LATIMES.COM/SPORTS D5
FOOTBALL
Time flies by so fast. Mason
White of Lake Balboa Birmingham
was reminiscing how three years
ago he was 13 and too young to play
in a playoff game. On Friday night,
the senior said, “This is playoff
time. This could be my last game. I
wanted to give it my all.”
It was vintage White against
Garfield in the City Section Open
Division playoffs. White caught
two touchdown passes, deflected a
field-goal attempt, blocked a punt
and made an interception in the
Patriots’ 34-14 victory.
“There’s nothing much to say
other than that’s Mason,” defen-
sive end Arlis Boardingham said.
Added Garfield coach Lorenzo
Hernandez, “We knew he was a
threat and we were still unable to
contain the things he was doing.”
Birmingham coach Jim Rose
has been engaging in a little “load
management” strategy with
White. He didn’t play him in a
game against Taft near the end of
the regular season. But now he has
been turned loose. On a 51-yard
touchdown reception, White shed
two tackles, then hurdled a player
on the ground while running into
the end zone.
“All week I was thinking I
wanted to jump over someone in
high school,” White said. “I just
hopped over him.”
He had 11 blocked kicks or
punts over the last two seasons
and has more than 15 in his varsitycareer. He blocked a punt in the
fourth quarter to set up a four-
yard touchdown run by Marcus
Arthur with 6:56 left for a 27-14
lead. Then his interception set up
another Arthur touchdown run.
“He was all over the place,”
Rose said. “He’s only going to get
better. I can’t wait to see what he
looks like his junior year in col-
lege.”
Birmingham quarterback
Jackson Dadich completed 12 of 23
passes for 239 yards and three
touchdowns. PJ Garcia of Garfield
rushed for 156 yards in 31 carries
and scored one touchdown.
The City Section hasn’t had an
upper division champion not
named Narbonne since the 2013
season. When Narbonne was
banned from this year’s playoffs
after multiple ineligible players
were discovered by the Los Ange-
les Unified School District, it
created an evenly matched eight-
team tournament.
Rose remembers losing to
Narbonne last season in the play-
offs.
“We played a real good game
and lost by 40 points,” he said. “In
this bracket, anybody can beat
anybody, which is how you want
it.”
Birmingham advances to play
at No. 1-seeded San Pedro, which
defeated Carson 17-0. Crenshaw,
behind running back Jalen Poin-
son, upset No. 2-seeded San Fer-
nando 26-23. Banning defeated
Palisades 35-21 and will host Cren-
shaw in the semifinals.
Birmingham took a 14-0 lead in
the first quarter on touchdown
passes of 10 yards to White and 69
yards to Gonzalo Robledo, who
did a forward flip in the end zone.
Garfield got back into the game on
a seven-yard touchdown run by
Garcia with 3:16 left in the half.
But Birmingham’s defense
twice stopped Garfield on fourth
down in the second half.White gives all
for Birmingham
Senior scores twice and
does so much more to lead
Patriots, who next facetop-seeded San Pedro.
BIRMINGHAM 34
GARFIELD 14ERIC SONDHEIMER
ON HIGH SCHOOLSFriday’s results
CITY SECTION
Quarterfinals
OPEN DIVISION
San Pedro 17, Carson 0
Birmingham 34, Garfield 14
Banning 35, Palisades 21
Crenshaw 26, San Fernando 23
DIVISION I
Eagle Rock 42, Locke 21
El Camino Real 44, Grant 21
Venice 50, Westchester 41
Reseda 14, Los Angeles Roosevelt 12
DIVISION II
Franklin 34, Los Angeles Marshall 14
Jefferson 47, Los Angeles Wilson 6
Manual Arts 41, Granada Hills Kennedy 0
Canoga Park 35, Chavez 6
DIVISION III
Marquez 38, Legacy 12
Washington 42, Panorama 7
Lincoln 51, Los Angeles Jordan 20
Gardena 11, Sun Valley Poly 7
8 MAN
Animo Robinson 58, Discovery 6
New Designs University Park 60, USC Hybrid 30
(Thursday)
Sun Valley at North Valley Military Institute
Fulton 22, Dymally 14SOUTHERN SECTION
Quarterfinals
DIVISION 1
Mater Dei 63, Bishop Amat 23
Mission Viejo 38, Servite 35
Corona Centennial 56, JSerra 0
St. John Bosco 63, Calabasas 7
DIVISION 2
Sierra Canyon 42, Vista Murrieta 28
Rancho Cucamonga 21, Long Beach Poly 7
Chaminade 28, Upland 27 (OT)
San Clemente 13, Rancho Verde 9DIVISION 3
Alemany 47, Tesoro 28
La Habra 35, Edison 27
Grace Brethren 33, Lawndale 31
DIVISION 4
Paramount 41, Eastvale Roosevelt 17
San Juan Hills 52, Hart 21
Loyola 45, Villa Park 28
Camarillo 28, Downey 27
DIVISION 5
Culver City 62, Chino Hills 35
St. Paul 28, Yorba Linda 16
Glendora 38, Etiwanda 21
Aquinas 26, Oxnard 21
DIVISION 6
Crespi 38, Ayala 35
Oxnard Pacifica 55, Citrus Valley 28
La Serna 28, Los Altos 14
San Jacinto 17, Kaiser 0
DIVISION 7
Serrano 35, Burbank 13
Cypress 33, Ventura 31
Temecula Valley 21, Carter 20 (OT)
West Ranch 57, Long Beach Wilson 56
DIVISION 8
Sunny Hills 49, Riverside Notre Dame 24
Trabuco Hills 34, San Gorgonio 7
Palmdale 13, Aliso Niguel 12
Santa Barbara 42, Palm Desert 32
DIVISION 9
San Dimas 21, Foothill 18
North Torrance 41, Palm Springs 10
Newport Harbor 24, Monrovia 20
Highland 42, Lakewood 29
DIVISION 10
Crescenta Valley 45, Eisenhower 20
Katella 22, Segerstrom 17
Orange 27, Riverside North 7
Simi Valley 41, Norte Vista 24
DIVISION 11
Linfield Christian 28, Pasadena 21Muir 23, Chaffey 8
Hemet 35, El Rancho 32
Marina 24, Ontario Christian 21
DIVISION 12
El Monte 60, Nordhoff 12
Jurupa Hills 36, Rio Hondo Prep 29
Adelanto 36, Moreno Valley 3
Orange Vista 23, Oak Park 0
DIVISION 13
Alhambra 46, Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 14
Ramona 44, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 14
Esperanza 18, Fillmore 7
Inglewood 60, Santa Monica 21
DIVISION 14
St. Pius X-St. Matthias 58, Ganesha 0
Vista del Lago 27, Mary Star 20
South Torrance 17, Portola 16
Loara 28, Sierra Vista 20
8 MAN
DIVISION 1
Windward 68, Moreno Valley Riverside County
Education Academy 14
Flintridge Prep 35, Cate 25
Sage Hill 45, Faith Baptist 42
DIVISION 2
Hillcrest Christian 46, Cuyama Valley 20
Lancaster Baptist 54, CSDR 6
Today
SOUTHERN SECTION
DIVISION 3
Cajon (9-2) vs. Corona del Mar (10-0) at New-
port Harbor, 7 p.m.
8 MAN
DIVISION 1
Chadwick (9-1) at Thacher (4-3), 1:30 p.m.
DIVISION 2
Santa Maria Valley Christian (5-4) at
Bloomington Christian (7-1), 5:30 p.m.
Noli Indian (6-3) vs. Sage Oak (5-3) at
Brewster Park, 1 p.m.PREP FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
All the Mission Viejo football
team needed to advance in the
Southern Section Division 1 play-
offs was a stop from its lauded de-
fense, but it wasn’t as easy as it had
been for the Diablos during the
regular season.
Servite’s offense was flowing to
the tune of 28 second-half points,
and instead of a defensive stop,
Mission Viejo got an assist from the
clock as Servite ran out of time to
complete its comeback attempt.
With time winding down in the
fourth, the Diablos holding on to a
10-point lead and Servite driving,
the Friars scored with 10 seconds
left, cutting Mission Viejo’s lead to
three.
The ensuing onside kick was re-
covered by Diablos tight end T.J.
Roelen to send Mission Viejo to the
Division 1 semifinals with a 38-35
win over Servite.
The fourth-seeded Diablos will
host top-seeded Mater Dei next
Friday.
The Mission Viejo defense set
the tone in the first half.
The Diablos (11-0) forcedServite into a three and out on the
first possession of the game, and
after just a six-yard punt, Mission
Viejo needed only four plays to find
the end zone.
After a 26-yard designed
quarterback run from Peter
Costelli, Jacquez Robertson
sneaked between tackles and put
the Diablos on the board at the 9:17
mark of the first.
Servite (7-4) managed to give
quarterback Noah Fifita some
time to operate on its second pos-
session and the sophomore made
plays. Fifita connected with Dami-
en Moun for a 21-yard pass and
catch, then found Tetairoa McMil-
lan up the left sideline for a 43-yard
touchdown to tie the score at seven
with 7:14 remaining in the first.
Mission Viejo rebounded on its
next possession, orchestrating a
14-play, 65-yard scoring drive com-
plete with some gutsy play calling.
The Diablos went for it on fourth
and two from the Servite 33-yard
line with Robertson picking up 13
yards and a first down.
Three plays later, with Mission’s
offense sputtering after a run for no
gain and an incomplete pass, an-
other designed quarterback run
was called and Costelli picked up
26 more yards, moving the Diablos’
offense to the Servite one-yard line.
Tyson Scott scored three plays lat-
er from two yards out, giving Mis-
sion Viejo a 14-7 lead with 1:10 re-
maining in the first quarter.
Mission Viejo held Servite to 83
yards through the air and 40 yards
rushing in the first half.Mission Viejo beats
Servite just in time
The Diablos hang on after
the Friars rally with 28
second-half points and will
next host Mater Dei.
MISSION VIEJO 38
SERVITE 35By Devin Uglandboy,’ ” Chase says. “We’re the
dumbest of the dumb. Most of the
country thinks Louisiana is just ig-
norant. So growing up as a Cajun,
you work hard, you play hard, you
do everything as hard as you can,
because you’re already born with a
chip on your shoulder. Everyone
thinks you’re an idiot. Him coming
back to LSU, that really embodies
what Cajuns are. It’s not all about
him. It’s about Louisiana. It’s
about bringing the win home.”
“Let’s bring it hoooome, baby!”
Coco chimes in.::Out on the balcony, before he
can resume the night’s work, Orge-
ron has a reflection to share.
His father died of stomach can-
cer in 2011 when he was back at USC
as defensive line coach after being
fired as Mississippi’s head coach.
Before he died, Ed Orgeron Sr. re-
minded his son that throughout
his life he always had to do every-
thing twice before he got it right.
“It didn’t work the first time,”
Ed Sr. told him, “but you went back
and changed it and made it work.”
To reach this pinnacle, Orgeron
made two big changes from his
time at Ole Miss.
“I went in there and I was a hard
ass,” Orgeron says, “and I didn’t let
them get to know how much I really
cared about them. After that, I said
to myself, ‘If I treat the team like I
treat my sons, I’m gonna be OK.’
And ever since that, my winning
percentage has just shot up.”
Before revealing the second
change, he nods toward Tiger Sta-
dium. In 2006, Orgeron’s Rebels led
LSU 20-7 in the third quarter but
lost 23-20 in overtime. He now
blames himself for coaching not to
lose late in the game, something
that today he would never consider
with a dynamic offense as his ally.
“I got conservative in that sta-
dium right over there,” he says.
There were some suggested
changes over the years that Orge-
ron could have made, too, in an ef-
fort to please others. But, no mat-
ter how much he pined for that
next head coaching job, he gave
them no credence.
“The culture, the want-to, the
toughness, being blue collar, being
from Louisiana, being proud of it,
having a Cajun accent,” Orgeron
says. “My grandparents spoke
French. I’m proud of it. People
make fun of the way I talk, I love it. I
wouldn’t change it for nothin’.”issues with alcohol, and athletic di-
rector Pat Haden decided Clay
Helton was the interim head coach
worth keeping. USC is now in Year
4 of Helton’s turbulent tenure, and
the program appears on the brink
of turnover yet again.
“It was indicated to me that I’m
getting the job,” Orgeron recalls of
USC. “Then we lost to UCLA [35-14
in 2013], and all hell broke loose. We
just didn’t play well. I couldn’t put
my finger on it. The next day I
didn’t hear from anybody. Monday
I told the team bye, and they’re cry-
ing, ‘You’re like the father I never
had. Why is this happening?’
“But now we all see why it hap-
pened. I’ve got no regrets. This is
the place I always wanted to be. I
was born to be here, and I cherish
every day.”
Former USC coach John Rob-
inson, who joined Orgeron’s LSU
staff this fall as an offensive con-
sultant, says he told plenty of Tro-
jans in 2013 that USC should keep
Orgeron.
“It was a poor decision, or un-
fortunate decision, to let him go,”
Robinson says. “He’s a leader of
people. I grew up with John Mad-
den from the third grade on, and I
compare the two in that they’re
really intelligent and really under-
stand people, but they don’t give
you that impression right off the
bat.”
LSU was willing to look deeper
with Orgeron, but it was not going
to be a popular decision.
“It was tremendous pressure
from people to hire Tom Herman
or Jimbo Fisher, one of those guys,”
Alleva says. “If I were a younger
man, in my 40s, I probably would
have succumbed to that pressure,
because that’s the easy way out.
That’s what most ADs do. They
hire the pretty face guy.”
Orgeron says Alleva was clear
with him that Herman was the
competition. What Alleva couldn’t
tell him then was that he was push-
ing for Orgeron, but he had to also
consider the wishes of the small
group of representatives from the
LSU board who wanted to chase
Herman.
“I remember it boiling down to,
do you want the one who you know
loves you or the one you think loves
you?” says Scott Ballard, then the
chair of the LSU board who was
heavily involved in the search.
“When we hired him, nobody ever
said Coach O doesn’t fit. What they
said was, ‘He fits as a recruiting co-
ordinator, he should not be the
head coach. Y’all set us back 10
years.’ ”
Ballard saved every text and
email he received. Sunday, he
spent the day replying to them.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he says.
::Orgeron wants you to meet the
woman who gave him his “juice.”
She refers to him as “Junior,” or
“Bébé,” and, indirectly, she lighted
the fuse that has the state ablaze
with pride as Saturday night’s
game against Mississippi ap-
proaches.
Coco Orgeron could not be
more proud of her son or the team.
“He teaches them the Cajun
way,” she says.
She is 77 and spunky and it
doesn’t take long to see similarities
between mother and son. Junior
and Coco can talk your ear off but
also don’t need to say a word to
convey how they’re feeling. Be-
cause they’ve been misunderstood
for so long by non-Cajuns, evolu-
tion has passed along the skill of
nonverbal communication. A well-
timed grunt, a movement of the
eyebrows up or down, and the Or-
gerons can get their point across.
You wouldn’t know it unless you
asked, but Coco can speak French
exquisitely.
When she was a little girl, the
schools in South Lafourche didn’t
want students speaking French.
Now, they require students to learn
the language of their ancestors,
but it’s too little, too late, for flu-
ency.
Of course, more than language
has been lost.
“It’s a culture that you learn,”
Coco says. “If you had a broken leg,
you would not be alone, let’s put it
that way. There was always some-
body in the neighborhood that
would bring you something for din-
ner. It’s just something you do be-
cause your heart wants to do it, not
because somebody say, ‘Do it.’ ”
Their people came from Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick in the
middle of the 1700s to escape
British rule. Many French had al-
ready settled in Louisiana, so it
made sense to migrate here and
make a life from the land and the
water.
Bayou Lafourche weaves about
100 miles up from the Gulf of Mexi-
co. Along it, on each side, large fam-
ilies split the take of a day’s
“trolling” (or shrimping) and then
shared the rest with whomever
needed it. They created methods of
cooking that fit their lifestyle,
which meant tossing ingredients
that were easily browned and
smothered into gigantic pots.
Food, and, later, the ability to
play sports, became the spoils of
nonstop manual labor. On the
morning of the Louisiana Class 4
state championship game in 1977,
Coco woke up her Junior at the
crack of dawn with a fried shrimp
po’ boy in one hand and his South
Lafourche football helmet in the
other.
“She said, ‘Let’s go, boy!’ ” Orge-
ron says.
Wherever football took him,
food followed. When Orgeron was
at USC, Coco and her husband, Ed-
ward Orgeron Sr., would check in
suitcases full of frozen ingredients
to make gumbo, pick them up at
John Wayne Airport and rush
them to the nearest freezer. The
family would have been happy to
keep that tradition into eternity,
but it wasn’t meant to be.
“It all happened for a reason be-
cause he’s where he needs to be,”
says Chase Orgeron, Ed’s nephew.
“He is needed here.”
Sitting at the dining table with
his grandmother, Chase laments
the passage of time.
“What she knew as the bayou, it
started to die off,” he says, “be-
cause the younger kids like myself,
I moved off the bayou. It’s just a dy-
ing culture. Everyone says, ‘Man,
you need to get away.’ ”
To Chase, his uncle is not simply
keeping the culture alive. He’s ac-
centuating it and taking it na-
tional, only this time the story rings
true. “You know how Hollywood
depicts Cajuns, like ‘The Water-ED ORGERON was confident he would be USC’s official coach in 2013, but things changed after
losing to UCLA. “It was indicated ... that I’m getting the job,” he says, then “all hell broke loose.”
Luis SincoLos Angeles TimesA local boy makes good at LSU
[Orgeron, from D4]
‘But now we all see why it happened. I’ve
got no regrets. This is the place I always
wanted to be. I was born to be here, and I
cherish every day.’
—EDORGERON,
above, with wife Kelly, on how not being hired
as USC’s head coach ultimately led to his return to LSUVasha HuntAssociated Press