By Dave Abbott
As playoffs draw near in football, girls volleyball and girl tennis, regular-season competition is taking on a playoff intensity.
The Franklin Panthers of Highland Park reclaimed the Principal’s Trophy in a 28-21 victory over the Eagle Rock Eagles on Oct. 8. Franklin’s win included a new CIF LA City Section record for pass receptions in a game as Panther wide receiver Hector Ceballos, a junior, caught 27 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Ceballos’s record performance was just one reception shy of the state record and shattered the previous city-section record of 24 catches, set in 1977 by Steve Martinez of Wilson High School in El Sereno.
In the 76 years that Franklin and Eagle Rock have competed in football, Franklin leads with a 54-21-1 record. In the 15 years since the Principal’s Trophy game started in 2006, Eagle Rock leads the series 9-6.
In other Northern League football action, the Lincoln Tigers of Lincoln Heights routed the Wilson Mules 57-7 and the Torres Toros of East L.A. shut out the Marshall Barristers of Los Feliz 32-0.
There are three more weeks remaining in the regular season. The games on Friday, Oct. 15 include Franklin’s homecoming against Torres; Eagle Rock versus Wilson, at Wilson; and undefeated Lincoln versus the defending Northern League champion Marshall at Marshall’s homecoming.
In non-Northern League action, the Cathedral Phantoms suffered their sixth straight defeat of the season with a 47-0 loss to the Bishop Amat Lancers in La Puente.
In eight-man football, the Sotomayor Wolves of Glassell Park are looking to extend their three-game winning streak as they travel on Oct. 15 to play the Animo Robinson Monarchs of downtown L.A. In their first meeting on Sept. 24, the Wolves defeated the Monarchs, 50-8.
In the Northern League, Eagle Rock reached a milestone on Oct. 8, with 100 consecutive league wins. The 100th win was against Sotomayor, 3-0, on the Eagles’ senior night.
The Eagles’ winning streak was broken on Oct. 11, with a home-game loss to the Marshall Barristers, 3-1. The next day, the Eagles and Barristers met again, this time at Marshall, where the Eagles came from behind to win, 3-2. The Eagles were down 2 sets to 1, came back with a 25-14 win in set four and a 15-6 win in the fifth and final set.
There is one more league match for the Northern League teams except for Eagle Rock with two more matches.
The regular season will end the week of Oct. 18. The standings as of October 13 are: Marshall 7-1, Eagle Rock 6-1, Franklin 5-2, Sotomayor 2-6, Lincoln 1-6, and Wilson 0-5.
In the Horizon League, the Comets of Sacred Heart went undefeated for a 10-0 league record and 17-3 overall. Playoffs start Oct. 19 for the Comets, who will compete in Division 6 of the CIF Southern Section. Schedules have not been released yet.
Marshall defeated Eagle Rock, 12-6, on Oct. 11, ending the Eagles’ streak of 48 consecutive league-wins. The two teams will face off in the last match of the regular season on Oct. 15. Marshall is 6-0 and the Eagles are 5-1.
