By Tim Peterson
La Serna is the king of the Del Rio. Everybody else is trying to knock them off the throne. El Rancho has a shot and has had a great summer while Santa Fe, who has gotten back into the hunt the last couple of years, is looking to unseat the Lancers as well. It will a be huge challenge for the entire league.
Projected order of finish:
La Serna: Last Year 10-4 (4-0 in Del Rio) Lost in CIF DIV 5 Finals to Palos Verdes. Head Coach Andy George
La Serna is the favorite in the Del Rio League. This is a recording. The Lancers have dominated the Del Rio for so long that there is talk of moving them out. Last year they advanced to the Division 5 Finals before falling to Palos Verdes.
Grady Long will get the nod at quarterback with Jordan Bonilla spelling him in certain situations. Bonilla can do a little bit of everything for La Serna. In the summer he was outstanding as a receiver in passing leagues but he will primarily be a running back. Ayden Contreras will also get some carries and will play a big part in the offense. Zeb Bontemps will be lined up at wide receiver.
Defensively Daniel Moreno will be at linebacker and occasionally at strong safety to anchor the stop unit. Nolan Allison and Rhyen Ramirez both return on defense as well. Allison had three sacks last year and Ramirez corralled 56 total tackles.
La Serna is loaded and barring any unforseen circumstance the Lancers will win the Del Rio. The question is can they win another CIF title? Stay tuned.
El Rancho: Last Year 9-5 (2-2, 3rd in Del Rio) Lost in CIF DIV 11 Finals to Portola. Head Coach Adrian Medrano
After finishing third in the Del Rio a year ago El Rancho got hot and advanced all the way to the CIF Division 11 championship game before falling to Portola.
The run was nice but the Dons are also looking to move up a notch in league. La Serna is always the elephant in the room and the Lancers look like that again. But last season El Rancho fell to Santa Fe in the Del Rio as well as La Serna.
The Dons have had a good summer and head coach Adrian Medrano has some pieces coming back. With El Rancho’s talent they should be able to knock off the Chiefs and finish second. But they could move up a division as well.
Here are some of the key players for El Rancho this season.
Offense: QB -Ray Madrid Jr. QB- Adrian Lopez -Jr. RB – Braylon Morrison Jr. RB -Nathan Carlos Jr. WR- Andres Centeno Jr. OL Steve Rojas Sr. OL Christian Navarro Sr.
Defense: DL -Matthew Argueto Jr. LB Javier Hernandez Jr. LB – Brandon Garcia Sr. SS Anthony Origuela Sr. DB – Ramon Ruiz Sr. DB Jaime Garcia So. DB Joey Ramirez Sr.
El Rancho has some players and some depth and look solid for a playoff spot. What division they end up in remains to be seen.
Santa Fe: Last Year 7-5 (3-1, 2nd in Del Rio) Head Coach Ryan Bateman
Santa Fe finished as runner up to La Serna last year. The Chiefs were 4-0 in league before getting knocked out by the Lancers. Head coach Ryan Bateman has done a remarkable job of bringing the Santa Fe program back to life.
The Chiefs will rely on running back Devin Clark who returns for his senior year after racking up 1,476 yards and 23 touchdowns last season. Luke Hinch is a two-way player who will run the ball at times. Last year he had 254 yards and a couple of touchdowns on the ground. He also had 42 total tackles from his defensive back position. At wide receiver Alex Soria, who had 302 yards a year ago, and Xander Arias are both returning.
Defensively linebacker Joseph Ruiz will be in the middle of the scrum making plays.
Santa Fe should finish in the top three of the Del Rio and will then get a shot at a playoff run.
California: Last Year 1-9 (1-3, 4th in Del Rio) Head Coach Patrick Winchell
The Condors like to pound the ball. Last year they rushed for over 1,300 yards overall with several players toting the rock. Returning running back Nick Coronado ran for 286 yards and six touchdowns and Brian Padilla, who is also back, ran for 527 and three scores. Alex Meza is the third back in the mix after grinding out 186 yards in 2024. Returning receiver Frank Gallardo had 617 yards last season and will again line up wide.
Coronado will play on both sides of the ball. Last year he had 73 total tackles to lead the defense.
Cal has a solid ground game and will need all of it and more to get a couple more league wins. A win over El Rancho or Santa Fe would be huge.
Whittier: Last Year 3-7 (0-4, 5th in Del Rio) Head Coach Jimmy Welker
Whittier returns quarterback Michael Santos who threw for 332 yards last year and ran for 169 more. Running backs Elijah Gonzalez and Daniel Castillo are both back. They combined for 581 yards on the ground a year ago with Gonzalez running for just over 300. Castillo is also a key player on the defensive side with 43 tackles and four sacks last season.
The Cardinals are coming off of a winless league season. They’re hoping they can get at least one this year to get started in the right direction. They do have a couple of winnable games early with Rosemead and Gabrielino.
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Ron….as far as I am concerned those bottom dwelling Divisions 13 and 14 in baseball is an unfortunate mistake! I am fine with the league changes….for a team like Pioneer, (whose enrollment is much lower than the teams in Del Rio League) who was coached by Juarez;;; a very good coach in my experience, to move to a weaker league is healthy for them and their kind! But as far as Pioneer and Mountain View going to the playoff finals is ridiculi (hahah plural for ridiculous)
LS will join a different league if the CIF and WUHSD Board sends the message they have to. Of course LS wants to stay where they are , not only like some of you state to “beat the heck out of those four teams in the school district’, but to play close to home possibly. I say this because they know they definitely will compete at a much better level in the post season. ??? I observe that there are plenty of new condos/townhouses being built all over Whittier and Santa Fe Springs! Will this new housing bring a couple of few very good athletes to WHS, CHS and SFHS/?
It will be because they have to compete with the likes of warren and Downey every year and no longer have a talent and depth advantage.
The funniest thing is this guy is so quick to put Santa Fe on the level of La Serna, when ER has been making playoff runs for almost a decade, had multiple quarterfinal runs, a semi finals run and a final run last season. ER is not LS, but they have been one of the most consistent programs in the area under the medrano regime, to put Bateman above Medrano is delusional.
the LS falloff is going to happen sooner than most people think and it won’t be because of a lack of a tufaga or any other potential d1 player
La Serna’s huge untold advantage is in the number of players it is able to field, in particular the large number of linemen available to pick from. The same holds true on a smaller scale for the upstart Santa Fe program…bigger numbers, better results.
How to explain the greater participation at LS and SF? Kids flock to Lancer Land because they think they’re going to get a CIF championship patch out of it; they want to play at Santa Fe because Ryan Bateman has an attractive personality.
There is no such attractive force to draw kids into football at ER, Cal or Whittier, hence these programs have finished behind LS and SF in recent years. I am very eager to see how old Pete Carroll, a “half full” guy if ever there was one, does with the Raiders. This enthusiasm angle is the obvious way to jump start a football operation, and I cordially invite ER, Cal and Whittier to embrace this idea.
la serna will still win
all games are worth playing ! They try to keep within district schools. yes it has got out of hand ‘everyone gets a tropy
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@ @fbfan
I agree no d1 guy on the team but they got a load of guys that can play. Long, Bonilla, Moreno, Casillas… they’ll be okay and take DRL again.
Every league can make a good argument about competive inequality. Just play and get better.
@ Inexcusable: I believe that creating Division 14 was a lame attempt by CIF to achieve competitive equity, or to make it look as if that was their goal. Reorganizing many of the leagues in the Southern Section is a far more serious effort that is long overdue.
I hope we press ahead with the re-leaguing in tandem with eliminating Division 14, which I consider to be a failed experiment.
@ Inexcusable,
You and I see it as common sense. But the La Serna brass and community was crying, kicking, and screaming when the new league stuff came out. Kind of sad if you ask me.
Not this season, no tufaga this year, he was a 3TD difference against any DRL team, LS is good however this is the first time in about 5 seasons that they don’t have that 1 player who is above and beyond anyone in the league, ie Jake George, Owen Long, Kaimana Tufaga. I don’t think anyone in the league has the depth to beat them, but they will get tested this season, you heard it here first.
@Anonymous,
I would bet that if you did that then it would still be a blowout. Those 4 schools combined probably have 4-5 kids max that would start at LS.
How bout El Rancho, Santa Fe, Cal High and Whittier team up as 1 and take on La Serna?
CIF’s push for “competitive equity” rings hollow when we realize how long leagues such as the Del Rio have been allowed to remain so competitively unbalanced. The only two programs that appear to be evenly matched at this time are ER and Santa Fe; the league clash between these two is the ONLY one worth watching…the rest are not worth playing.