Four headed for playoffs

The Huntington Beach Oilers are heading back to the CIF football playoffs.

The Oilers will be rejoining the postseason party for the first time since 2005 and join three other local teams — Fountain Valley, Los Amigos and Brethren Christian — in pursuing title dreams with first-round matchups this week.

Huntington begins postseason play at 7:30 tonight by traveling to Placentia to battle El Dorado at Valencia High on opening night of the Southwest Division playoffs.

The Oilers wrapped up third place in the Sea View League last Friday by blasting Woodbridge, 45-3, to earn their first playoff berth from the league they joined at the outset of the 2006-07 school year.

Coach Eric Lo said that the berth marks the first time since the school’s 1993 CIF runner-up team that an Oiler squad has secured an automatic playoff berth by finishing among the top three in league play.

The Oilers last reached the playoffs in 2005 as an at-large entry from the Sunset League.

“We’re really excited just for the opportunity to be going to the playoffs,” Lo said. “We haven’t been there in a while so it feels great to make it back.

“I think our kids are playing really good football right now. We’re the healthiest we’ve been all year, and that goes back to spring and summer ball.”

Huntington won its final three Sea View League games to capture a playoff berth. The Oilers secured the No. 3-seed from the league with their 42-point win last week over Woodbridge. In the win, they spotted the Warriors a 3-0 lead before ripping off the final 45 points of the game. An 18-point halftime lead (21-3) fronted a 24-0 shutout in the second half.

Senior quarterback Sean Guite threw for 173 yards and had TD passes go to Derrick Romo, Kaller Roemer and Jonathan Ogilvie. Logan Emery and Sean Slajer both rushed for touchdowns, Nick Phipps returned an interception 60 yards for a score and Eric Chan kicked a 40-yard field goal.

Guite has thrown for 2,003 yards this year, with 20 touchdowns.

“He just gets better and better,” Lo said of his junior signal-caller. “What people don’t realize is that this is only the second year that Sean has been playing football. He’s really getting into a groove.”

El Dorado was in a three-way tie with Tustin and Canyon for the Century League title. The Golden Hawks, who began the season losing five of their first six games, are now on a four-game win streak and got a piece of the Century League pie by beating Tustin on Nov. 13, 28-23. They then won a coin flip to enter the playoffs as the league’s No. 1 representative.

Senior quarterback Kane Wilson, who threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for a third in the win over Tustin, has 1,209 yards and 15 touchdowns through the air in 10 games. Wilson has also rushed for an additional four TDs and he and running back Sinjian Hathoot have combined to rush for 1,041 yards.

“He’s a big, tall kid who is really good,” Lo said of Wilson. “He’s a threat both ways and has a lot of big-game experience.”

El Dorado is the two-time defending champion in the Southwest Division, which this year includes 2007 Southeast Division champion La Habra and Southern Division champ Cypress.

  Friday’s CIF games

Orange Lutheran (8-2) vs. Fountain Valley (7-3) at Orange Coast College, 7:30 p.m.: Fountain Valley’s return to the CIF playoffs finds the Barons paired up against an Orange Lutheran team that finished as tri-champion of the Trinity League.

But the Lancers head into the postseason as the Trinity League’s No. 3 seeded team after losing out on coin flips to determine the first-, second- and third-place representatives from their league. They shared the Trinity title with Servite and Mater Dei, getting a portion of that title only after beating Mater Dei, 24-21, on a last-second field goal in their league finale on Nov. 13.

Lancers quarterback Bobby Wheatley has thrown for 1,435 yards with eight touchdowns and has been sharp in hitting 68% of his passes. Orange Lutheran’s balanced run game is led by a trio of players in Kyle Dravis (570 yards), Exavier Edwards (375) and Damani Wilson (366). Dravis is averaging nearly 11 yards a touch and Wilson is averaging nine per carry.

Fountain Valley had its postseason fate lay in a drawing Friday that determined what three teams would represent the Sunset League after the race ended in a five-way tie for first place. The Barons got the league’s No. 2 seed and head into the playoffs coming off a 42-0 shutout of Marina. Esperanza is the league’s No. 1 team and Los Alamitos is No. 3, but Edison and Newport Harbor were left out of the playoff mix, despite sharing the league title.

In the Marina game, Kyle Middlebrooks rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns in just three quarters of action and Dylan Garcia returned the second-half kickoff 99 yards for a score and capped the Barons’ scoring with a 21-yard burst up the middle in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Dominic Ragland and Nyko Gonzalez teamed up on a 21-yard touchdown pass toward the end of the first half.

Segerstrom (6-4) vs. Los Amigos (5-5) at Garden Grove High, 7:30 p.m.: Despite losing a heartbreaking, double-overtime game Friday to Santiago (Garden Grove) that left three teams tied for the Garden Grove League title, Los Amigos — one of those three teams to share first place — emerged from a series of coin flips to get the league’s top seed in the Southern Division playoffs.

On Friday, the Lobos will be hosting a Segerstrom program that is making its first playoff appearance.

Los Amigos had a four-game win streak halted by Santiago, which escaped with a 30-24 double-overtime thriller that allowed the Cavaliers to share the Garden Grove League title with Los Amigos and Garden Grove. Ricky Vu rushed for 175 yards and two touchdowns and Jose Gonzalez also rushed for a score and added a field goal in the loss.

Vu powers the Los Amigos rushing attack and racked up 1,371 yards and nine touchdowns during the regular season.

Segerstrom finished third in the Golden West League and is fielding its first four-year class in the three-plus year history of the school. The Jaguars ended their league schedule and secured its first playoff spot by ripping Saddleback, 48-3, Friday.

Brethren Christian (4-6) vs. Twentynine Palms (7-3) at Twentynine Palms Jr. High, 7:30 p.m.: Brethren Christian earned a berth in the East Valley Division playoffs by winning its final two Academy League games to close out the regular season.

The Warriors wrapped up that berth by pounding Capistrano Valley Christian, 48-9, Friday. Drew Fabrigas rushed for 182 yards and four touchdowns on just 15 carries through two-plus quarters of work. In 10 games, Fabrigas has rushed for 1,073 yards and is averaging nearly seven yards per carry.

Matthew Bodizak, Joshua Roque and Ryan Randle also rushed for touchdowns in the one-sided victory over Capo Valley Christian.

De Anza League champion Twentynine Palms had a four-game win streak snapped in its regular-season finale Nov. 7 by Big Bear, which claimed a 21-12 victory.

The Wildcats are led by junior quarterback Aaron Anderson, who has thrown for 1,148 yards and eight touchdowns but has been intercepted 10 times. His favorite target has been senior Montreal Harris, who is averaging just less than 15 yards per catch.