The 2024 high school football regular season has concluded, three East County league champions have been crowned and the San Diego Section has employed its newest playoff formula to date to determine the teams that will go on to battle for division championships.
The new playoff format does offer a more level playing field though it includes three winless teams (0-10) in the brackets.
The Grossmont Conference has nine teams moving on to post-season play in five of the seven division brackets:
Grossmont Hills League champion Granite Hills (8-2) received the No. 3 seed among Division I teams and will have a bye to the quarterfinals on Nov. 15 where the Eagles will tackle Friday’s opening round-winner between No. 6 Torrey Pines (4-6) and No. 11 Scripps Ranch (8-1). The win¬ner moves on to the division semifinals on Nov. 22.
Scripps Ranch is this year’s City Conference Eastern League champion and came within a missed two-point conversion of a 10-0 regular season.
Grossmont Hills League runner-up Mt. Miguel (8-2) received the No. 5 seed among Division I teams and will meet 12th-seeded Santa Fe Christian (9-1) in Friday’s opening round home playoff game. The winner meets No. 4 El Camino (5-5) in the quarterfinals.
San Marcos (9-1) is the top seed in the division while Carlsbad (7-3) grabbed the No. 2 seed.
Lincoln (8-2), La Costa Canyon (10-0), Cathedral Catholic (8-2) and Mission Hills (8-2) grabbed the four slots in the Open Divi¬sion.
Helix (4-6) received the No. 3 seed among Division II teams after finishing third in the Grossmont Hills League standings. The Highlanders have a bye to the quarterfinals and will play the winner of Friday’s first-round clash between No. 6 La Jolla (6-4) and No. 11 Madison (4-6).
The City League champion Christian Patriots (8-2) received the No. 8 seed in Division II and will host No. 9 Imperial (9-1) on Friday. The winner takes on No. 1 University City (9-1) in the quarterfinals.
Mater Dei Catholic (7-3) received the No. 2 seed in the division. The Crusaders enter the playoffs with a seven-game winning streak while Christian enters the playoffs riding a six-game winning streak.
UC finished runner-up to Scripps Ranch in this year’s Eastern League standings while Imperial finished runner-up in the Imperial Valley League standings to Brawley (No. 10 seed in Division I).
Steele Canyon (4-6), the bottom team in the Grossmont Hills League, received the No. 11 seed among Division III teams and have been ticketed with a road game in Friday’s opening round at No. 6 Escondido (6-4). The winner advances to meet the No. 3 San Diego Cavers (7-3) in the quarterfinals.
Central Union (7-3) is seeded No. 1 in Division III while Holtville (10-0) is seeded No. 2. St. Augustine, despite possessing a 0-10 record, received the No. 7 seed in the division.
Holtville joins La Costa Canyon as the only teams to finish regular season play 10-0.
Most of the action in East County will take place in Division IV and Division V with five teams. Division IV entrants include No. 2 El Capitan (7-3) and No. 3 Grossmont (4-6) among the top seeds in Division IV and No. 6 West Hills (5-5), No. 7 Santana (6-4) and No. 12 Monte Vista (5-5) in Division V.
El Capitan (Grossmont Valley League champion) and Grossmont (fourth place team in the Grossmont Hills League) both have byes to the quarterfinals while West Hills will host No. 11 Mar Vista (4-6) on Friday, San¬tana will host No. 10 Kearny (7-3) and Monte Vista will play at No. 5 Fallbrook (0-10).
Ramona (2-8) is seeded No. 1 among Division IV teams while Vista (3-7) occupies the top seeded position in Division V, followed by No. 2 Bonita Vista (5-5).
El Capitan will play the winner of Friday’s match-up between No. 7 Chula Vista (4-6) and No. 10 Classical Academy (6-4) while Grossmont will host the winner between No. 6 Mira Mesa (0-10) and No. 11 Sweetwater (5-5).
Mira Mesa and Fallbrook join St. Augustine in the playoffs with likewise 0-10 records.
The West Hills-Mar Vista winner advances to play No. 3 Crawford (5-5) in the quarterfinals while the Santana-Kearny winner advances to meet Bonita Vista, the runner-up team in the Metro-South Bay League standings.
Mar Vista is the newly crowned Metro-Pacific League champion.
All five Grossmont Hills League teams qualified for the playoffs while four of the six Grossmont Valley League teams did so.
Among East County programs, Valhalla (4-6), Mountain Empire (1-9) and El Cajon Valley (0-10) did not qualify for the playoffs.
Foothills Christian will represent East County as the No. 2 seed in the eight-person playoffs. The Knights (1-1 in Ocean League, 6-3 overall) have a bye to the semifinals on Nov. 15 where they will meet either No. 3 Calvin Christian (5-3) or No. 6 Ocean View Christian Academy (5-2).
Top-seeded St. Joseph’s Academy (8-1) will play either No. 4 seed Horizon Prep (5-2) or No. 5 seed Borrego Springs (5-3) in the other semifinal.
The championship game is Nov. 22 at Palomar College.
With this year’s playoff brackets formatted for parity, upsets should be more of the norm.
How do the teams rate?
Granite Hills, Mt. Miguel, Helix and El Capitan all made closing statements on the regular season with breakaway victories.
No. 7 Granite Hills set a new section record for most points scored in a single game with last Friday’s 90-46 thumping of visiting Grossmont. The host Eagles scored 13 touchdowns in the game — eight passing and five rushing.
Senior Max Turner leads Granite with 27 touchdowns (23 rushing, seven receiving) and 1,550 rushing yards. Sophomore QB Zac Benitez has passed for 1,765 yards with 22 touchdowns.
The Eagles are averaging 40.2 points per game.
The Hillers have shown they can throw the ball behind senior quarterback Thomas Donovan (3,596 passing yards, 47 touch-downs). Walker has 1,237 receiving yards and 22 touchdowns.
Grossmont is averaging 38.8 points per game but is allowing 52.2 ppg on the negative side.
No. 9 Mt. Miguel derailed host Scripps Ranch’s shot at a 10-0 season with a 37-36 non-league win. Junior A.J. Stowers passed for 287 yards with three touchdowns while junior Brandon Arrington caught six passes for 134yards and two scores, including a breakaway 86-yard TD.
Junior A.J. Hunter cashiered two touchdowns — one rushing and one receiving — to pace the Matadors.
Scripps sophomore QB Parker Armstrong attempted a two-point conversion to win the game but the pass sailed through the hands of a Falcons receiver to hand the Matadors the dramatic win with 1:58 left on the clock.
Helix rebounded from its 35-21 setback to visiting Granite Hills two weeks ago with last Friday’s 62-20 win at Steele Canyon.
Senior Pablo Jackson rushed for three touchdowns, including jaunts of 30 and 40 yards, and senior quarterback Jett Gottlieb passed for three touchdowns to lead the Highlanders to their second win in the last three games. The dynamic duo duplicated their personal trifectas in a 56-26 win at Grossmont on Oct. 18.
East County Football Log
Friday, Nov. 1
Grossmont Hills League
Granite Hills 90, Grossmont 46
Helix 62, Steele Canyon 20
Grossmont Valley League
El Capitan 64, El Cajon Valley 0
West Hills 38, Santana 21
Monte Vista 38, Valhalla 21
City Conference City League
Christian 49, Morse 0
Non-League
Mt. Miguel 37, Scripps Ranch 36
San Diego Section Football Playoffs
Grossmont Conference Football Standings
(Regular Season)
GROSSMONT HILLS LEAGUE
League/Overall
Granite Hills 4-0 8-2
Mt. Miguel 3-1 8-2
Helix 2-2 4-6
Grossmont 1-3 4-6
Steele Canyon 0-4 4-6
GROSSMONT VALLEY LEAGUE
League/Overall
El Capitan 5-0 7-3
Monte Vista 3-2 5-5
West Hills 3-2 5-5
Valhalla 2-3 4-6
Santana 2-3 6-4
El Cajon Valley 0-5 0-10
City Conference Football Standings
CITY LEAGUE
League/Overall
Christian 4-0 8-2
San Diego 3-1 7-3
Patrick Henry 2-2 6-4
Crawford 1-3 5-5
Morse 0-4 1-9
Playoff Schedule
OPEN DIVISION
Semifinals
Friday, Nov. 15
(4) Mission Hills (8-2) at (1) Lincoln (8-2), TBA (3) Cathedral Catholic (8-2) at (2) La Costa Canyon (10-0), TBA
Championship
Friday, Nov. 23 at Snapdragon Stadium, semifinal winners
DIVISION I
First Round
Friday, Nov. 8
(3) Granite Hills (8-2) bye (12) Santa Fe Christian (9-1) at (5) Mt. Miguel (8-2), 7 p.m.
DIVISION II
First Round
Friday, Nov. 8
(3) Helix (4-6) bye (9) Imperial (9-1) at (8) Christian (8- 2), 7 p.m.
DIVISION III
First Round
Friday, Nov. 8
(11) Steele Canyon (4-6) at (6) Escondido (6-4), 7 p.m.
DIVISION IV
First Round
Friday, Nov. 8
(2) El Capitan (7-3) bye (3) Grossmont (4-6) bye
DIVISION V
First Round
Friday, Nov. 8
(11) Mar Vista (4-6) at (6) West Hills (5-5), 7 p.m. (10) Kearny (7-3) at (7) Santana (6- 4), 7 p.m. (12) Monte Vista (5-5) at (5) Fallbrook (0-10), 7 p.m.
EIGHT-PERSON
Quarterfinals/Friday, Nov. 8
Foothills Christian (6-3) bye
