All Ball Sports: Rams looking at unlucky 7, MCHS hoops back
By Paul Teetor
Frias first again, named Gatorade Cross Country Player of the Year
Mira Costa Cross Country runner Dalia Frias added to her list of school firsts this week by being named her school’s first Gatorade California Girls Cross Country Player of the Year.
The award factors in academic achievement and community activities. Frias has a 4.09 GPA and volunteers at an assisted living facility. The Gatorade award includes a $1,000 grand that Frias may donate to the charity of her choice.
In December, the Duke University-bound senior led her team to the school’s first State Cross Country Championship and she won her schools first Division 2 Individual State Championship.
Frias also set four cross country records last year, all within a month of one another.
On April 17, 2021, at the Laguna Beach Distance Carnival, Frias broke her school’s 1600 meter record, with a time of 4:48.75.
One week later at the Meet of Champions at Arcadia High School, Frias broke her school’s 37-year-old 800 meter record, with a time of 2:10.44.
On May 8, Frias set her third school record, by running the 3,200 meters in 10:16.61 at the Arcadia Invitational.
Finally, on May 15, less than a month after setting her first school record, Frias set her fourth school record with a 4:47.71 mile at the Sound Running track meet in Irvine. Her mile time was the fifth fastest in the nation.
No one beats Sean McVay, and the Los Angeles Rams seven straight times.
At least that’s what Rams fans have to hope as their team comes home to face its last hurdle before reaching the Super Bowl: an inter-state, NorCal versus SoCal showdown with the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC Championship.
Everything seems to be working in the Rams favor as they head into Sunday afternoon’s game.
First, they’re playing at home in the sun-splashed confines of SoFi Stadium, instead of at the frozen tundra of Green Bay, where everyone except McVay had projected they would have to play if they made it as far as the conference championship game.
The truth is they got lucky when top-seeded Green Bay Packers and a badly under-performing quarterback Aaron Rodgers choked big-time in a 13-10 loss to the 49ers Saturday afternoon. Not only do the Rams get to avoid playing the Packers, but now they’re set up to play at home in the last two games of the season.
So, most unexpectedly, that upset loss moved the NFC championship game from Green Bay to SoFi because the Rams are higher seeded than the 49ers.
Whose House? Rams House!
Advantage: Rams – assuming Rans fans keep their tickets and don’t sell them to hordes of cash-loaded 49ers fans, as happened two weeks ago when the same two teams faced off in the last game of the regular season. Rams management quickly moved to ensure that this time it will be a Rams-friendly crowd by mandating that the remaining available tickets will be sold only to residents of the greater Los Angeles region.
And second, their quarterback, Matthew Stafford, is indisputably better than San Fran’s quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. In this kind of closely matched, high-pressure, high-reward playoff games, it almost always comes down to which quarterback plays better when it matters most.
Stafford has a well-earned rep as a clutch player, while Jimmy G has a well-earned rep as a choker who may not even be with his team next year since they drafted his heir apparent, Trey Lance, last spring.
Advantage: Rams – assuming both quarterbacks stay healthy and in the game.
Don’t forget that the 49ers backup quarterback, Trey Lance, started a couple of games this year and is a high first-round pick with a lot of upside talent. His counterpart, Rams backup John Wolfolk is an undrafted free agent the Rams picked up off the unemployed scrap heap after he flunked tryouts with several teams. McVay loves him for his grit and determination and running ability, but no one claims that he is a starting-caliber NFL quarterback. As long as both starters remain in the game, however, the Rams should have a major advantage at the most important position on the field.
And yet, and yet…..Rams fans can’t ignore the brutal mathematical – and psychological — reality: 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan seems to have some kind of mental stranglehold on McVay’s hyperactive brain. The two are good friends and former colleagues from their years together with the Washington football Team formerly known as the Redskins.
The fact is Shanahan, and the 49ers have beaten McVay, and the Rams six times in a row, including the 27-24 overtime heartbreaker – in SoFi – that put San Fran into the playoffs as a wild-card team and dropped the Rams from the second seed to the fourth seed in the NFC playoffs.
Even worse, the Rams twice had that game won – when they led 17-0 late in the first half, and when they led 24-17 with a minute to go — and twice found an improbable way to lose it.
Big advantage: 49ers. One loss is a random event, two is an emerging pattern, three is a trend…. and six? Six in a row is a total domination nightmare that will only end when you wake up, and something drastic has changed around you.
Thus, coming up with a plan to change the dynamics of that troubling trend is the number one challenge facing McVay and his staff.
While they go into the lab to cook up a game plan that should work – All Ball has always had great faith in McVay as the best young coach in the NFL – let’s look back at the crazy, topsy-turvy game that landed them in the conference championship game after it looked like they were going to blow their golden opportunity and let Tom Brady write another chapter in his Greatest of All Time book.
And speaking of books, with a nod of the football helmet to the great Charles Dickens, this was the best of games and the worst of games for the Rams.
It was the best of games because they walked away from Tampa Bay with a 30-27 victory that now leaves them one home game away from the Super Bowl.
But it was also the worst of games because it showcased the Rams frustrating and repeated inability to hold leads – in this case 27-3 – that they should never lose.
And no one should be more thrilled with this come-from-ahead victory than Cam (Lazy) Akers, the Rams running back who twice fumbled the ball and twice almost cost the Rams the game.
Start with this troubling fact: late in the first half, leading 17-3, Stafford had marched the Rams down to the Tampa Bay 3-yard line when he handed the ball off to Akers for what should have been a routine touchdown run and an overwhelming halftime lead of 24-3.
Instead, Akers was tackled at the goal line and flipped up into the air. As he tumbled to the ground the ball was ripped from his grasp, the Buccaneers recovered the ball, and the Rams hopes for a quick knockout were gone with the chilly Gulf Coast wind wafting through Raymond James stadium.
Stafford, who was near-perfect all game long or at least for the first three quarters, eventually led the Rams to a 27-3 lead when he scored from one yard out on a quarterback sneak – his second running touchdown in two weeks.
From Oxnard to Malibu and from Manhattan Beach to Long Beach, Rams fans relaxed and started to party even harder than they already were. Not even the Rams could find a way to blow a lead this big in such an important game, right?
Wrong.
First of all, Stafford suddenly lost his golden touch and presided over a couple of consecutive three-and-out possessions that gave Tampa Bay hope. Then Brady – master of the magnificent comeback over his 21 years in the NFL – started working his unique brand of magic.
First he threw a 42-yard frozen-rope strike to his old New England buddy, Rob Gronkowski, to set the Bucs up for a 31-yard field goal that made it 27-6. A minute later he found wide receiver Scotty Miller open on a 4th and 9 desperation pass that set the Bucs up for a 1-yard TD run by bruising running back Leonard Fournette.
So now it was 27-13 as the fourth quarter opened and Rams fans were still confident. A two-TD lead with a defense as good as the Rams D is was going to be near-impossible to overcome.
But overcome it Brady, and the defending Super Bowl champions did. The Rams recurring nightmare started with a most improbable fumble by their best player this year – wide receiver Cooper Kupp — when the Rams were again on the March.
Brady immediately capitalized with a stunning 55-yard TD pass to Mike Evans – the only quality wide receiver the Bucs had left after Antonio Brown was kicked off the team for an unauthorized public strip tease four weeks ago – that cut the Rams lead to 27-20.
Still, the Rams seemed to have control of the game when Cam (Lazy) Akers fumbled the ball away again and the Bucs recovered it again with just over two minutes to go. This time Brady realized the Rams were so tight, so tense that they were ready to give the game away if the Bucs were ready to take it back.
He drove the Bucs 30 yards down the field with a 3rd and nine completion to tight end Cameron Brate as the key play. Fournette finished the drive with a 9-yard run when the Ram defense was caught looking for a Brady quarterback sneak and suddenly the nightmare was complete: the game was tied at 27-27 with just 42 seconds left and apparently headed to overtime.
But this time Stafford and Kupp refused to capitulate. Stafford, who was brought to LA for just these kinds of moments, started it with a laser-beam pass to Kupp for 20 yards that moved them closer to a possible field goal but still not close enough.
On the very next play Kupp burst between two defensive backs, kept going straight down the field and hauled in a 44-yard pass from Stafford that set them up for a 30-yard field goal by Matt Gay as time expired.
Ball game!
The sigh of relief could be heard from every sports bar, man cave and party house in LA.
Next stop: SoFi Stadium.
Whose house? Rams House!
Seven straight wins over the Rams?
No way!
Mustang hoops, hopes back on track
The Mira Costa boys and girls basketball teams bounced back nicely from a pair of beatings delivered last week by arch-rival Redondo and remain in contention for a Bay League title as the regular season enters its final week.
The Mustang girls team beat Culver City 61-46 Friday night at home to boost their overall record to 15-4 and 2-1 in league.
“The girls handled the Redondo loss appropriately,” Coach John Lapham said. “They realized they needed to play harder and smarter. They worked really hard in practice and came out pumped up to beat Culver City.”
Still, the Mustangs did fall behind by six points in the first quarter against Culver City before freshman Kristin Kim came off the bench to hit a three-point shot that proved to be the turning point in the game.
“She’s only a freshman, but she’s a really good shooter, she had been shooting very well in practice, and I felt like she deserved some time on the court,” Lapham said. “I hoped she would make something good happen for us, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Indeed, that single trifecta set the Mustangs off on a 16-2 run that took them from six points down to an eight-point lead at halftime.
Once the freshman came off the bench to get things going, the senior starters took over. Front-court stars Hannah Gedion and Winslow Smith had 16 and 13 points, respectively, while controlling the backboards and dominating the rebounding action. Shooting guard Maile Nakaji finished with 12 points and Bella Blum chipped in with 10.
“We really took control of the game in the second half,” Lapham said.
The Mustang girls have away games this week, at Peninsula on Tuesday, and Palos Verdes Friday. Those results will determine what seed they get in the league tournament, which will start next Monday, January 31. The two top seeds will get a first-round bye, while the third seed will play the sixth seed and the fourth seed will play the fifth seed. All games will be played at the higher seed’s home court. The final will be held Friday.
The first-time-ever league tournament is being held because the league schedule has been reduced from 10 games to five due to Covid-19 issues. The tournament results will be used to determine the league champion and decide which Bay League teams get into the CIF playoffs and where they will be seeded for CIF.
The boys will play in a similar league tournament: the top two seeds get a bye, while the third seed plays the sixth seed and the fourth seed plays the fifth. The winners will play the two top seeds on Wednesday, and the two teams left standing will square off Friday. Those results will then be used to determine CIF playoff positioning.
The Mustang boys bounced back after being whipped by the Sea Hawks last week by winning their next two games.
“I told the kids after the game that a single loss to Redondo was not going to cost us the league title,” Coach Neal Perlmutter said. “This year the league champion will be determined by the tournament.”
The players responded positively to their coach’s wisdom after the devastating rivalry loss.
First they beat Culver City at home by a score of 74-54 Friday night, led by point guard Will Householter’s 27 points and 12 rebounds. “I think he’s the best player in the Bay league,” Perlmutter said.
Then they had a rare Sunday night game in which they beat Santa Monica 57-42.
“We held Culver City to 13 points in the first half, and that got us back to who we are: a defensive minded team,” Perlmutter said. “If we’re going to win the Bay League tournament it’s going to be because we’ve got to be the tougher team no matter who we play.”
Those two wins pushed their overall record to 14-5 and 2-1 in the Bay League. This week they will play away games at Peninsula Tuesday night and at Palos Verdes Friday night before the league tournament starts Monday, January 31.
The boys two-game win streak boosted their season record to 14-5 and 2-1 in league. They had been 12-1 and ranked as high as 21st in the LA Times weekly rankings of Southland teams, but then they suffered through a four-game losing streak, punctuated by the Redondo loss.
Perlmutter pointed out that the first three losses were at the big-time Torrey Pines tournament after the tournament they were scheduled to play in was canceled.
“I called Torrey Pines ,and said we needed games, and would play in any division they wanted, so they put us in the National Division,” he said. “We had three tough losses, all by fewer than 10 points. Down the road, playing good teams like that will help us win the Bay League. If we win our next two games we’ll be the top seed in the tournament.”
Meanwhile, Redondo did not carry over the momentum from its emotional win over Costa. The Sea Hawks dropped a double-overtime thriller Friday night to Palos Verdes by a score of 85-82. They were led by Bradley Bennett with 30 points and David Solimando with 18 points. They are now 12-7 overall and 1-2 in the Bay League.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER