Sports

Football: Los Alamitos Gets At-Large Playoff Berth

Griffins and Huntington Beach are chosen. Despite season-ending victories over Servite and Santa Margarita, JSerra doesn't get in the Pac-5 Division.


By Martin Henderson

Despite having its best team ever, and tying for third place in what is generally agreed as one of the top leagues in the nation, JSerra got a cold shoulder from the Southern Section Playoff Committee on Saturday.

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The section office released the schools that received at-large berths for the 16-team Pac-5 playoffs that begin next week, and they won’t include two of the most exciting seniors around, two-way standouts Dante Pettis and Casey Eugenio.  

Although Pettis, Eugenio and JSerra (7-3) did not receive one of the two bids, another Trinity League team did, Orange Lutheran (8-2). JSerra and the Lancers, along with Servite (5-5), tied for third place in league with 2-3 records, and because JSerra beat Servite, Servite beat Orange Luthera and Orange Lutheran beat JSerra, they flipped a coin to determine the playoff ranking order. Servite won and was deemed the third-place entrant, OLu the fourth place entrant, and JSerra fifth.

Find out what's happening in Los Alamitos-Seal Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Orange Lutheran had to be considered before JSerra, which was ranked No. 5 in the Orange County Top 10 prior to beating Santa Margarita, 26-7. In the computer-based Freeman Ratings, JSerra is ranked 19th in the state, and ninth among Southern Section Pac-5 teams.

Ranked at No. 48 in the Freeman computer model is Encino Crespi (4-6), the third-place team from the five-team Serra League coached by former Servite coach Troy Thomas. Crespi received the other at-large bid. 

Another Orange County team that could have been considered was Trabuco Hills (6-4), but its loss to Santa Margarita—which was subsequently beaten by Orange Lutheran and JSerra in the final two weeks of the season—gave the Mustangs little chance of actually being selected.

In the Southern Division, Laguna Beach (5-5) was one of the considerations for the lone at-large berth, but it instead went to Loara (6-4), the fourth-place team from the Golden West League. 

Some teams did make the cut.

Los Alamitos (8-2) and Huntington Beach (5-5) from the Sunset League received both at-large berths in the Southwest Division, and Sage Hill (5-5) received one of three available berths in the East Valley Division.

The playoff schedule will be released Sunday. The only county schools expected to receive the top-seeded positions are La Habra in the Southwest Division, and Corona del Mar in the Southern Division.


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