Cerritos

The Orange Coast College football team plays its second-to-last regular season game tonight when it plays host to Cerritos at 7 p.m. The Pirates (4-4, 1-2 in the Mission Conference American Division) will attempt to spoil Cerritos' visions of a division championship. The Eagles (5-3, 2-1) control their own destiny after overcoming a 21-3 halftime deficit to defeat Mount SAC last week, 28-21. Orange Coast, which is coming off a 21-3 loss to Palomar, is one game behind Cerritos, Palomar and Mount SAC. If Cerritos wins its final two games, it will be the American Division champion.

Pirates plan to honor 20-year assistant Briggs after 1 p.m. football game. Orange Coast College will honor assistant coach Paul Briggs for his 20 seasons with the football program after today's 1 p.m. game against visiting Cerritos. And the Pirates would like nothing better than to present him with a Mission Conference National Division victory. Orange Coast (5-3, 2-1 in the division), ranked No. 8 in Southern California, is coming off back-to-back division road wins at Saddleback and Santa Ana. With victories in their final two regular-season games, the Pirates are hoping to receive a bid to a postseason bowl for the first time since 2000.

CERRITOS - The Orange Coast College women's basketball team struggled on defense and lost to host Cerritos, 74-49, Wednesday night. Nadia Mojica led the Pirates (9-6) with 11 points, while Kristen Urban (Newport Harbor High) chipped in with 10. Cerritos (13-2) had a balanced attack as five players reached double-digit scoring. The Pirates will continue nonconference action when they host Rio Hondo on Dec. 29 at 7:30 p.m. NONCONFERENCE Cerritos 74, Orange Coast 49 Orange Coast - Fierst 5, Masuda 2, Mojica 11, Urban 10, Melville 4, Redmond 4, Takemoto 5, Nakano 8. 3 pt. goals - Urban 2, Takemoto 1, Nakano 1. Fouled out - None.

CERRITOS - The Newport Harbor High boys soccer team lost to host Cerritos, 1-0, Friday in nonleague action. The Dons scored in the seventh minute and the goal held up, despite numerous scoring opportunities by the Sailors (0-2-1), according to coach Matt West. "We put the pressure on them, but we just are having a hard time finding the back of the net," West said. West was pleased with the all-around play of Juan Gonzalez, Tyler Simmons and Kevin Campos, while goalie Ricky Rendon had five saves.

Freshman forward Alisa Carrillo led all scorers with 19 points and added five rebounds to lead fourth-seeded Orange Coast College to a 55-47 victory over 13th-seeded Cerritos in the second round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs at OCC Wednesday. The Pirates will host No. 5 Compton Saturday night at 7, with the winner gaining a spot at the State Tournament March 14-16 at the University of San Diego. "Defensively I thought we played well the whole game," said OCC Coach Mike Thornton.

COSTA MESA - The Estancia High baseball team closed out the Newport Elks Tournament with a 6-0 loss to Cerritos, at the Eagles' field Saturday. The Eagles (0-6-1) collected two hits, one each from Jeremy Hauser and Jermaine Snell. Cerritos (4-2) had eight hits and received three unearned runs. Estancia committed four errors. The Eagles resume Pacific Coast League action Tuesday at 3:15 p.m., hosting Corona del Mar. NEWPORT ELKS TOURNAMENT Costa Mesa Division Consolation game Cerritos 6, Estancia 0 Cerritos 002 010 3 - 6 8 0 Estancia 000 000 0 - 0 2 4 Garcia and Inclan; Flory and Lund.

Two lanes of the 73 northbound freeway interchange to the 405 freeway north were shut down temporarily Friday when a car lost control and slammed into the side rail, according to the California Highway Patrol. David Han, 19, of Cerritos, was driving his blue 2003 Honda Civic at about 11:15 a.m. on the 73 freeway interchange to the 405 freeway northbound when a car next to him on the left moved into his lane, CHP officer Jennifer Hink said. Han swerved out of his lane to avoid the collision, Hink said.

Three local boys and one girl will try to throw, run, hurdle and vault their way into the CIF State Track and Field Championships on Friday. Out of the Newport-Mesa foursome, only Newport Harbor High thrower Marty Taylor has reached state in the past. Taylor looks to return to Clovis for a second straight year, while Corona del Mar 400-meter sprinter Matt Hurst, CdM's 300-meter hurdler Troy Hardy and Newport Harbor's pole vaulter Peri Howser will get a chance to qualify for state at the CIF Southern Section Masters meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

CERRITOS — With everything at stake, Sage Hill School boys' tennis coach A.G. Longoria tinkered with his lineup Tuesday. The Lightning had won 14 straight matches, but Longoria knew Cerritos would be a tough opponent in the CIF Southern Section Division III semifinal match. He put No. 1 singles player Robbe Simon at No. 3 singles for the match. He also moved No. 2 singles player Andrew Kurzweil into doubles with Ryan Lee. Both moves worked for Sage Hill, which is now on the doorstep of history.

SANTA ANA — The good news is, the Orange Coast College baseball team needs a pitching plan for Sunday. The less-encouraging news: the Pirates may have to spin said plan out of whole cloth. Whoever takes the mound Sunday for what would need to be a pair of wins over host Santa Ana on the final day of the four-team, double-elimination Super Regional, will merely need to emulate the heroics displayed Saturday afternoon by freshman reliever Josh Evans. Evans, who had compiled 32 2/3 innings in 22 appearances — all in relief — entering Saturday, most coming in the late innings as the team's closer, pitched a lifetime-high 62/3 innings to key an 11-8 come-from-behind win over Cerritos in an elimination game.

COSTA MESA — Karlèh Wilson did her best to stay calm throughout Saturday morning at Jim Scott Stadium. As the Corona del Mar High junior prepared to compete in the shot put at the CIF Southern Section Division III track and field preliminaries, she listened to reggae to soothe her spirits. As the meet approached she stayed calm. She competed in the girls' 4x100 relay then went to warm up for the shot put. The reggae beats continued to flow, but when she went up for her first throw, there was nothing calm or peaceful about it. Wilson's personal record of 41 feet, 3 inches earned her the top qualifying spot to the CIF Southern Section finals Saturday at Cerritos College.

Aaron Wright, the 2010-11 Suburban League MVP from Cerritos High, has signed a national letter of intent with the UC Irvine men's basketball program, Anteater head coach Russell Turner announced. Wright, a 6-foot-2 guard, earned All-CIF Southern Section Division III-A honors after averaging 19.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.4 steals for the Dons under Coach Jonathan Watanabe. Cerritos was 17-13 overall and finished second in the Suburban League with an 8-4 mark. Wright recorded a triple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over South Torrance in the first round of the CIF playoffs.

NEWPORT BEACH — The Sage Hill girls' tennis team won its own tournament, the Lightning Invitational, for the first time in three years Saturday at The Tennis Club Newport Beach. The title run featured a close win over Tesoro, 74-72 in games after a 9-9 tie. The Lightning also beat Santa Ynez, 12-6, Saturday afternoon to cap the two-day tournament. They went 3-0 in the tourney, scoring a 15-3 victory against Cerritos on Friday. Tesoro came in second place with a 2-1 record.

Corona del Mar High Coach Bill Sumner's Memorial Day plan is to train three girls. Sumner said he isn't missing the CIF State track and field finals next week for the third straight season. Sumner's two long-distance runners and one thrower are his ticket to Clovis. CdM seniors Marisa Cummings, Melanie Powers and Jaycee Olsen are three of seven local athletes competing today at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College for the opportunity to compete against the state's best the following week.

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BASEBALL Pasadena Poly 6, Sage Hill 2 PASADENA — Senior Chris Griffin went two for two with a double and a walk Tuesday, but for the second straight year the Lightning lost in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division VI playoffs. Griffin batted .833 with three doubles and three runs batted in the playoffs for Sage (16-5), which finished with the program’s best winning percentage (.800) in school history. Junior Alex Jimenez pitched six innings and struck out eight.

COSTA MESA — Clearly, 24 works better as a prime-time television drama than it does as a shooting percentage. But 24.1% was all the Orange Coast College women’s basketball team could muster from the field Saturday night in the semifinals of its Coast Christmas Classic against visiting Cerritos. The result was a 52-45 Falcons victory that was hardly as routine as one might expect. For, despite OCC’s inability to produce a field goal during a stretch of 18 minutes, five seconds, that spanned well into the second half — the hosts missed their first 12 field-goal attempts after halftime and were two for 19 before a relative bucket frenzy (three)