Back in December View Park Prep edged St. John Bosco 14-12. 

It was a crucial result for View Park, which had started its season with a loss to Dana Hills and needed to get back into playoff contention.

As it turned out, it was an important result for both teams, as Bosco learned that they didn’t have it all figured out, and View Park learned they might have a chance. Now, with both teams improving over the season, they will meet in the Southern California Varsity White title game on Feb 14.

This past weekend, St. John Bosco took on the Mira Costa Mustangs in a repeat of a fixture from January that had ended in a 26-26 tie. This game, played as a curtain-raiser for the Utah v UCLA game, was almost all Bosco.

St. John exploited a turnover for an early try and did the same soon after to lead 10-0. Mira Costa answered, and by halftime it was a 15-12 ballgame. But from there Bosco dominated, winning 44-17.

“We usually start slow in the season,” said St. John Bosco advisor Jon Lucero. “About 95% of our team plays football and the football team usually goes deep into the playoffs. When we played View Park we had only had two practices.”

But over the weeks, the Braves started to nail down their defensive structure and improve their ball retention. Their penalty count, usually high early in the season, started to drop. The result was a 26-25 defeat of league-leaders Dana Hills on January 16, and then a big win over Palos Verdes to cap off the regular season 4-1-1. In the opening round of the playoffs they took care of Inland winners Citrus Valley, and it wasn’t close. With a big, athletic team, led by the efforts of Manasseh Anesi, the scoring touch of Mason Hall, and speedy James Scerlock, they put it all together on Saturday.

It was a tough loss for Mira Costa, which had been thinking championship, and had enjoyed big seasons from Isaiah Leilua, Juwan Johnson, and Justus Tavai, but in the end Bosco’s improvement couldn’t be stopped.

And View Park Prep was improving, too. 

They showed that when they beat Dana Hills in the playoffs 39-27, just under two months after having lost to that same team. This weekend, they marched on, beating Mission Vista 63-22 to make the final.

View Park scored three quick tries to lead 21-0, and then got into horrible penalty trouble that helped Mission Vista score score three times to make it 21-17 at halftime.

In the second half, View Park figured out why they were getting whistled so much. View Park opened it up and scored eight tries in the second half. 

Myles Conley, Justin Murray, and Malik Gillum all scored two tries as View Park showed their best on a key weekend.

“We had six games to get ready for Dana Hills [in the opening weekend], and we played three games over winter break with some key players missing,” said View Park Coach David Hughes. “Once we got everyone together, there was no guarantee that they’d play well, but they really came together.”

New assistant coach James Lowrey has got the forwards working well, and, said Hughes “It’s become the team before the individual which is really great.”

Interestingly, in their previous 14-12 loss to View Park, St. John Bosco got their two tries from players who previously were on the ICEF rugby team associated with View Park coaches Hughes and Stu Krohn. Still, the teams play two very different styles. View Park’s style won out, barely, in December. But both teams are different now.