Western Division recap

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No huge surprises in the Western Division on Friday. Well, at-large Leuzinger put up a lot more resistance against top-seeded Culver City than I expected, and Redondo kicked its way past Beverly Hills. Here’s how some of the teams out in my neck of the woods fared:

Game over -- The great youth revival came to an end on Friday for Quartz Hill.

Despite making the playoffs for the first time since 1995 with a team chock-full of sophomores and juniors, the Rebels fell, 24-14, to Mission League co-champions St. Paul.

The Swordsmen held Quartz Hill to only six yards of total offense in the first half, but it held onto a 7-3 lead after 24 minutes thanks to a 91-yard TD return by Isaiah Culver. However, it wasn’t enough to bring the 60th Street West boys their first playoff victory in more than a decade.

However, the Rebels have plenty of players to build on for next season and look for them to be a force in the Golden League next fall.

Falcons take flight -- Maybe it was the way it dominated Golden League play or maybe it had something to do with having a talented RB like Ronald Scott at its disposal, but something told me Palmdale wouldn’t suffer the same postseason fate as it did last year.

Well, thanks to a couple of TDs and 110 yards rushing by Scott, the Falcons made it to the quarterfinals with a 38-7 victory over Warren.

I knew Palmdale had this one in the book, but what about next week’s contest against Redondo? That’s the kind of game that’ll determine if the Falcons are legitimate title contenders. Hopefully, RB Marquell Jefferson will be back next week after sitting this one out because of disciplinary problems.

-- Austin Knoblauch