By Jon Haber
Special to the Daily Press

DOWNTOWN The Crossroads girls’ basketball team blew out its third-straight playoff opponent last Friday to advance to the Division V A CIF-SS Championship at the Long Beach Pyramid.

The No. 1-seeded Delphic League champion Roadrunners (19-7) will take on No. the 3-seeded Sierra Canyon Trailblazers of Chatsworth (22-4) in a Delphic League showdown. Crossroads has already defeated its league rival twice this season — 55-50 in Chatsworth and 61-53 in Santa Monica.

Head coach Kevin Cormier knows the key to this game, as it was in the previous two victories, will be defense.

“We’ve done it all year. We have to defend [Sierra Canyon] really well and take them out of what they like to do,” he said. “They like to run, so we’re going to have to limit them to one shot and be real patient on offense.”

One big advantage the Roadrunners have over the Trailblazers is their size down in the post.

“We could dominate the inside, and we have to do that to win the game,” Cormier said.

The Roadrunners have been clicking on all cylinders since the playoffs began. They defeated their first two opponents — Noli Indian of San Jacinto and Sacred Heart of Jesus of Los Angeles — by a combined 103-points.

Crossroads used a stellar second half to bury Los Angeles Baptist of North Hills 47-26 in the team’s semifinals matchup last Saturday.

“We were up 19-11 at the half, but they were making us play their game,” Cormier said. “In the second half, we got our running game going and we got to them a little bit.”

The Roadrunner’s eighth-straight victory gives the team plenty of momentum heading into the biggest game of the season.

The championship game is set to be played either Friday or Saturday. CIF officials will announce the date and time of the matchup Wednesday.

TOUGH LOSS FOR SAMOHI GIRLS’ B-BALL

The Santa Monica High School girls’ basketball team (24-5) couldn’t find a way to stop Los Osos’ junior center Cierra Warren in its quarterfinals CIF-SS Division IV AA playoff matchup Saturday, leading to a second-straight third-round road-playoff exit for the Vikings.

Samohi lost 52-49 to Los Osos of Rancho Cucamonga (24-5), snapping the Vikings’ season-high 11-game winning streak and ending their hopes for a CIF championship.

“We weren’t ready for it to end yet,” said Samohi head coach Marty Verdugo. “But we had some great memories. As one player said, ‘We felt like we got on the basketball map this year.’”

Samohi was the Ocean League champion, compiling a 9-1 record in league play, setting up the makings for a strong playoff run. The Vikings won easily against their first two playoff opponents — Redlands East Valley and Blair of Pasadena. — but were overmatched by the 6’4 Warren in Saturday’s contest.

“She was everything we heard she would be, and better,” Verdugo said. “We double and tripple-teamed her… She used her strength to dominate on the offensive end.”

Warren scored 27 of the Grizzlies 52-points, and she didn’t relax on the other end of the court either.

“She had a double-double in blocks and rebounds, which made it really difficult for us to drive,” Verdugo said.

Playing without standout senior center Katy Keating due to injury, the Vikings were forced to play small, which weakened their inside game and made it difficult to spread out their offense.

Samohi senior shooting guard Daisy Feder had 16-points and continued her impressive post-season play alongside senior point guard Karlia Batilla, who scored 11-points and made several key baskets down the stretch to keep the game close.

SAMOHI BOYS’ SOCCER PREVIEW

The Ocean League champion Samohi boys’ soccer team (24-0-1) looks to continue its march toward a championship banner in Santa Monica today against Channel Islands of Oxnard (18-2-1) in a CIF-SS Division IV semifinals matchup.

The Vikings are coming off a 7-0 stomping against Bloomington last Thursday in the quarterfinals.

“We’re definitely going to carry that momentum [into the game today],” Samohi head soccer coach Frank Gatell said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like that before, especially in a quarterfinals match.”

The Vikings played nearly flawless soccer during the last 20-minutes of the first half. The team built a 5-0 by half time.

The Raiders, however, are looking to prove their 2-1 victory over Del Rey League champion Cathedral in the quarterfinals was no fluke. Junior midfielder Jesus Landeros is an offensive weapon Samohi will need to contain.

“They depend heavily on Landeros,” Gatell said. “He is very dangerous. We’re not going to play scared of him, but we’ll be cognitive of his abilities because they play most of their game through him.”

The game is set to start at 3 p.m.

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