For 15 years, St. Augustine High School’s boys basketball program has been among the elite in Southern California, winning 20-plus games in 12 of the last 14 full seasons.

After a four-win season in 2022-23, Mira Mesa has rolled to 21- and 28-win seasons.

And the way they played Tuesday, the seventh-ranked Marauders appear headed toward another impressive one.

Senior Diego Ortiz finished with 29 points, three rebounds and two blocks as Mira Mesa delivered a convincing 72-58 Western League win on the Saints’ home court.

The Marauders played the final three quarters without leading scorer Tim Dorn, who tweaked his ankle seconds into the second quarter. Dorn was able to leave the game and the gym under his own power.

“I love being the engine, the go-to guy,” Ortiiz said. “I’ve had bigger offensive games, but to score 29 against the Saints in their gym is memorable.”

After a back-and-forth opening quarter that saw four lead changes, Mira Mesa opened a 10-point lead in the second quarter and led by seven at the break.

The Marauders (18-6, 4-1) led by 15 points early in the fourth quarter before St. Augustine (13-12, 3-3) cut the deficit to eight with 4:02 to play.

But a 13-4 Mira Mesa run put an end to the game.

“This was a huge game for both teams,” Ortiz said. “The winner had a good shot at winning the league. You can’t let down against St. Augustine. You have to practice hard and prepare for them.

“And you have to lock in during the game, because every possession is important.”

Mira Mesa is headed for the Open Division playoffs and, with a run, could find itself at Oceanside’s Frontwave Arena for the finals. Count Ortiz among the Marauders who are excited by that possibility.

“I went and saw the G League Clippers play there last week, and it’s a beautiful arena,” he said. “It’s somewhere I’d love to play.”

Mira Mesa will finish league play with games against San Diego, Cathedral Catholic and first-place Mission Bay.

“It’s there for the taking,” said Mira Mesa coach Jon Pierce. “But it certainly won’t be easy.”

Jase Davis backed Ortiiz with 13 points and Che Lesperance added 11.

Pai Polamaul led St. Augustine with 14 points and six rebounds; teammate Justin Murigu grabbed eight rebounds and blocked two shots.

Mira Mesa forced 17 Saints turnovers.  St. Augustine coach Mike Haupt saw his team throw away an inbounds pass with three seconds to play and said to no one in particular: “Fitting. Just fitting.”

Construction is expected to start later this year and be completed in about seven months on an additional one-mile segment of the Coastal Rail Trail between Palomar Airport Road and the Poinsettia Coaster Station in Carlsbad.

“This city project will beautify and improve the middle stretch of Avenida Encinas, providing a uniform street width, complete street improvements, utility undergrounding and landscaping,” said Carlsbad Senior Planner Scott Donnell.

“Large gaps in the bike lanes and sidewalk systems will be completed, and mid-block pedestrian crossings with flashing beacons will be added,” Donnell said, in a recent presentation to the Carlsbad Planning Commission.

Avenida Encinas is a neighborhood street about four miles long. The segment of the street to be improved for the trail is between Palomar Airport Road and the Poinsettia Coaster Station.

The construction will include a retaining wall between the street and the eastern side of the railroad, Donnell said. The trail is about 1,000 feet from the coastline.

Longer-term plans call for the trail to continue south on Encinas Avenue until it links up with Carlsbad Boulevard, also known as Coast Highway 101, where it will connect with the trail in Encinitas.

The Coastal Rail Trail idea emerged in the 1990s as a plan for a 42-mile hiking and biking trail along the railroad tracks between the Oceanside Transit Center and the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego.

Since then each city along the route has completed portions of the trail. However, challenges such as the creeks and coastal lagoons have slowed progress and required a few segments to be routed away from the rails and onto nearby surface streets.

The scenic coastal route is one of the most popular in San Diego County for joggers, cyclists and sightseers.

More athletic cyclists, often traveling in packs, tend to avoid the rail trail with its pedestrians and people pushing strollers. Instead, the Lycra-clad crowd sticks to the faster-paced coastal highway.

Carlsbad has a stand-alone piece of the rail trail along the eastern side of the tracks between Tamarack and Oak avenues, with easy access to the downtown Village and Barrio neighborhoods.

Another unfinished piece of the trail in Carlsbad will eventually go between Tamarack Avenue and Cannon Road. The obstacle there has been the Agua Hedionda Lagoon that will require a separate bridge for which so far there’s no construction funding.

Oceanside completed a piece of the rail trail from Oceanside Boulevard to Wisconsin Avenue in 2014.

Construction will start this year on Oceanside’s final piece of the trail, a half-mile segment from Oceanside Boulevard south through Buccaneer Park to a connection at South Myers Street.

The project includes the installation of a prefabricated, steel-truss bridge for cyclists and pedestrians beside the railroad bridge across Loma Alta Creek in the park. The need for a separate bridge is the main reason Oceanside’s last segment remains incomplete. Construction, largely covered by grant money, is expected to cost about $14 million.

Solana Beach completed a 1.7-mile, meandering section of the trail lined with landscaping, sculptures and creative archways about 20 years ago.

Earlier this month, the Solana Beach City Council formally accepted a $300,000 state grant for the construction of a final piece in that city that will extend the trail from its end at Ocean Street north to the southern boundary of Encinitas. The total cost there is a little more than $1 million. Construction is expected in 2027.

“This project will create a smoother and safer transition into the protected bike lane in Encinitas,” state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, said in a Jan. 22 announcement of the grant.

Encinitas has a 1.3-mile segment of the trail from Chesterfield Drive to Santa Fe Drive that opened to the public in 2019. Additional pieces in Encinitas also are planned.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides money to nearly 42 million low-income Americans for groceries. In California, the funds are distributed through the CalFresh program.

“Before, it was like they would buy more stuff. Now, it’s less. They’re thinking, ’Oh I don’t want to buy this. It’s more expensive,’” said Cathy Perez, a cashier at the Food Bowl Market and Deli in South Park.

Perez has checked out customers at the small, family-owned store for 31 years. About a third of the customers who shop at the Food Bowl use CalFresh EBT cards to purchase food.

H.R. 1 is the federal law passed by Congress and signed by the president on July 4, 2025. It includes hundreds of provisions, like extending 2017 tax cuts and adding more work requirements for SNAP programs across the country. The law went into effect on Feb. 1.

“(My EBT benefit) was almost $300 a month, but they took it down to $24 after I went on disability,” said Danté Vargas, who shops at the Food Bowl and is in a wheelchair because of health problems that required partial foot amputations.

As Vargas deals with that setback, other non-disabled people without dependents getting federal food help must now work, volunteer or participate in a training program of some kind at least 80 hours a month. If they don’t meet the minimum, they face losing their benefits.

In San Diego County, the Health and Human Services Agency certifies low-income or no-income people for EBT cards. They have to re-qualify at least once a year.

A county spokesperson told NBC 7 on Monday that none of the new rules have gone into effect locally yet. The agency is still waiting for more direction from the federal government.

Most CalFresh recipients between 18 to 65 without disabilities and dependents could be impacted. The required work rules could now also apply to veterans, young people who’ve aged out of the foster system, and, in some cases, people who are homeless.

The county spokesperson said no changes will happen before those impacted are notified by the agency first. Online updates can be found here.