High School

Narbonne can finally play football after receiving No. 1 seed in LA City Section playoffs

The Gauchos are the No. 1 seed in the Open Division after winning by forfeit in its last four games due to the Marine League boycott.

Tarek Fattal

Narbonne football has not played a game since Sept. 27 due to the Marine League boycott.
Narbonne football has not played a game since Sept. 27 due to the Marine League boycott. / Narbonne/X

The story of the year in the Los Angeles City Section has been the Marine League football boycott against Harbor City Narbonne.

Carson, Banning, San Pedro and Gardena agreed to not play Narbonne in league play due to allegations surrounding Narbonne players receiving "monetary incentive" and "housing".

The result of the boycott has left Narbonne (8-2) sidelined since September 27 when the Gauchos defeated King/Drew 35-0. But Saturday afternoon when the City Section announced the playoff pairings for the 2024 postseason, it stamped a date Narbonne will finally play: November 15.

"We've waited a long, long time," Narbonne coach Malcolm Manuel said.

It will be 49 days since Narbonne played a football game.

For the rest of the way no team can boycott a playoff contest, or a one-year postseason ban will be imposed by the City Section office, according to its bylaws.

Narbonne will be the No. 1 seed in the Open Division and will take on No. 8 Dorsey (7-3) on Friday, November 15 after a week off due to the field being just eight teams.

No playoff game should be overlooked, however, now that the Open Division field is set, another date is inked if Narbonne wins its quarterfinal game; and that's a likely matchup with a Marine League foe in the semifinal or final on November 22 and November 29 or 30, respectively.

The rest of the Open Division field looks like this:

No. 7 Garfield at No. 2 Carson; No. 5 Gardena at No. 4 Birmingham; No. 6 Banning at No. 3 San Pedro.

More to come on this, including information on Divisions I, III and III.

Brackets:

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Tarek Fattal, SBLive Sports
TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.

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