Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. What’s a high school football season without scandal and success. It’s just happening in the opening week.

Bishop Montgomery woes

Bishop Montgomery announced the firing of its football coach after weeks of turmoil that saw the program lose five transfer students to ineligibility, saw numerous players suspended for leaving the team bench during a loss in Hawaii and finally was forced to forfeit to Mater Dei because it did not have enough players to compete.

Here’s the report on the firing.

Here’s a look at who’s responsible for this latest scandal involving a Catholic school in the Archiocese of Los Angeles.

Valencia quarterback Brady Bretthauer has his team at 2-0.

(Craig Weston)

Valencia has come out with a 2-0 start behind its dynamic duo of quarterback Brady Bretthauer and running back Brian Bonner. Here’s a report from its victory over Chaminade.

Santa Margarita went to overtime to beat Corona Centennial and deliver a first victory for coach Carson Palmer. Here’s the report.

Loyola, despite losing more than a dozen players in the off season to transfers, upset Long Beach Millikan behind Stanford commit Max Meier, who had 10 tackles and two sacks.

Yorba Linda rallied for a win over Edison in a battle of top 25 teams. Here’s the report.

Gardena Serra and Sierra Canyon are showing off great defenses. Here’s the report from Serra’s 47-0 win over Hamilton.

Sierra Canyon defeated Oaks Christian 63-0 and has two shutouts in two games.

St. Frances from Maryland is coming to town to face 2-0 St. John Bosco on Friday.

It took six overtimes before Orange defeated Laguna Hills 46-43.

Here’s a list of top individual performances from Week 1.

Here’s the score list from Thursday. Here’s the score list from Friday.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

Here’s the Week 2 schedule.

Hamilton freshman quarterback Thaddeus Breaux.

(Craig Weston)

It was a rough opening game for Hamilton freshman quarterback Thaddeus Breaux. The Yankees lost to Gardena Serra 47-0. But Breaux showed off a strong arm and looked resilient, good qualities for the future. Hamilton plays Crenshaw on Friday. Here’s the report from the Serra loss.

Crenshaw is 2-0 but longtime coach Robert Garrett has not been on the sideline. Here’s a report.

San Pedro and Carson rebounded from losses in their opening games to rout City Section opponents Kennedy and Dorsey.

University coach Bryan Robinson (left) and brother Jason Robinson, an assistant, with their father, 80-year-old EC Robinson, a former Locke and Uni coach.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

The sons of former Locke and University coach EC Robinson have University at 2-0. Here’s the report.

Marquez is 2-0 and has moved into this week’s top 10 City Section rankings by The Times.

Orange Lutheran (12-0) and JSerra (8-0) continue look like the top two teams in flag football and they will be meeting twice in league play with games on Sept. 30 and Oct. 9.

Redondo Union defeated San Pedro in the championship game to win the LA City Girls Flag Football Classic.

Agoura won the Malibu tournament championship. Kiyomi Kohno was named MVP.

Flag football scores from Monday and Tuesday.

Flag football scores from Wednesday and Thursday.

Girls volleyball

It’s go tiime for Redondo Union in girls volleyball facing two huge tests this week. First up is a home match against 9-0 Marymount on Tuesday, followed by a road match against 7-1 Mater Dei.

Redondo Union is 13-1 and led by four-year starter Abby Zimmerman.

Prep talk

Quarterback Diego Montes of Granada Hills Kennedy passed for 2,508 yards and ran for 1,400 yards as a junior.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Your daily look at positive happenings in high school sports:

Two quarterbacks injured last season return to lead their teams to victory.

Kennedy All-City quarterback Diego Montes says, “Do not sleep on the City Section.”

Crespi continues its improvement in football behind sophomore quarterback Chase Curren.

El Camino Real football player Lincoln Elder almost got a perfect score on the SAT, loves math and want to enter the sports data business one day.

Running back Moyo Odebunmi of Cleveland went off for five touchdowns.

Golfer Andrew Rodriguez of La Serna is rising and has a big tournament this month.

Notes . . .

Brandon McCoy gets fired up after a basket for St. John Bosco. He had 28 points in overtime win over Richmond Salesian.

(Nick Koza)

After rumors all summer that he would be transferring from St. John Bosco to Sierra Canyon, standout guard Brandon McCoy made it official, enrolling at the Chatsworth school last week. He didn’t attend St. John Bosco’s opening day of school last month, so it was only a question of the news becoming official. His arrival coincides with the arrival of JSerra transfer Brannon Martinsen at Sierra Canyon. The best player might be Maximo Adams, who’s being recruited by Duke and Kansas. It will make for a quite a Mission League season with Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Harvard-Westlake and Crespi all having top players.

And don’t feel sorry for St. John Bosco, which picked up sophomore point guard Cam Anderson from Eastvale Roosevelt. . . .

Pauley Pavilion will be the site on Nov. 22 for a Mission League vs. Trinity League basketball challenge that features an 8:30 p.m. matchup of St. John Bosco vs. Harvard-Westlake. Santa Margarita will play Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at 7 p.m. and Sierra Canyon will face JSerra at 5:30 p.m as the featured matchups that begin at 9:30 a.m.. . . .

Cole Knupfer of St. John Bosco has committed to St. Mary’s for baseball. . . .

Sophomore 6-6 forward Evan Willis has transferred from Mater Dei to Crossroads. . . .

Tom Kelly is the new swim coach at Edison. He was at Crean Lutheran. . . .

Westlake pitcher Caden Atkinson has committed to UC San Diego. . . .

From the archives: Tahj Owens

Loyola running back Tahj Owens on his way to scoring five touchdowns against Culver City in 2021.

(Brody Hannon)

Entering his senior season at Princeton, Tahj Owens is a former Loyola running back who’s become a key player at defensive back for Princeton. He started every game last season.

He was Angelus League MVP at Loyola.

Here’s a story from 2021 telling the story how he had to drive from Chino Hills to attend Loyola in downtown Los Angeles.

Recommendations

From the Los Angeles Times, an opinion piece on if tackle football isn’t safe for girls, why is it safe for boys.

From Runnersworld, a story on a 16-year-old turning pro by signing with Nike.

From the Press Enterprise, a story on Southern Section commissioner Mike West.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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