In the next three days, several league championships will be decided with the winter high school playoffs set to start next week. We will post all the playoff brackets live on our Twitter account as they’re released Saturday and Sunday (follow @562sports).
Tuesday
There are a pair of league championships on the line tonight. First, Millikan’s girls’ soccer team needs to take care of business against Compton to make some pretty big history. The Rams would become back-to-back champs for just the second time in program history and the first time since the mid-1980s. It would also be the first time that Millikan repeated as champs without being co-champions in either season.
A stiffer test awaits the Long Beach Poly girls’ basketball team Tuesday evening as the Jackrabbits face an upset-minded Wilson team that just handed Millikan its second loss of the season. If Poly can prevail at home against the Bruins, the Jackrabbits would clinch their 14th consecutive league championship.
Wednesday
There are two huge league championship games taking place on Wednesday evening in Long Beach, both of which have outcomes very much in doubt. The St. Anthony boys’ basketball team will try to cap a magical regular season with a win over Bishop Montgomery. The Saints (26-2) are a top ten team in the state and top five in Southern California but need to beat the traditional Del Rey League power B Monty to bring home a league crown. That game will be at 7 p.m. at St. Anthony and is likely to sell out early.
Across town at the exact same time, a regular season finale with enormous implications will take place at Veterans Memorial Stadium as Millikan hosts Poly for the boys’ soccer Moore League title. The Rams need a win for the championship while a win or a draw would give it to Poly, which hasn’t won a boys’ soccer league title since 2005. Millikan has won 10 of the last 12, and this will be the final Moore League game for coach Rod Petkovic, who helped found boys’ soccer in the league in 1982 and who has been the Rams’ only head coach in that time.
Thursday
Provided that nothing unexpected happens during Tuesday evening’s boys’ basketball slate (we’re expecting Millikan to beat Lakewood and Poly to beat Wilson), Thursday will be a genuine Moore League boys’ basketball championship game at Millikan with the Rams hosting the Jackrabbits.
Poly has won the last 10 Moore League championships but after slipping up twice last week, against Lakewood and Compton, the Jackrabbits would need a win over the Rams to take a share of the title. If Millikan gets a win over either Poly or Wilson this week, it would clinch at least a share of the Rams’ first boys’ basketball league crown since 1991. The Rams have an elite scorer in Rob Diaz and a rowdy student section, and Poly has five-star recruit Peyton Watson, who dunked the rebound off of his OWN MISSED THREE-POINTER against Lakewood last week, so this is a can’t-miss game. Get to Millikan by 6 p.m., Thursday to catch it.