Anza League. While the other two games are toss ups, the De Anza bash will turn into a blowout in the third quarter.
1.) Linfield Christian (2-0, 7-0): The Lions, who reached the second round of the Northwest playoffs a year ago, have won 11 regular season games in a row.
2.) Notre Dame/Riverside (2-0, 7-0): The Titans are 0-2 all time against Linfield Christian, including a 30-0 bludgeoning a year ago. If quarterback Niles Harrell can make plays, stay away from the ball hawks in the Lions secondary, NDR could be number one at this time next week.
3.) Twentynine Palms (3-0, 7-0): The 29ers have already put together an exception season. They’ll do some scouting on Friday and wrap up the De Anza on Saturday. Basically their theme is: “Shall we Shragge now or shall we Shragge later?”
4.) Mission Prep (1-0, 5-2): The Royals are winning, but they are offense has not been good against the better teams they’ve played. Guess what Nipomo does best?
5.) Nipomo (2-0, 4-4): The Titans are the defending Northwest champs. With all the power at the southern end of the division repeating is going to be a struggle. However, repeating as Northern League champs is a distinct possibility.
6.) Bishop Montgomery (6-1): In another year, in another season, Brendan Marafino and the Knights would be higher and in the discussion as a semifinal team. It’s still possible, but we want to see them roll the South Catholic first.
7.) Templeton (1-1, 5-3): Dan Loney’s team is good, but the Eagles are going to enter the post-season as a third place team will most likely make a road trip south. They will be tough out for someone like Rancho Mirage.
8.) Ontario Christian (1-1, 5-2): If the Knights can keep winning their Week Ten match with Linfield Christian could really be an opportunity. A loss before turns that contest into a glorified and scrimmage and will punch their ticket to Nipomo the second week of November.
9.) Valley Christian (2-0, 6-2): The Crusaders get Heritage Christian this week, Maranatha the week after, and a freshly stitched Olympic League banner if all goes well. Oh, and Gianni Hurd has come alive!
10.) Rancho Mirage (3-1, 6-2): We thought about moving Maranatha into this slot, but gave the benefit of the doubt to the Rattlers. They just need to play the string out and second place is theirs…which might mean a home game in the first round.
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