The Los Al girls soccer team will take on Upland High School in a quarter-final CIF Division I playoff match this afternoon that pits the last two teams to not only win the CIF Division I title, but are also the two teams which have won the mythical national championship the past two seasons.
      Game time is 3pm at Laurel High School.
      The Griffins (16-7-4) advanced to the match via a 2-0 win over Chaminade last Friday and a 2-1 win over Mission Viejo on Tuesday. Junior Greer Wilk and freshman forward Ari Carillo scored for Los Al in Tuesday’s win. Annie Wethe and Taylor Cole scored in the win over Chaminade – a subdued match in which the opponents came straight from the funeral of the father of one of their players.
      Upland enters the match as the CIF No. 1 seed, while Los Al is No. 8. The Griffins struggled at time early in the season through injuries and replacing last year Sunset League's offensive and defensive players of the year. But over the last month, the Griffins have found themselves and played as well as anybody.
      Upland (25-0-2), which has downed Woodbridge 5-0 and Notre Dame 4-0, has a 57-game unbeaten streak and is the current top-ranked team in the United States. (Los Al won the CIF title and No. 1 national ranking in 2005.) Almost exactly one year ago, the two teams met in the same round and the same place and in one of the most exciting local soccer matches I have ever seen, and before probably the largest Los Al home crowd ever, played four overtime periods before ending in a 2-2 tie, necessitating a penalty kick shootout in which Upland prevailed 3-2.
      Upland has some national level players on their squad – but one -- UCLA-bound Lauren Barnes – ranked as the #2 player in this year’s college recruiting class – will probably not play today as she was called to play in the US Women’s Under 20 national team matches in Mexico from February 18-23.
      Over the last two season Upland is 52-0-5, and two of those ties have been against Los Al – last year’s playoff match (PK shootouts are officially ties) and a 1-1 tie in December at the Mater Dei tournament.
      The home field was determined by a coinflip at the CIF office Wednesday morning. It may be an omen but Griffin coach Pat Rossi won both a rock-paper-scissors match to determine who gets to call the coin flip, but then he won his fifth straight CIF flip immediately afterwards.

      The Los Al basketball team downed Leuzinger in convincing fashion on Tuesday evening and will host Etiwanda in CIF Division I-A Playoff quarter-final action on Friday night.
      The Griffins (26-4, and the defending CIF Division I-AA champs) jumped out early and cruised to a 79-63 win over the Leuzinger Olympians on Tuesday. Senior guard Cameron Jones (shown right) led the way with 36 points, his career high. Junior forward Corbin Moore added 18 points and 16 rebounds.
      At one point the Griffins led by 25 points before a late Olympian rally cut into the Griffin lead. Los Al opened the Division playoff action with a 52-41 win over a pesky Huntington Beach squad on Friday night. Although Los Al never trailed and was always in control, the Oilers, who had given Los Al problems when they were in the Sunset League the last few years, stayed very close and made fans and coaches nervous until Los Al pulled away late in the fourth quarter.
      Etiwanda downed Chino Hills 45-40 on Tuesday, after downing Northwood 65-57 in the opening round.