Montgomery rolls, SFC surprises - Feast Week notes

The top-ranked Montgomery Aztecs have shown why everyone considers them to be the best team in San Diego, with dominant wins over University City and top-10 opponent Rancho Buena Vista to advance to tonight’s semifinals of the Bucs Thanksgiving Classic against another top-10 opponent, San Marcos.

But beyond the Aztecs and No. 2 Carlsbad - which scored a huge win on the road against perennial OC power Mater Dei - the Thanksgiving week slate of games have gone anything but according to script.

It’s been a particularly tough week for Western League strongholds St. Augustine and Mission Bay, which have gone a combined 1-6 to start the season.

The No. 3 Saints, playing without starters Jaden Bailes (injury) and Paisios Polamolu (football), and without Mater Dei Catholic transfer Lincoln Grogan until January (sit out), dropped its opener to La Jolla Country Day and then suffered its first losses ever in the Madison Regional Rumble, losing to Olympian and Mission Hills.

Mission Bay, meanwhile, was upset in the quarterfinals of its own tournament for a second straight season, and, like last year, at the hands of a Coastal League opponent.

Last year, it was the Torreys who knocked off the favored Buccaneers. This season, No. 13 Santa Fe Christian scored a 56-49 win over the Bucs in a game that saw the Eagles never trail after the game’s opening minutes. 6-1 junior guard Dax Hall was masterful in the win, notching 17 points and 7 assists.

Santa Fe Christian now faces the most familiar of opponents in tonight’s semifinals: La Jolla Country Day, which topped Del Norte and withstood a scrappy effort from a Temecula Valley team playing without its top player, 2027 G Jeremiah Profit.

The Bucs Thanksgiving Classic semifinals tip at 6:55 pm with Montgomery vs San Marcos and 8:30 pm with La Jolla Country Day and Santa Fe Christian.

Other Feast Week notes:

Mira Mesa served notice that they are not just a top contender to Olympian in Division 2, they might just be a Top 10 team in its own right. The Marauders took down Ramona 80-30 to start the Regional Rumble, but followed it up with an even more stunning 80-40 win over Mission Hills. The fleet-footed Marauders play a tenacious pressure defense and have a dynamic scorer in 5-9 junior Diego Ortiz, and 6-7 junior transfer Tim Dorn had lived up to the billing as a two-way game changer.
La Jolla has played a region high 7 games already, and collected 7 wins. The undefeated Vikings got wins over a shorthanded Lincoln, San Ysidro and a gutsy comeback win over Rancho Bernardo this week. 6-0 junior transfer Leo Hawkinson and 6-3 junior Brody Sessa are averaging 35 points per game, comprising a very underrated duo countywide.
San Marcos scored an emphatic 80-59 win over a solid (albeit shorthanded) Rancho Christian team in its quarterfinal win at the Bucs Thanksgiving Classic, a day after throttling El Camino by a surprising 26-point margin of victory. The Knights have played shorthanded without 6-5 sophomore Jackson McCall, but it’s back court of Richie Ramirez, Jalen Williams and, one of the early surprises of the year, sophomore Nico Mott, have taken turns dominating games for stretches. Mott scored 27 points in the win over the Wildcats, while Ramirez and Williams combined for 44 points in the win over the Eagles.
Del Norte might be the biggest surprise outside of Mission Bay and St. Augustine in the early going, finding themselves 0-4 heading into today’s consolation game against Linfield Christian. Chemistry issues and an ice-cold start to the season from behind the arc - the Nighthawks primary offensive weapon - are the culprits.
CJ Aldrich broke the Bucs Thanksgiving Classic scoring record with his 42-point performance in the Longhorns first-round tournament win against Linfield Christian. The Horns, however, lost 6-5 senior Ayden Horn, a two-time all-league selection, to an injury in that game, and he’s expected to miss several weeks.
Montgomery has won its first four games — three against Top 25 opponents - by 57, 24, 25 and 42 points. The senior quartet of JJ Sanchez, Alek Sanchez, Xair Mendez and Devin Hamilton are playing an absolutely suffocating brand of defense that has neutralized El Camino (Logan Ardent), UC (Dylan Griffin) and RBV’s (Aldrich) top scorers in those wins, holding them to a combined 35 points.
Their record might not reflect it, but Foothills Christian is looking like one of the region’s most improved teams, after competing admirably in losses to Patrick Henry, Steele Canyon and Olympian. The senior duo of Joey Turk and Patrick Delahoussaye have given teams fits.