In all, 32 football teams will enter play in the Central Coast Section playoffs this week, and the Warriors and Dons each clinched berths by wrapping up championship seasons with league victories last Thursday.

Del Mar clobbered Andrew Hill 34-14 to complete a 6-0 season in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. The Dons, now 8-2 for the year, head to Seaside (8-2) on Nov. 18, 7 p.m., to open the CCS Small School Division playoffs.

Westmont needed a couple of fourth-quarter touchdowns to pull out a hard-earned 24-20 win over winless Gunderson last week to clinch a title tie in the Santa Teresa Division. The Warriors finished up 5-0-1 in the division and share first place with Lincoln.

The Warriors (9-0-1 overall) will open the CCS Medium School Division playoffs at home on Nov. 19, 7 p.m., when they play host to Terra Nova (6-4).

Prospect, meanwhile, ended the season with a 35-21 victory over James Lick to wrap up second place in the West Valley Division with a 5-1 record. The Panthers, though, ended up 6-3-1 overall and did not qualify for CCS play.

Senior running back Emmanuel Sellu raced for nearly 250 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead the Dons to a 34-14 win over the Falcons.

Sellu, who at 1,931 yards this season is zeroing in on the 2,000-yard mark, scored on runs of six, 25 and 20 yards to lead the Dons to the win over Hill that helped them clinch an unbeaten league season.

Quarterback Todd Myers tossed touchdown passes of 10 and 20 yards to Abed Faour and 20 yards, and Nick Vermy kicked four extra points.

Season tackling leader Sandor Helderman got in on 17 tackles to run his 10-game total to 100. He figures as a top defensive player for the Dons along with Mike Huynh and Michael Tilbury.

Up the road at Westmont, the Warriors needed a couple of TDs in the final period to battle from a 20-9 deficit to beat the Grizzlies.

The Warriors trailed 8-0 in the first quarter after a Gunderson touchdown and two-point conversion, but they grabbed the lead thanks to a 44-yard scoring toss from Kevin Pham to Ryan Kanzaki and a 29-yard field goal by Kevin Blakley.

But the Grizzlies fought back with touchdowns in the second and third periods to go up 20-9, and the Warriors had to battle back to keep from losing their share of first place in the division.

Stefan Fowler scored on a 3-yard run and Pham ran in for the two-point conversion to cut the Gunderson lead to 20-17. Pham came back later in the quarter to toss a 19-yard TD pass to Kelly Peterson and Blakley kicked an important extra point to give Westmont its margin of victory.

For Prospect, Elvy Harris tossed touchdown passes to Matt Lamb (55 yards), Kendall Hendon (23 yards) and Edric Egberuare (nine yards) and Zach Stevenson pitched a 34-yard scoring pass to Egberuare to lead the Panthers to the 35-21 win over James Lick. Lamb also returned a kickoff 85 yards for a score and David Matusewicz kicked all five extra points.

Girls volleyball

Last week was the end of the line for girls volleyball teams from Westmont and Prospect. The Warriors lost in the CCS Division II quarterfinals while the Panthers lost in the first round of the Division III tourney.

No. 11 seed Westmont, 20-14, opened the playoffs with a mild upset over No. 6 seed Palo Alto (19-13), winning a five-game thriller 23-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 16-14. But the Warriors couldn't hold off No. 3 seed Leigh a match later, losing 25-20, 28-26, 25-22.

The Warriors had posted a 10-4 record in league play to finish in the tie for third place with Leland in the BVAL's Mt. Hamilton Division behind Leigh (13-1) and Branham (11-3).

Prospect (13-8) lost its CCS opener to No. 4 Branham (19-13), falling 25-22, 25-19, 25-23.

The Panthers had posted a 12-0 record to run away with the championship in the West Valley Division of the BVAL this fall. Members of the championship team included Janaye Fletcher, Courtney Guetschow, Lizzie Miller, Kendra Rimbach, Brittany Ross-Badillo, Shannan Slagle, Devin Cannon, Tessa Fischer, Zlata Malicevic, Kimmie Osborne, Jen Ton, Marian Lu and Kristin Rimbach.

Field hockey

It's called the CCS field hockey semifinals, but it looks more like the West Catholic Athletic League semi's with private school teams nailing three of the positions in the final four.

Of course, there is no WCAL in field hockey--Mitty, St. Francis and St. Ignatius all play in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the BVAL. But if not for No. 5 seed Gilroy, it would be an all-Catholic school semifinal round coming up on Nov. 15.

No. 6 seed SI (9-7-1) knocked No. 3 Leland (13-3-3) out of the playoffs with a 1-0 win last Saturday, and No. 1 Mitty (15-1-2) dropped No. 9 Leigh (9-4-3) 1-0 in overtime the same day.

No. 2 St. Francis (12-2-4) pulled out a 2-1 win over No. 10 Saratoga (8-9-2) and Gilroy (17-1-2) edged No. 4 Los Gatos (11-5-1) 3-1 on penalty strokes.

Gilroy had opened the playoffs by blanking Del Mar (9-4-4) 3-0 in the first round. In other first-round games, SI blasted North Salinas (9-5) 6-0, Saratoga bumped off Lynbrook (8-3-4) 2-1 and Leigh blanked Presentation (10-5-3) 3-0.

Despite the first-round playoff loss, it was quite a year for Del Mar. The Dons tied for second in the BVAL's West Valley Division with Branham and Homestead, the three squads ending up behind Presentation in the final league standings.

Cross country

Del Mar's Angel Gonzalez came through with a top 20 performance at the CCS cross country finals held last Saturday.

Gonzalez covered the 2.95-mile course at Crystal Springs in Belmont in 16:28 to finish 17th in the CCS Division III finals.

In the Division III girls race, Jen Kocisko of Prospect raced to a 33rd-place finish in 20:39 with Del Mar's Jennifer Dean 43rd in 21:00.

Westmont's Michael Pickans led the Westmont showing, running 17:30 to place 53rd in CCS Division II.