By Julian MITCHELL, intern

The regular season has ended for Falcon football, but the post-season is just beginning.

The Crescenta Valley High School Falcons (8-2) will be going up against the Warren High School Bears (7-3) in Downey on Friday at 7 p.m.

“It will be nice to get out of the Pacific League,” said CVHS head coach Paul Schilling of playing the San Gabriel Valley League team.

The Pacific League has had its fair share of oddities for the Falcons this season. After one game was postponed due to lightning and another canceled, momentum was not in the Falcons’ favor as the end of the season approached.

As previously reported, the CVHS homecoming game was canceled in the aftermath of the Hoover High School football team’s involvement in an altercation on Oct. 3, an altercation in which few details have been released. The Falcons were looking forward to what should have been a straightforward win against the 1-7 Hoover Tornadoes, hoping to gain some momentum heading into the end of the season.

Whatever momentum might have been in store vanished after the Falcons’ loss to rival Arcadia High School in the last game of the season.

“They were just the better team that night,” said Schilling. “It’s hard on your ego and hard to bounce back from that.”

After a slow start to the week in practice, Schilling and his staff have been focusing on getting their players to build the “fire” to keep playing deeper into the fall.

Warren finished the regular season with a 7-3 record powered by its high scoring offense, averaging 43.7 points per game. It is currently on a three-game win streak and will be playing at home where it has not lost since mid-September.

“The San Gabriel Valley League is a tough, old school league,” said Schilling.

He also noted that nothing comes easy in the playoffs and that “everybody is good.”

The Falcons are going to focus the rest of this week on shaking off the funk that lingers from their last game, and continue to build that fire. They are also hoping that some self-made luck will push them to victory.

“We’ll be wearing our white jerseys, which are the guys’ favorite, so they are looking forward to that,” said Schilling.

Warren High School is located 8141 De Palma St. in Downey and, although that can be quite a drive on a Friday night, Schilling is still hoping fans will come out to support the team because “it’s worth it.”

  Julian MITCHELL