The LookOut sports |
Santa Monica Sports Notes The Santa Monica High girls basketball team lost its season opener at Venice last week, 54-48. The St. Monica boys are 0-3 under new coach Chris Guinn and will play in the El Segundo Tournament this week. The Crossroads girls basketball team routed Price, 87-11 in the Mayfair-Bellflower Tournament... The SMC mens' basketball team has a 2-1 record following a 71-64 victory over Trade Tech. Marko Mihailovic scored 15 points for the Corsairs, followed by Eric Norcross and Omosalewa Daramola with 13... Glendale College won the second USA Bank Beach Bowl football game with a 28-13 victory over Fullerton College Saturday afternoon at Corsair Field. Both teams entered the game with a 6-4 record. Last season's winner was SMC, which defeated Citrus. Samohi quarterback James Cooper said he intends to play baseball again for the Vikings and won't make a decision on a college for awhile. He was the Vikings' rightfielder last season. SMC football coach Robert Taylor, coming off a 1-9 season, is hoping
that Cooper, receiver Charles Gordon and/or tailback Derrick Davis will
play for the Corsairs next season. It appears that two jumbo-sized Vikings,
285-pound Josh Smith and 280-pound tackle Chris Price will receive scholarships
to Division 1 schools...Receiver Chris Gary, focusing heavily on academics,
is strongly considering Georgetown... lakers/index.htm |
Samohi Reaches CIF Football Title Game for First Time Since 1982 By Mitch Chortkoff Santa Monica High quarterback James Cooper said it was "payback time" against Paso Robles, which eliminated the Vikings from last season's CIF football playoffs. It turns out Cooper was talking about himself. He personally escorted Samohi into the CIF Division 10 championship game by accounting for all four touchdowns in a 26-14 victory at Paso Robles Saturday night. Cooper threw two touchdown passes to his favorite receiver, Charles Gordon, and ran for two other TDs as the Vikings broke from a 14-14 halftime tie. In the third quarter Cooper found Gordon for a 27-yard scoring pass. Four minutes later, after Samohi drove to the Paso Robles one-yard-line, Cooper went in for the game's final score. Cooper completed 14 of 22 passes for 260 yards and Gordon caught six passes. Cooper had an earlier touchdown run of 22 yards. After enduring a four-hour bus ride and eliminating the defending division champion Saturday night Samohi will play North Torrance in the championship game. The game will be played Friday night at North Torance. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.. It will be Samohi's first appearance in a CIF championship game since 1982. The Vikings, then coached by now-assistant Tebb Kusserow, won the CIF title with a victory over Long Beach Poly in 1981 and lost in the 1982 finals. Kusserow retired in 1990 and the Vikings experienced a difficult decade until Lacy was hired from St. Monica High to rebuild the program. He turned a 2-8 team into a 9-3 team last season and the Vikings have a 10-2 record this season. The championship game will be played between two Ocean League teams who met earlier this season. Samohi won at North Torrance, 23-21. However, in last year's meeting North Torrance won at Santa Monica. The game will provide a matchup of premier senior quarterbacks. Cooper will be opposed by Kenny Brown, who threw six touchdown passes in North Torrance's 42-33 semifinal victory over host Inglewood. Brown is being recruited primarily as a defensive back, but is a potent offensive presence, both as a runner and passer. He's 5-11, 180, giving him a couple of inches over Cooper. Brown gets help from Michael Bolio, who excels both as a receiver and running back and scored five touchdowns in one game. But Lacy and other coaches regard Brown as the man who must be stopped. "We invested some defenders in just making sure Brown didn't get loose around the end,'' said Lacy about Samohi's victory in the earlier game. "But he cut back and still hurt us. By doing that we played Bolio straight up and gave up something there, but you have to make the choice.'' Inglewood made the same decision, investing defenders in keeping Brown from going where he wanted. But North Torrance was able to defeat Inglewood in both the regular season game and the playoff game. Samohi has benefited the last three games from Lacy's move of 285-pound tight end Josh Smith to fullback, where he blocks for tailback Derrick Davis. With the running game enhanced by the move, defenders haven't been able to use extra men on Samohi's receivers. Cooper, now an experienced player and accurate passer, has benefited from having Gordon back from a broken leg suffered early last season. Samohi's two losses have been to Peninsula in a non-conference season opener and to Inglewood. The Vikings were extremely disappointed in losing the opening game at Peninsula but have won 10 of 11 since then. "The guys have worked very hard,'' said linebacker Pete Roses, who transferred to Samohi from Bishop Montgomery this season. "Due to the hard work this team deserves the success it has had.'' Samohi has enough underclassmen playing key roles that it should be successful again next season. But the team is driven by a senior class made up of players who have been regulars for three years. "We're an experienced football team,'' said Lacy. "This season started in the summer, with our conditioning program and we have a determined group of players.''
The St. Monica boys are 0-3 under new coach Chris Guinn and will play in the El Segundo Tournament this week. The Crossroads girls basketball team routed Price, 87-11 in the Mayfair-Bellflower Tournament... The SMC mens' basketball team has a 2-1 record following a 71-64 victory over Trade Tech. Marko Mihailovic scored 15 points for the Corsairs, followed by Eric Norcross and Omosalewa Daramola with 13... Glendale College won the second USA Bank Beach Bowl football game with a 28-13 victory over Fullerton College Saturday afternoon at Corsair Field. Both teams entered the game with a 6-4 record. Last season's winner was SMC, which defeated Citrus. Samohi quarterback James Cooper said he intends to play baseball again for the Vikings and won't make a decision on a college for awhile. He was the Vikings' rightfielder last season. SMC football coach Robert Taylor, coming off a 1-9 season, is hoping that Cooper, receiver Charles Gordon and/or tailback Derrick Davis will play for the Corsairs next season. It appears that two jumbo-sized Vikings, 285-pound Josh Smith and 280-pound tackle Chris Price will receive scholarships to Division 1 schools...Receiver Chris Gary, focusing heavily on academics, is strongly considering Georgetown...Samohi expects to play in a higher division next season, probably Division 4, but most likely will stay in the Ocean League. Next season's opening game is scheduled against Peninsula at Corsair Field, giving the Vikings a chance to avenge this season's 16-13 defeat. Santa Monica has never defeated Peninsula in football... |
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