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Reigning CIF Division 3 Player of the Year Mathias Brown (center) is congratulated after scoring the first of two goals for Sunny Hills in a win over La Habra. (File photo courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone).
Orange County high school sports fans are going to have a lot to choose from Saturday, Feb. 25.
There are 11 CIF finals involving Orange County high school teams, all scheduled for Saturday at a couple different venues.
THURSDAY FINALS
Two soccer finals were played on Thursday.
—- Orange Lutheran High School’s boys team defeated Littlerock 3-0 in the Division 4 final in snowy conditions on the road. Athletic officials noted it’s the first CIF title since 1999 and the second in program history. Jordi Pineda had two goals, the first two of the match and A.J. Campbell scored the third in the 34th minute for the Lancers.
—-Also on Thursday, Los Alamitos boys team lost to Quartz Hill 3-2 in the Division 3 finals. Demitrious Tanks and Jack Nishimoto scored the goals for the Griffins, according to a report on Twitter from Los Alamitos Soccer.
— There’s one match on Friday with Magnolia facing La Quinta in the CIF Division 7 girls final at Bolsa Grande.
SATURDAY FINALS
On Saturday, there are three finals involving OC soccer teams, including the Division 1 showdown between No. 1 JSerra and No. 2 Sunny Hills at 4 p.m. at Veterans Stadium. Sunny Hills won the Division 3 title last season.
Also on Saturday in the boys finals, San Clemente and Orange Lutheran will be going for titles.
And on the girls side, Crean Lutheran, Marina, Los Alamitos and Santa Margarita will try and capture championships.
Crean Lutheran, coached by Stephen Jennings, will be out to win its first CIF title and gets to play in front of its home fans against Hemet.
There’s plenty of great basketball too on Saturday. On the girls side, Orange Lutheran is out to win its first Division 1 title when it faces Marlborough at the Honda Center. St. Margaret’s and Buena Park are also aiming for crowns.
On the boys side, Mater Dei will be out to capture its 24th CIF title. The Monarchs, coached by Gary McKnight, take on Etiwanda Saturday at 3 p.m. at Honda Center in the Division 1 final and they seem to be playing their best basketball of the season.
Sage Hill is out to win the 4A title and Tesoro, led by star guard Carson Brown, the program’s all-time leading scorer takes on Orange Lutheran in the 2AA game Saturday at 8 p.m. at Edison High School. There are other finals so the game may not start at 8 p.m. Brown has scored more than 1,300 points, eclipsing the mark by Chris Manresa. It’s the first time since 2009 that Tesoro, coached by Steve Garrett, has been in the CIF finals.
So, there you have it. OC Sports Zone reporters and photographers will be at many of the events Saturday so we hope you will check back throughout the weekend to see our coverage. Some of our coverage will extend into Sunday morning because of the large number of events we’re covering in one day and the late start of one of the games.
Our website is free to read.
So far, the rainy weather has not forced any postponements to the soccer matches. We will provide updates as necessary.
A reminder, there are parking charges for the Honda Center and Edison High School for basketball on Saturday. Tickets for all the events can be purchased by going to the GoFan.com app.
Click the links below for the schedules:
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
