UPDATED, 12:42 a.m.: The regular season is in the books, folks, and we'll know playoff seedings tomorrow. I'm headed to Clovis for the individual section tennis championships, but when I get back, I'll put up a post on seedings. In the mean time, here are some scores pulled out from the list below:

Liberty 28, Garces 0: The Patriots defense finished the season in a fitting way, with a shutout and a share of the SEYL title. Chris Neal looked great in his return from injury, running for 167 yards and three touchdowns. The Pats' stifling defense wouldn't let Garces get a foothold in this one.

Bakersfield 33, Highland 0: The Drillers allow 34 rushing yards and send Highland, once 6-1, to its third straight loss without scoring an offensive point. That's quite a fall for the Scots, while BHS clinches a share (with Liberty) of its second straight SEYL title.

Bakersfield Christian 35, Taft 14: This one was a bunch closer than the score would indicate. Taft could have tied the game at 14 before halftime but threw an interception in the end zone. The Wildcats could have tied it after an 8-minute drive to start the second half, but penalties and a sack pushed them back. Instead, BCHS eventually pulled away and won an outright South Sequoia League title.

Stockdale 35, West 14: Stockdale has played the "no respect" card all year, and it culminated tonight with a great performance and coach Mike Snow ripping up some preseason predictions in front of his team after clinching an SWYL title share with North.

Wasco 37, Shafter 26: Wanted to give a shoutout to this game because, like you'd expect, the records didn't really matter. The Tigers (4-6) eventually pulled away in a tight game after trailing at halftime to the Generals (1-9). Check out Sunday's Californian for a story on the rivalry.

UPDATED, 9:34 p.m.: It's all over but the shouting here at Liberty, where the Patriots have a 28-0 lead with 7:21 to play. Liberty has sucked the life out of Garces, little by little, not really ever giving the Rams a chance to get in it.
Elsewhere, though, there are some great games ongoing. Taft hurt itself with penalties on a long drive down 14-7 and got no points. But, down 21-7, the Wildcats have put together a touchdown drive to cut the lead in half with about nine minutes to play.

UPDATED, 9:01 p.m.: Quick update as the second half starts here at Liberty: Bakersfield High leads Highland 33-0 a couple of minutes before halftime. Looks like the Drillers are going to claim their half of the SEYL championship emphatically.

UPDATED, 8:48 p.m.: Garces had a chance to get back in it, with a Liberty fumble on a punt return, but the Patriots D pushed the ball back to about the 30, where the Rams' Randall Chafin missed a 47-yard field goal. It's still 14-0 at half, with Liberty 24 minutes from a share of a league title.
Elsewhere, Centennial leads Frontier 13-7 with a playoff berth at stake (the school won't let the Golden Hawks go to the postseason without three wins) and South is up 20-7 on Ridgeview. Both are late in the second quarter. BCHS leads Taft 14-7 at halftime.

UPDATED, 8:26 p.m.: Tough row to hoe now for Garces, after Liberty scores on its second Chris Neal touchdown run. The Rams don't have a first down in four possessions, and if they don't get something going by halftime, they're liable to be buried. Stockdale leads 21-7 at the half against West.

UPDATED, 8:08 p.m.: As expected, slow going for the offenses here at Liberty. Garces, though, made the game's first big mistake late in the first quarter, fumbling at its own 25 and giving the Patriots a big chance. They have a second-and-2 at the 6-yard line as the second quarter begins.
Meanwhile, two other teams looking for league championships are off to good starts — Bakersfield Christian leads Taft 7-0 after a quarter and Stockdale is up 14-0 on West in the first quarter.
And there's a Chris Neal touchdown run for Liberty on the first play of the second. Extra point is good, and it's 7-0 Pats.

ORIGINAL POST: I attended a once-a-year celebration this morning, Shafter-Wasco rivalry day. It's one of California's great high school traditions, to be sure.

It was quite an experience, between seeing the teams eat breakfast together to the bus rides from school to school to the raucous rallies Wasco (LOUD and spirited) and Shafter (creative and boisterous) had in front of the other team.

The season will end tonight for both the Tigers and Generals, who will both decline playoff invitations. So the biggest game of the year might as well be a championship game too.

There will be plenty of tangible championships to go around elsewhere tonight as the regular season concludes. Garces-Liberty, Bakersfield-Highland, West-Stockdale, Bakersfield Christian-Taft and Arvin-Tehachapi all will or could have an impact on league title races. There are plenty of other contests that will affect playoff seeding, which is unveiled Saturday.

Before we get to the scores, I wanted to correct something an alert reader caught in a couple of previous blogs. In the past couple of weeks, I said that Cesar Chavez has (1) never had a .500 season and (2) never beaten Delano. Both are technically wrong — Chavez was 5-5 in the regular season in 2005 and beat Delano 22-0 that year. The Titans lost in the first round of the playoffs to finish 5-6, but if we're talking regular season, they did go 5-5. So my apologies to all Chavez-inclined fans.

By the way, in the weekend's first big game, Kern Valley edged Frazier Mountain 10-7 to claim third place in the High Desert League. The top three go to the Southern Section playoffs, so, yeah, I'd say that qualifies as a pretty important win. Here are the rest of the weekend's games, a list that will be updated as the night goes on:

(All games are 7:30 p.m. Friday unless noted; Central Section rankings in parentheses)

Kern County scoreboard
Kern Valley 10, Frazier Mountain 7 (Thursday)
(8) Liberty 28, Garces 0
(10) Stockdale 35, West 14
(12) Bakersfield Christian 35, Taft 14
(13) Bakersfield 33, Highland 0
Tehachapi 24, Arvin 18
Golden Valley 44, Foothill 21
Centennial 30, Frontier 14
South 40, Ridgeview 7
North 29, East 14
Wasco 37, Shafter 26
Delano 26, Chavez 23
Farmersville 29, McFarland 8
Bishop 43, Desert 36
Boron 46, Yermo-Silver Valley 27
Burroughs 30, Victorville-Victor Valley 16
Riverdale Christian 42, Lighthouse Christian 20

Other Central Section scores
(1) Clovis West 34, Clovis 14
(2) Fresno-Bullard 41, Fresno-Hoover 3
(3) Visalia-El Diamante 54, Visalia-Golden West 34
(4) Clovis East 49, Madera 7
(5) Tulare Union 63, Tulare Western 0
(7) Clovis-Buchanan 48, Fresno-Central 7
Visalia-Central Valley Christian 14, (9) Exeter 7
(11) Hanford 28, Lemoore 2
(14) Corcoran 46, Strathmore 7
(15) Chowchilla 44, Dos Palos 3
Fowler 28, Caruthers 0
Madera Ranchos-Liberty 22, Coalinga 8
Dinuba 33, Reedley-Immanuel 6
Firebaugh 20, Mendota 0
Fresno-Roosevelt 28, Fresno 7
Laton 34, Lemoore-Kings Christian 32
Madera South 20, Fresno-McLane 16
Orange Cove 37, SLO-Mission Prep 34
Visalia-Redwood 35, Visalia-Mt. Whitney 21
Orosi 2, Fresno Christian 0 (forfeit)
Porterville 50, Porterville-Monache 26
Sanger 47, Reedley 7
Parlier 32, Riverdale 12
Kingsburg 35, Selma 14
Oakhurst-Yosemite 42, Tollhouse-Sierra 20
Fresno-SJ Memorial 24, Fresno-Sunnyside 7
Avenal 40, Tranquillity 20
Fresno-Washington 28, Kerman 23
Woodlake 31, Lindsay 20
Alpaugh 2, Sanger-Bethel Christian 0 (forfeit)
Clovis Christian 54, Visalia Christian 0