Pictured L-R: Damien’s Malik Thomas & Glendora’s Johnnie Valdez

High School Sports:

This past Friday was the first weekend without football since high school athletics were reinstated on March 19.

Going forward, baseball, softball, soccer and basketball league races will heat up significantly.

And speaking of basketball, Damien senior guard Malik Thomas shot his way into the record books.

Thomas scored 17 points in Damien’s blowout victory over La Mirada, and it made him the all-time leading scorer in school history.

Thomas broke Jeremy Helmsley’s record set in 2005, and while each game he’ll extend his lead over all former Damien players, as of today, the new scoring record stands at 2,169 points.

Damien (17-1 overall, 1-1 in league) dropped its first game of the season on Tuesday in a four-point setback to Etiwanda.

But the Spartans would rebound and blow out Upland and La Mirada to close out the week.

Damien will host Baseline League contending  Los Osos on Tuesday night.

Monrovia baseball is off to a great start in Rio Hondo League play.

The Wildcats knocked off the defending champs from La Canada, 2-1, on Tuesday, thanks to Coleman Mitchell, who allowed one run on four hits and struck out 14.

A few days later, Chantz Powers shut Temple City down, 2-0, and Monrovia is now 4-0 in RHL play.

In those four league games, South Pasadena, San Marino, La Canada and Temple City combined for just six total runs against Wildcats’ pitching.

Johnnie Valdez, who had to sit out 30 days after transferring to Glendora, got his first action of the 2021 season on Friday.

Valdez got the start and the Tartans senior struck out 10 batters over his seven innings of work.

The game would be decided in the ninth, as GHS scored eight runs in the top of that inning to defeat Alta Loma, 9-1.

Glendora needed another arm in the worst way, and it looks like Valdez will make a huge contribution to Dan Henley’s program as the Palomares League race continues to heat up.

Ayala baseball looks every bit the No. 1 ranked team in CIF-SS Division 1.

They are now 5-0 in Palomares League play after defeating Bonita, 6-3, on Friday.

Jacob Badawi was just a single from hitting for the cycle and Mateo Matthews’ bat has been red hot as well.

But what makes this team so tough to beat is the depth of their pitching staff.

Andreas Pasillas (5-0, 2.88 ERA) and Thomas Cerecedes (4-0, 0.83 ERA) have been nothing short of spectacular so far.

Evan Buhac made his teammates and the WCHS alumni happy after throwing a 2-hit shutout against the mighty Huskies of South Hills over the weekend.

Buhac struck out seven South Hills batters in the 2-0 victory.

West Covina started the season very slowly, but they’ve found their footing and open up league play against Diamond Ranch on Tuesday.

Daniel Ruiz, second from the left, extended Maranatha’s winning streak to seven games after throwing a no-hitter on Friday.

Ruiz struck out four in MHS’ 4-1 victory over Heritage Christian.

The Minutemen have defeated Whittier Christian, Valley Christian and Heritage Christian by a combined margin of 15-4 in their first three Olympic League games.

MHS has two this week with Whittier Christian, starting Tuesday at WCHS.

San Dimas opens a home-and-away two-game series this week with Northview.

The Saints (7-4) and Vikings (10-5) have to be considered the two favorites, at least on paper.

You can expect to see Luke Bauer and Ethan Galindo on the mound for Northview and Matt DesMarets and Matt Romero appear likely to anchor the San Dimas staff.

SDHS will host NHS on Wednesday and they’ll finish their two-game series Friday at Northview.