2006 PAC 5 Playoffs (6-5)
Openers finally here for Serra, Mission
By BY ERIK BOAL, Special to the Daily News
Oct 24, 2006, 9:07am

After two months of grueling nonleague competition, the Mission and Serra leagues finally begin their three-game schedules Friday.

The coaches of the six area teams that compete in the leagues expect the next threeweeks to be the most unforgiving of the season.

"It's a three-game playoff. There's not a lot of room for error," said Crespi High of Encino coach Jeremiah Ross, whose team capped one of its toughest nonleague schedules in years Saturday with a 31-17 victory at St. Francis of La Canada Flintridge. "Our guys know what's at stake."

After winning back-to-back Southern Section Div. X titles, the Celts made the jump this season from the Del Rey League to the Serra League and the Pac-5 Division, the toughest in the section.

Because the Serra League is the only four-team grouping in the Pac-5, Bishop Amat of LaPuente, Crespi, Loyola of Los Angeles and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks are essentially battling for two automatic playoff berths. Crespi (4-3) plays Friday at Bishop Amat (4-3), and Loyola (4-3) and Notre Dame (7-0) square off at East L.A. College.

"The Pac-5 is so ridiculous, that if we don't finish first or second, we're not going to the playoffs," Ross said. "One of the other leagues will probably get an at-large."
Alemany of Mission Hills, Chaminade of West Hills, St.Francis and St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs face similar hurdles in the Northern Division, in which the Mission League is paired with the eight-team Golden League and the Bay, Ocean and San Gabriel Valley leagues, each with six teams.

Alemany (4-3) plays Friday at St. Francis (5-2), and Chaminade (4-3) is home against St.Paul (3-4).

"This is the toughest schedule we've had in some time," St.Francis coach Jim Bonds said. "Now we have a three-game series, and if we only play 24minutes in one of those games instead of 48, we could be sitting home come playoff time."



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