Happy Hollidays to all & congratulations to our football team for the CIF Championship.

For more info, check out the website at

www.eteamz.com/lamiradafootball

NOW ITS TIME FOR SOME BASEBALL!

 Stay tuned more info soon.............................

There's something about the University of Arizona that attracts the best and the brightest of La Mirada athletes.

On the Tony Aiello Show Monday evening, co-football coach Ollie Lynch broke the news that quarterback Daniel Poncedeleon has verbally committed to Arizona on a baseball scholarship.  His upcoming season on the mound has the potential to be one of the all-time individual Matadore campaigns.

With the tremendous season he's having on the gridiron, there was speculation that Poncedeleon might look for a school where he could play both sports.  From this corner, the Wildcats football program should start seriously looking at film of Daniel, starting with his incredible 80-yard touchdown scamper down the left sideline on a broken pass play Friday against Norwalk in the momentum-turning first play of the second-half.

Poncedeleon will join present freshman Derrick Williams--the greatest basketball player in La Mirada history--at Arizona while the school's all-time female athlete (Jennie Finch) was a multiple softball pitching All-American there before Olympic fame and glory.

With Arizona getting the benefit of two golden arms from La Mirada, wouldn't it be something (although extremely unlikely) if Williams--a great youth pitcher--gave baseball a shot at the campus?

MATADORES CLAIM OUTRIGHT SUBURBAN LEAGUE TITLE!!

NORWALK—Order has been restored.

La Mirada recaptured the Suburban League championship Thursday after a one-year hiatus and won its 10th in the last 11 years by overwhelming host Norwalk, 14-4, to complete a satisfying, yet inconsistent regular season.

Despite fielding a lineup primarily made of underclassmen all year, the Matadores (18-11, 10-2) were able to do what a senior-laden squad failed to do in 2008: give 14-year coach Kim Brooks a coveted 11^th league crown.

“I am proud of this team," Brooks told the Whittier Daily News.  "We had 22 guys who kept working and didn't give up."

Brooks has expertly used his deep and talented roster—utilizing strengths while minimizing weaknesses, mixing and matching nearly every contest—and it was never more apparent than in the sixth inning Thursday.

With the Matadores barely hanging on, 3-1, and momentum shifting eerily, they loaded the bases with one out.  If La Mirada came away with nothing here, it was very possible it wouldn’t come away with an outright title, especially considering that Norwalk eventually scored three in the bottom half of the sixth.

So Brooks turned to his most deadly and explosive player on the bench, Ray Chacon, a junior who would not only be a starter on every other Suburban League team but a star player.

The antsy Chacon swung on the first pitch he liked—of course, the first pitch—and blasted it down the third base line for a pinch-hit two-run single and a 5-1 lead, scoring junior rightfielder J.T. Torres (sharp leadoff single to left) and senior thirdbaseman Mike Reza (reached on error while sacrificing).

Big hit by a big-time player who, like Brooks said, “didn’t give up” in a personal year of frustration.  By the way, Chacon earned his third Suburban League championship, joining fellow juniors Garrin Haile, Mitch Petersen, Torres, and John Molloy as the five members who have won the prize at all three levels while securing an overall league mark of 34-2.

With sophomore shortstop Andres Rodriguez (intentional walk) still on base, senior Chasen Holland delivered one of his three scoring hits on the day with a two-strike poke to left to make it 6-1, followed by junior firstbaseman Mike Piazza finally delivering after stranding four runners in scoring position with a ringing double to right center to plate senior pinch-runner Chris Perruzzi.

After the Lancers scored three in the sixth to once again cause concern, the Matadores turned a 7-4 advantage into a rout with a seven-spot to put an accent mark on a season that has had its ups and downs offensively.

However, in its last three games—ones that turned out to be must-wins to avoid sharing a league title—La Mirada exploded for 36 runs while giving up only seven.    With a proven, deep and top-flight pitching rotation, all the Matadores have to do is hit to go far in the loaded CIF-Southern Section Division II playoffs that will start with a home game likely Thursday at 3:15 p.m.  (Pairings will be announced at cifss.org Monday between noon-1 p.m.).

In the seven-run seventh, La Mirada sent up 12 batters, with seven straight in the lineup card coming around to touch home plate.  The highlights:

• Reza, one-out single to left;
• Super soph J.P. Montalvo, single to left;
• Rodriguez, second intentional walk to load bases;
• Perruzzi, reach on error by shortstop, two runs score;
• Junior Nick Mandry, unloading double over leftfielder that rolled to a wall 450-plus away, two runs score;
• Holland, next-pitch unloading triple to leftcenter gap, run scores;
• Junior pinch-hitter John Molloy, RBI single to right;
• Sophomore pinch-hitter Roger Hamel, a smoked RBI double to leftcenter.  

Despite the boys’ basketball team and softball team having monster seasons—two of the best in school history—it is the baseball team that can proudly proclaim the school’s only outright Suburban League championship in the so-called major sports.  The softball team was defeated by Norwalk a few hundred yards away Thursday to create a three-way tie with Mayfair.

A likewise loss for the boys to the Lancers and they, too, would have had to share honors with Mayfair (17-10, 9-3), a team that has now won seven games in a row heading into the playoffs as the Suburban League’s No. 2 representative.   No. 3 Bellflower had a solid second half to finish at 8-4 and 12-12 overall and No. 4 Glenn, despite two last-week losses, was 6-6 and 13-11.

Making the defeat even more painful for the Lancers (5-7, 11-12) was that it knocked them out of the playoffs, at least from an automatic berth standpoint.  Mayfair opened the door for Norwalk by sweeping Glenn but the Matadores’ bats and pitching prowess proved too much to overcome.

Junior Daniel Poncedeleon was once again a dominating force from the hill, going five innings while allowing five hits and striking out five.  Norwalk, to be fair, was a bit snakebit in the first matchup Wednesday when a lot of linedrives were caught and a lot of runners were left on base.

Norwalk started right back at it by putting two runners on base in the first but Holland’s strong arm gunned down a basestealer on a first-and-third situation, Rodriguez leaping nicely in the air and tagging the potential thief going by.  Poncedeleon, a three-sport phenom, struck out two in the first and then had a perfect second to keep the game scoreless.

La Mirada went up 3-0 in the third on some shoddy defense and a wild pitch by the Lancers.  Rodriguez (fielder’s choice), Perruzzi (walk) and Mandry (intentional walk—who could blame them?) all scored, one on an RBI single by Holland.

Poncedeleon then had the first of three straight troublesome innings as he escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam on a beautiful curve for a strikeout and a groundout to senior secondbaseman Raul Dorantes, who unfortunately may have broken his collarbone for the third time in the past year and a half on a hard one-bounce throw later in the contest.  Dorantes was taken in serious pain to the hospital and missed the exuberant post-game celebration.

In the fourth, the Lancers filled the bags again after two were out but Poncedeleon once more induced a groundout to stifle them, this time to Reza who stepped on third for a forceout.  Earlier in the frame, after a leadoff single, the Matadores turned a nifty 6-4-3 doubleplay.

Yet again, the Lancers loaded ‘em up in the fifth, this time with no outs.  No problem—they hit it to vacuum cleaner Rodriguez, who took the ball himself to the bag and threw to first for a double play.  Norwalk, though, scored its first run on the play to make it 3-1.

Petersen came on in the sixth and had perhaps his rockiest outing of a sterling season.  He allowed three runs, two earned, but still blew two guys away with his always improving fastball.

Senior lefty Adam Inzunza, still tuning up for the playoffs after coming back late in the year with arm troubles, closed it down with a one-hit seventh, striking out an inspiring, battling one-handed Lancer to end the regular slate.