By Dave Abbott of NELA Sports One
For the Eagle Rock Eagles, highlights of the 2021/2022 winter season include an individual city championship in wrestling and league championships in girls basketball and boys soccer. For the Franklin Panthers of Highland Park, highlights include playoff runs as far as the city semifinals in boys basketball and the quarterfinals in boys soccer.
Here’s the season in more detail:
Eagle Rock senior Ella Wagner won the CIF L.A. City Section Individual Wrestling Championship in the Girls-160 weight class by a 5-3 decision over Delise Villa of San Fernando Senior High. Wagner is the third individual and second girl to win a wrestling championship in the history of Eagle Rock High.
Georgia Slivar, who won the first girls individual championship for Eagle Rock in 2020, finished 3rd this year in the Girls-121 weight class with a win over Haely Lemus of Franklin, who finished 4th.
Wagner and Eagle teammate Briana Garcia advanced to the State championship, where Wagner won her first match against Alexis Valdez of Santa Teresa High School of San Jose with a 7-2 decision but lost in her second match to Kalila Shrive of Merril West High School of Tracy. Garcia, who wrestled in the Girls-116 weight class, earned a 2nd place finish after losing the first-place match to Judith Vasquez of Birmingham in Lake Balboa.
Additional finishes by Eagle Rock girls were: Haylee Howe, 5th place in the Girls-111; Cecile Ranciere, 5th place in the Girls-106; Rebekah Torres, 6th place in the Girls-101.
Additional finishes by Franklin girls were: Joselin Guillermo, 5th place in the Girls-143; and Jocelyne Rojas, 6th place in the Girls-126.
Finishes by the boys of Eagle Rock and Franklin were: Joaquin Cisneros of Eagle Rock, 3rd place, in the Boys-285; Cosmo Wiele of Eagle Rock and Gustavo Hernandez of Franklin, 4th and 5th place respectively in the Boys-138; Alex Manibog of Eagle Rock, 4th place in the Boys-145; Anthony Diaz of Eagle Rock, 4th place in the Boys-152; Aldo Perez of Eagle Rock, 5th place in the Boys-182; and Joaquin Cisneros of Eagle Rock, 3rd place, in the Boys-285.
In combined team competition at the city finals, the boy and girls of Eagle Rock High finished 6th, including a 4th place finish for the girls and a 6th place finish for the boys. The Franklin Panthers had a combined team finish of 17th, including a 15th place finish for the girls and a 17th place finish for the boys.
Eagle Rock, the only high school in Northeast L.A. with a water polo team, requested a move up this season to the highly competitive Valley League, where the team placed 2nd in league with an 8-2 record. That achievement earned the team the #3 seed in the playoffs, where it had a forfeit win against Banning of Wilmington and a quarterfinal victory over Granada Hills Charter, 17-1, before losing in the semifinals to #2 seed Palisades, 19-5. The Eagles qualified for the State playoffs where they lost, 17-9, to Santa Fe Christian of Solano Beach.
The Marshall Barristers in Los Feliz took the Northern League Championship with a 9-1 record, followed by Eagle Rock at 8-2; Lincoln of Lincoln Heights at 5-5; Sotomayor of Glassell Park and Franklin at 4-6. Wilson of El Sereno went winless at 0-10.
All teams made it into the playoffs in their respective divisions.
In Division 1, Marshall and Eagle Rock both lost in round 1, with Marshall falling to Grant, 81-53, and Eagle Rock losing to Gardena, 51-46.
In Division 2, Lincoln defeated South Gate in round 1, 69-35, and then lost in round 2 to Los Angeles CES, 68-46.
In Division 3, Franklin beat Vaughn of Pacoima, 57-51, and San Fernando, 67-61, before losing in the semifinals to Bravo of Boyle Heights, 59-45.
Wilson, also in Division 3, lost in round 2 to Central City Value, 58-46, after a first round bye.
In Division 4, Sotomayor beat Animo Venice in round 1, 61-29, before losing in round 2 to Panorama of Panorama City, 45-41.
Eagle Rock went 10-0 in league to win the Northern League Championship. Runner-up Wilson went 7-3; Franklin 6-4; Marshall 5-5; Lincoln 2-8 and Sotomayor 0-10.
In the top-tier Open Division playoffs, the Eagles lost in the first round to Palisades, 57-49, but still earned a spot in the State playoffs, where they lost to La Salle of Pasadena, 61-37.
In Division 1 playoffs, Marshall lost to El Camino Real, 50-32.
In Division 2 playoffs, Lincoln defeated Stern Math and Science of University Hills, 54-24, and then lost in the second round to Northridge Academy, 58-29. Wilson defeated Sylmar, 59-39, and Northridge Academy, 47-35, before losing in the semifinals to Chatsworth, 45-43.
Eagle Rock boys soccer team won the Northern League championship with a 8-0-1 record, along with an overall record of 12-1-3. The finish was a big improvement from the Eagles’ 2-6-2 league record in 2020 and the disappointment of last year, when the school administration cancelled sports due to the pandemic. In the playoffs, the Eagles received the #1 seed in Division 3 but were upset in overtime, 2-1, by the #16 seed Stern.
The Sotomayor Wolves were the runner up in league with a 6-2-2 record and 9-7-2 overall. The Wolves received the #1 seed in the Division 2 playoffs, but were defeated in the first round by the #17 seed Arleta Mustangs, 4-0.
The Franklin Panthers finished with a record of 4-5 in league and 6-9-0 overall. As the #19 seed in Division 3 playoffs, they defeated #14 Mendez of Boyle Heights in the first round, 1-1, with a 5-4 advantage in penalty kicks, and #3 PUC Triumph Charter of Sylmar in the second round, 3-1, before losing in the quarterfinals to #6 King/Drew of Willowbrook, 4-0.
Wilson 4-5-1 in league and 9-8-3 overall earned the #8 seed in Division 4 playoffs. They defeated #9 Patti & Peter Neuwirth Leadership Academy of South L.A., 1-0, in the first round and Animo Bunche of Southeast L.A., 4-1, in the second round, before losing 2-1 to #5 Venice.
Marshall and Eagle Rock finished league with 8-1 records, with Marshall winning the Northern League Championship due to the score differential when the two teams played each other during the regular season: Marshall won the first match, 4-0, and the Eagles won the second match, 3-2.
Eagle Rock received the #11 seed in Division 1 and lost to the #6 seed Birmingham.
Marshall received the #2 seed in Division 3, with a bye in the first round, a 2-0 win in the second round against #15 Santee of Southeast L.A. and a loss in the quarterfinals to #7 Animo Robinson of South Central L.A., 8-7.
Sotomayor and Wilson were also in the Division 3 playoffs. Sotomayor lost in the first round to Annenberg of South L.A., 4-2, and Wilson lost to Animo Robinson, 3-0.
Franklin competed in the Division 4 playoffs as the #8 seed and lost to #9 Vaughn, 2-1.
