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[Excerpts from a letter to my son]
Hart came out smelling like a rose in the playoff matchups. Hart, at 8-2, is the number one seed from the Foothill League
and number three or four seed overall.
In the Golden league, there was a three-way tie for first and on the coin flip, Antelope Valley came out third, Highland
second and Palmdale first. Dominguez somehow lost to Paramount for the championship of the San Gabriel Valley league.
The result of all of this is that Hart's first game (at COC) is against Downey which was 4-6 and the third place team
from the San Gabriel Valley league. The teams Hart fears the most -- AV, Palmdale and Dominguez -- are all in the other bracket.
Hart's bracket includes Hawthorne (6-4), the Bay League No. 3 team (the Bay league is easily the weakest Division II league)
against Ayala (8-2), which previously was a Division III team and is the Sierra league champ.
Santa Monica (7-3), the Bay league number 2, plays Highland (7-3), Golden league number 2. Rowland (5-3-2), an at large
team from the Sierra league plays Paramount (8-2), the San Gabriel Valley champs. If I were Number 1 seeded Peninsula's coaches,
I would be upset. They are likely to face, in order, Saugus, Antelope Valley and then Palmdale or Dominguez before getting
to the championship game. On the other hand they have been destroyed in the semifinals the last two years. I think it was
55-7 vs. Hart last year and about the same vs. AV the year before. They probably don't deserve much better.
Now for the game: Downey kicked off. Hart scored within a few plays on a very slippery, muddy COC field. 7-0.
Hart kicked off. Downey slowly but surely moved the ball down the field and scored. 7-7.
Downey kicked off. Hart punted. Downey went nowhere and punted. Hart scored. 14-7.
Hart kicked off. Downey went nowhere and punted. Hart scored. 21-7.
Hart kicked off. Downey went nowhere and punted. Hart scored. 28-7.
The last part of the second quarter and the third quarter were boring because Downey slowed Hart down a bit. Hart scored
twice in the fourth quarter to win 41-7.
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