For the first time in years, the Southern Section and City Section football playoffs will start with a hint of uncertainty as to which team finishes as champion in the highest divisions.

Since 2016, every Southern Section Division 1 championship game has been won by St. John Bosco or Mater Dei. This season, Mater Dei has losses to Corona Centennial and Santa Margarita. St. John Bosco’s invincibility was punctured with a 35-31 regular-season finale loss to Mater Dei.

“We have to pick ourselves up. We’re still a good football team,” St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro said.

Then there’s Sierra Canyon, which is 10-0, has the best defense anywhere with five shutouts and still gets ranked No. 4 by a computer that decides Southern Section playoff pairings. Do you think the Trailblazers have something to prove?

“We’re kind of the new kids on the block,” coach Jon Ellinghouse said. “We’ve gained some valuable experience. We have a team that belongs on the stage.”

Sierra Canyon is opening the playoffs in two weeks, hosting Santa Margarita as part of an eight-team Division 1 bracket released on Sunday. St. John Bosco is seeded No. 1, Corona Centennial No. 2, Mater Dei No. 3. The championship game is set for Friday, Nov. 28, at the Rose Bowl.

Sierra Canyon will be facing a gauntlet of Trinity League teams, something it has prepared for in the last two seasons by playing Trinity teams in nonleague and playoff games. That Santa Margarita matchup features perhaps the two best defenses in the Southland and six of the players in the game are USC commits.

Don’t forget the best quarterback in Southern California comes from No. 6-seeded Mission Viejo. Ohio State commit Luke Fahey passed for a school-record 569 yards this past week against Los Alamitos. And the Diablos have wins over Santa Margarita and San Diego Lincoln as part of a 9-1 record but injury problems on defense will make it a tough task to get by defending champion Mater Dei.

And Centennial coach Matt Logan, who has passed the 300-win plateau, has his team ready for the big games ahead with an offense that has scored 59 and 60 points, respectively, the past two weeks. His team plays Servite at home, a team it beat 42-14 in August. St. John Bosco hosts Orange Lutheran, a team it beat 48-0.

In the City Section, Birmingham will take a 54-game unbeaten streak against City opponents into the Open Division playoffs as the No. 2 seed, but Carson is the No. 1 seed after winning the Marine League and making weekly improvement behind junior quarterback Chris Fields III.

There’s lots of intriguing City Section story lines. Palisades is 10-0 after its campus was shut down because of the Palisades fire, with coach Dylen Smith having to scramble to form a team without a weight room or home field and players losing homes. The team has won a series of close games with a dynamic passing attack featuring quarterback Jack Thomas, who has 42 touchdown passes.

Crenshaw won the Coliseum League title even though its veteran coach, Robert Garrett, has been on administrative leave all season. He has 298 career victories. Interim coach Terrance Whitehead will send his team against San Pedro.

The 11-time City champion Colts will open against King/Drew, which lost to Crenshaw in the Coliseum League title decider but wanted to play in the Open Division. Be careful what you wish for.

Birmingham coach Jim Rose is so busy coaching his team and the school’s flag football team in next week’s Division II playoffs that he’s teaching everyone how to multi-task. Last week, after the flag team won a game, they wanted to stop the bus at Chick-fil-A.

“No, the boys have practice,” Rose said.

It’s been a strange season with more than 40 transfer players declared ineligible for two years for violating CIF rule 202, which bans providing false information to the Southern Section on transfer paperwork. This past week, Norco forfeited six victories when an investigation found a violation of CIF rule 510, which bans undue influence with prior contact before enrolling several players. San Juan Hills forfeited nine games but received an at-large berth to the Division 2 playoffs. Long Beach Poly, which had six players declared ineligible, decided not to enter the playoffs despite finishing second in the Moore League.

Then, on Saturday, JSerra announced it is parting ways with third-year coach Victor Santa Cruz following an 0-5 Trinity League record. JSerra’s season is over after not receiving an at-large berth.

It’s been a season of unusual happenings, so prepare for a postseason of the same.

Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. channeled a Canadian sports hero prior to Game 7 of the World Series on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Guerrero was spotted walking into the Rogers Center with the jersey of Canadian women’s hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin. The slugging first baseman appeared to be locked in as he walked into the stadium to prepare for the biggest game of his career.

Poulin has four Olympic gold medals to her name. She helped Team Canada to wins in 2010, 2014 and 2022. Canada won a silver medal in 2018. She also has four gold medals in the world championships. She currently plays in the Professional Women’s Hockey League for the Montreal Victoire.

She reacted on her Instagram Stories to Guerrero’s nod.

“Wow,” she wrote with a tearful emoji. “Let’s go Blue Jays!”

DODGERS VS. BLUE JAYS WORLD SERIES GAME 7: STARTERS, LINEUPS, HOW TO WATCH

Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) hits a double against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the sixth inning in Game 6 of baseball’s World Series in Toronto on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.  (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

It’s do or die for the Blue Jays and the Dodgers on Saturday night. The game begins at 8 p.m. ET and can be seen on FOX. Max Scherzer will start for Toronto and Shohei Ohtani will be on the bump for the Dodgers.

Guerrero is batting .412 in the postseason with eight home runs and 15 RBI. He leads postseason competitors in RBI and is tied with Ohtani in home runs.

Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) walks back to the dugout after being stranded on base during the sixth inning in Game 6 of baseball’s World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Toronto on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.  (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

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Toronto has not won a World Series since 1993. The Dodgers are the defending champions.

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TORONTO — Los Dodgers han forzado un séptimo partido en la Serie Mundial.

Y Shohei Ohtani será su lanzador titular.

A solo cuatro días de su salida de más de seis entradas y 93 lanzamientos en el cuarto partido de esta Serie Mundial, Ohtani será el abridor del equipo en el partido decisivo del sábado, según anunció el equipo el sábado.

Aunque es casi seguro que Ohtani no completará todo el partido, debería ser capaz de aguantar al menos dos o tres entradas (dependiendo de lo laboriosa que sea su salida). Cuatro o cinco entradas tampoco serían descabelladas, incluso en lo que será solo su segunda salida en la MLB tras tres días de descanso.

La única vez que Ohtani lo hizo fue en 2023, cuando siguió a una apertura de dos entradas acortada por la lluvia en el Fenway Park contra los Red Sox con una salida de siete entradas cuatro días después.

El sábado, por supuesto, las circunstancias serán completamente diferentes, ya que será el primer séptimo partido de una Serie Mundial desde 2019.

Al alinear a Ohtani como titular, los Dodgers se asegurarían de no perder su bate durante el resto del partido, gracias a las reglas bidireccionales de la MLB. Si entrara como relevo durante el partido, la única forma de que pudiera quedarse después sería si se cambiara al jardín (ya que las reglas de la MLB estipulan que un equipo perdería el puesto de bateador designado en tales circunstancias). Al alinearlo como titular, también se eliminan las complicaciones que supondría buscarle tiempo para calentar si su turno al bate llegara en la entrada anterior, algo que podría haberle dificultado cerrar el partido.

Ohtani ha completado seis entradas en cada una de sus tres apariciones como lanzador en esta postemporada, con una efectividad de 3,50 y 25 ponches en 18 entradas.

Los Dodgers deberían tener opciones detrás de Ohtani. Tyler Glasnow probablemente estará disponible después de necesitar solo tres lanzamientos para conseguir la salvada en el emocionante final del viernes. Blake Snell también dijo que estaría disponible después de su salida en el quinto partido el miércoles.

En el bullpen, Roki Sasaki también estará a disposición del mánager Dave Roberts, a pesar de haber lanzado 33 lanzamientos en más de una entrada el viernes.

Roberts dijo que todos, excepto el abridor del sexto partido, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, estarían disponibles.