Santa Margarita scores last 27 to beat Liberty: Top 10 Southern California games plus sights, sounds, more (9/2/2023)
Here's a quick look at the Top 10 games from Southern California from games Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. Check back throughout the night for updates on these and other newsworthy events. Check here for all the scores throughout the weekend.
SCORES 8/31-9/2
LA City Section: Thursday Friday Saturday
San Diego Section: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Southern Section: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
These are from feeds from reliable sources and reporters throughout the state.
10. Lincoln (San Diego) 49, St. Bonaventure 12
Lincoln making another big statement, with big road win. Four-star Oregon commit Akili Smith Jr., only a junior, is really emerging as one of top quarterbacks in the state. His 83-yard touchdown bomb — shown figuratively below — to Dreyden Garner put Lincoln up 28-6 in the third quarer.
9. Los Alamitos 57, Timpview (Provo, Utah) 35
Los Alamitos flexed its muscle from the get-go, taking a 26-7 lead after the first quarter. Two unanswered touchdowns in the third quarter made it 43-21 in favor of the Griffins, who put up 62 points in Week Zero to beat Western and held La Serna to six points last week.
8. Warren 39, La Serna 21
Madden Iamaleava had a big night, throwing early and often to Jordan Ross (nine catches, 236 yards, two touchdowns). A big rebound for Warren, which was shutout last week 27-0 to Serra-Gardena. Iamaleava completed 21 of 34 for 410 yards and touchdown passes of 65, 11, 29 and 61 yards. A junior, Iamaleava's brother Nico is a freshman quarterback at Tennessee. Kelton Strickland ran for two touchdowns for Warren and Ross, a Colorado State commit, caught TDs of 65 and 61 yards.
7. Santa Margarita 34, Liberty (Bakersfield) 14
What started tight, turned into a rout, as sophomore Trent Mosley (9 catches, 187 yards) took over the game. He hauled in touchdown passes of 80 and 10 yards from Hunter Melton and added two TD runs as the here was visiting Eagles scored the last 27 points of the game. Sean Embree also had a 46-yard touchdown catch from Melton (17 of 25, 316 yards) as Santa Margarita improved to 3-0. Liberty, the defending state 1-AA champions, took a 14-7 lead on a 77-yard touchdown pass from Cole O'Brien to Davari Degraffenreid.
Trento Mosley hauls in a touchdown pass from Hunter Melton. Photo: Joe Bergman.
6. Brophy College Prep (Ariz.) 31, Cathedral Catholic 21
The 11th Honor Bowl never disappoints. This is one of three Top 10 games from the event held at Cathedral Catholic. Brophy College Prep went 3-8 in 2022 but lost four games by a touchdown or less, then opened with a 35-34 loss to Williams Field. But Friday they won with room to spare. Check out more coverage from SBLive reporter Bodie DeSilva later.
5. Helix 30, Red Mountain (Mesa, Ariz.) 22
Helix moved to 3-0 on Saturday, beating Red Mountain (AZ) 30-22 in the fourth of five games at this weekend's Honor Bowl. The Highlanders jumped to a 21-0 lead in the first half before Red Mountain was able to score on each of their possessions surrounding halftime. Helix quarterback and four-year starter Ryland Jessee briefly left the game before returning in the second half. Jessee helped the Highlanders seal the game with a 17-yard touchdown completion to Gordon Meredith that gave Helix a 30-14 lead in the closing minutes. See story
4. Granite Hills (El Cajon) 24, St. Augustine 21
Freshman quarterback Zach Benitez led an impressive two minute drive leading to a touchdown pass to Maxwell Turner to put Granite Hills on top 24-21 with 29 seconds left. St. Augustine moved down field but a potential game-tying field goal failed.
3. Corona Centennial 50, Punahou (HI) 43
The grand finale of the 2023 Southern California Honor Bowl was the cherry on top. Cornell Hatcher Jr. rushed 34 times for 263 yards and one touchdown and quarterback Husan Longstreet accounted for 414 yards and six touchdowns as Centennial won an absolutely peach of a game late Saturday night. See all of Bodie DeSilva/SBLive/Sports Illustrated's coverage:
* Game story/video highlights
* 5 takeaways
* Photo gallery
* Husan Longstreet interview
The action was even, intense, everlasting. Photo:Steven Silva
2. Orange Lutheran 20, Eastside Catholic (WA) 0
Two touchdown passes from TJ Lateef and two field goals by Ryan Yonkers were all the Lancers needed to win thanks to a stellar defensive effort. Lateef threw TD passes of 15 yards to tight end AJ La and 35 yards to Chris Flores at the end of the first and third quarters respectively. Yonkers added field goals of 22 and 32 yards. The Lancers were coming off an emotional 35-14 win at De La Salle while Eastside Catholic, one of Washington's top teams, played its season opener.
AJ Lateef to 6-6 tight end AJ La for first-quarter score and the only one Orange Lutheran needed.
1. Long Beach Poly 32, Mission Viejo 28 at Veterans Stadium
Mission Viejo stormed back from a 17-6 deficit to take a 28-17 lead with 10:37 left in the fourth quarter on a Hinesward Lilomaiava 10-yard run. That capped a 22-0 run. Travis Anderson, who had nine interceptions last season, returned an interception 64 yards for a touchdown to give Mission Viejo its first lead, 21-17 with 1:43 left in the third quarter. Back came Poly behind Darius Curry, who led the Jackrabbits to two fourth-quarter touchdown drives, the last a a 13-yard scoring strike to Kamarie Smith with 28 seconds left to go up 32-28. It was the third touchdown connection from Curry to Smith. The Jackrabbits held from there to improve to 2-1. Mission Viejo dropped to 2-1. Due to numerous injuries the game went more than 3 hours, 45 minutes. Check back for much more SBLive coverage of this game from reporter Tarek Fattal and photographer Heston Quan. Game story. Photo gallery.
Poly receiver Ezekiel Orozco (17) goes up for pass with Jeron Jones in coverage. Photo: Heston Quan
Photo by Heston Quan
Other games:
- The nation's No. 1 team St. John Bosco (3-0) rolled to a 48-12 home win over Friendship Collegiate Academy (Washington D.C.) as Caleb Sanchez threw touchdown passes of 6 yards to Daniel Odom and 65 yards to Tommy Maher to go up 14-6 early in the second quarter. 5-star linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa added a 37-yard pick-6 and Cameron Jones, Jeremy Lenore and Khalil Warren all added short TD runs.
- The nation's No. 2 team Mater Dei improved to 3-0 with a surprisingly lopsided 62-0 win over previously unbeaten Creekside (Ga.) as Stanford-bound quarterback Elijah Brown threw for a career high 372 yards and seven touchdowns.
- Southern Section No. 6 Sierra Canyon got four touchdown passes from Wyatt Beck, two to Xavier Jordan, in a 56-0 win over Green Valley (Nev.).
- Dermaricus Davis continues to show he's one of the Southland's top QBs, completing 18 of 24 for 310 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-7 win over St. Pius.
- Moorpark (3-0) went on the road to score a wild 41-35 win over Garces Memorial in double overtime. Took fourth-down pass in second overtime for the walk off win. Below see game-winning touchdown pass from junior Elijah Hensley (27 of 50, 267 yards), who accounted for five TDs. Garces rushed for more than 300 yards and totaled nearly 500 in defeat.
