Last Thursday, the CIF Southern Section office emailed Athletic Director Tom Salter that the “Fox Sports West High School Game of the Week” had selected the Culver City-Lawndale game to feature.
This contest will take place Friday night at 7 p.m. and will be one of the top games in Southern California.
This is the first time in Culver City High School history that Culver football will be so honored. CCHS had tried for years to get onto this show with some of their great teams, without success. Being selected came as a total surprise.
As a bonus, this game will likely determine the Ocean League championship
With Culver’s semi-final appearance last year in the playoffs and with their strong showing this season, its success in the passing league competitions this past summer, and the fact that the team boasts 5 players this year with Division 1 offers, Culver has proven to be worthy of consideration as a top 25 program.
Their opponent this week, the Lawndale Cardinals, were undefeated last year until their second-round playoff upset loss to Moorpark. This season they are 4-2, but their losses are to Calabasas and L.A. City power Narbonne, which are both top 15 teams, and they are ranked 48th in California and 358th nationally.
To put this in perspective, Culver City is ranked 118th in the state and 1,200th nationally, according to MaxPreps. Lawndale also has one of the top running backs on the West Coast in Jordan Wilmore, 5’9’ 195, a USC commit who has gained more than 2,000 yards in each of the last two seasons and has also gained close to 300 yards against the Centaurs each of the last two years. They also have several other Division 1 prospects, and both their offensive and defensive lines are very large and aggressive, and they believe that they can manhandle us.
Lawndale will run a 4-3 defensive front and will move their defensive tackles around. They will primarily run a man-to-man coverage in their defensive backfield, but will also mix in a little zone. We also expect them to blitz often, particularly with their outside linebackers. On offense, they are old school, in that their quarterback with take the ball off the “T” and will typically give the ball to Wilmore in the “I” formation, and he will either run inside or bounce outside to create his own running lanes.
If teams are somewhat effective in stopping the run, then they will go to a spread formation in order to create seams for Wilmore to run through.
Last year after their quarterback graduated, they did not have an effective backup. In an almost magical act of good fortune, they obtained another transfer quarterback, junior Jalon Daniels, 5’11” 190, from Narbonne. Daniels is a strong runner, is athletic, and an effective passer has a strong arm, who throws a tight spiral.
The keys to the game for Culver City will be that its offensive and defensive lines must match the intensity and toughness of Lawndale’s and give its quarterbacks time to throw the ball. The offensive line must be able to open up holes for a strong running back tandem of Josh Ford and Malachi McMahon.
Defensively, the Centaurs must be able to hit and swarm Wilmore and force Lawndale into 3rd and long situations. “We must also be able to keep our penalties to a minimum,” the coaches say.
Since this is such a big opportunity for the Culver City football program, Principal Lisa Cooper and AD Tom Salter have arranged for five busses, three busses for the marching band and cheerleaders, and two busses for students who want to attend the game.
These busses will be free of charge for all students. Since the game is on regional television, all students, alumni, and friends of Culver City High school are encouraged to attend the game to give the school a large visible presence.