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Editor’s note: Elijah Zabludoff is a senior football player from St. John Bosco High and an aspiring journalist. Each week during the high school football season, he will be blogging about his personal experiences and also his thoughts about prep sports in general. Zabludoff is a returning starter at center for the Braves, who are undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the Southland by the Los Angeles Times.

It was vintage Robert Garrett on Monday morning. The Crenshaw coach said of his team, "We've just been getting lucky."

If USC Athletic Director Pat Haden is doing research on his interim coach, Ed Orgeron, all he needs to do is contact any high school football coach in Southern California. Their typical answer is, "I love him."

Fox Sports West will televise Friday night's Pac-5 Division semifinal game between Santa Ana Mater Dei and Long Beach Poly live at 7:30 p.m. from Veterans Stadium.

The parents of Corona Santiago linebacker Jordan Walker issued a statement Monday thanking medical staff for their son's treatment. Walker suffered a spinal cord injury on Friday night and is in critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center. His vitals are stable and he is responsive, the statement said.

On the opening day of the high school basketball season, the Redondo tournament was the place to be on Monday. Highly regarded Compton, ranked No. 6 by The Times, opened with a tougher than expected 74-66 victory over Narbonne.

CITY FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS

Ed Azzam of Westchester began his 35th season on Monday with victory No. 792 in the Westchester tournament, a 69-41 victory over Peninsula. That means he's just 11 wins away from tying former Crenshaw Coach Willie West with 803 victories, the most by a City Section basketball coach, according to CalHiSports.com.

Running into a college coach at Monday's opening day of the Redondo tournament was easy. Coaches from UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, UC Irvine and many other schools were making the rounds going back and forth between the main gym and Redondo's second gym watching games and greeting coaches.

Of the eight games played on Monday during the opening round of the Redondo tournament, the best one matched Long Beach Millikan against Calabasas.

In the history of Oak Park football, there's never been an offensive trio quite like this year's group of quarterback Chandler Whitbord, running back Brandon Coppel and receiver Matt Byer.

In the City Section Division III semifinals on Friday, Bernstein (10-1) gets to play the only team it lost to this season, Sun Valley Poly (8-4), in a rematch at Poly.

One of the stars for Venice High this season is a foreign-exchange student from New Zealand , James Cherrington. The 6-foot-1, 216-pound 17-year-old has six sacks playing defensive end.

USC interim Coach Ed Orgeron will be the guest speaker at Monday's Southern Section championship luncheon in Long Beach honoring the finalist teams for next weekend's section finals.

When it comes to top transfer students for the 2013-14 school year, put down Kendall Small as one of the best. A year ago, he was the standout point guard at Ocean View as a sophomore. Now he's the standout point guard at Lakewood Mayfair as a junior.

Quarterback Cristian Solano of San Fernando has been offered a scholarship by Nevada, Coach Robert Garcia said Tuesday. It's the first scholarship offer for Solano, who's having one of the best senior seasons in the state.

If you want an early candidate for City Section player of the year, mark down the name of 6-foot-5 senior Elijah Stewart of Westchester.

Daniel Hamilton had 27 points and 18 rebounds and Tyler Dorsey added 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead St. John Bosco past Long Beach Millikan, 83-69, in a quarterfinal game of the Redondo tournament. St. John Bosco will play Mayfair in Friday's semifinals.

Upland is planning a ceremony honoring injured Corona Santiago linebacker Jordan Walker prior to its playoff game on Friday night against Corona Centennial at Upland.

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