Narbonne to play in 1-AA bowl

L.A. City power to take on San Diego Cathedral Catholic in regional title game.

After demolishing three opponents with running clocks en route to winning its fifth consecutive City Section football championship, Harbor City Narbonne is about to find out whether it’s a contender or pretender for the real prize — a CIF state championship.

Narbonne (10-3), the City Open Division champion, was chosen Sunday to play the best team in San Diego, Cathedral Catholic (11-1), in a Division 1-AA SoCal Regional Football Championship Bowl Game on Friday in San Diego.

Narbonne was selected ahead of Southern Section Division 2 champion Upland (12-2) and Division 3 champion Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (11-3), which will play Saturday in the Division 1-A regional at Upland.

Narbonne is on a ninegame winning streak, but all the victories were against City Section competition, raising the question of just how good the Gauchos truly are.

“It’s hard to know, but we’ve gotten better every week,” coach Manuel Douglas said.

Narbonne has won two state championship bowl games in recent years.

For the Gauchos, the good news is that they have a balanced offense, with the capability of running the ball or relying on the passing of sophomore quarterback Jake Garcia. They lost to Cathedral Catholic, a wing-T team, in 2016.

As expected, Santa Ana Mater Dei (12-2) was awarded the Open Division bowl berth from Southern California and will play in the Dec. 8 game at Cerritos College.

Northern California still has a week to go to complete its section playoffs because of a delay caused by the wildfires in the region.

The winners of the weekend’s games in Southern California will advance to the championship bowl games Dec. 14-15.

Other bowl games Friday: San Diego St. Augustine vs. Simi Valley Grace Brethren at Cal Lutheran in Division 2-AA; Lawndale vs. Covina South Hills at Covina District Field in 2-A; San Diego Lincoln at Culver City in 3-AA; Anaheim Western at San Gorgonio in 5-AA and Adelanto at Strathmore in 6-AA.

Saturday’s schedule: Rialto Eisenhower at Fontana Kaiser in 3-A; Delano Kennedy at L.A. Garfield in 4-A; Temecula Linfield Christian at San Diego in 5-A and L.A. Locke at Escondido Orange Glen in 6-A.