The Southern California Varsity White division comes down to one game, as View Park Prep plays St. John Bosco Saturday in the final.

Both teams have improved drastically from the early going, as they got a few players back from football duty and injuries. At one point 2-2, View Park got it going at just the right time, beating Dana Hills and Mission Vista in high-offense efforts.

View Park took the past weekend to play 7s at the Las Vegas Invitational, where they finished 3-0 in pool play before hitting some struggles on the second day, losing one game in overtime and then losing to a BC team. 

“The guys had this mood like if we’re not first we’re last so we don’t have to win this game, but I don’t feel like that’s a good excuse,” said senior Matthew Rhodes. 

It was a wakeup call for the View Park team in terms of finishing off a game. They will need that attitude on Saturday.

“I expect St. John Bosco to be better than they were,” said Rhodes. “I expect them to do a lot of crashes from their #12, and their big guys. They’ve got a big team. They’re fast, too. But if we make the big hits early in the game we can take care of that.”

For View Park, they can work the space on the field and use their pace.

St. John will indeed use their strength up front, but they also have some skill and speed out wide. The matchups will be key. When the two teams met earlier in the season, View Park won 14-12. It seems, as Bosco has tightened their forward play and opened things up with Mason Hall and James Scerlock running in space, View Park will need more than 14 points to win.