FSN Prime Ticket scores touchdown with prep football: the network will provide coverage of the state championship games.

More than 12,000 fans turned out to watch Long Beach Poly's football team knock off unbeaten Notre Dame High of Sherman Oaks in a 31-21 thriller at Long Beach's Veterans Stadium recently.

Thousands more caught the rebroadcast of the game on regional cable station FSN (formerly Fox Sports Network) Prime Ticket.

Capitalizing on the popularity of prep football in Southern California and the first state championship in 79 years, the network will air six post-season games. Prior to this year the California Interscholastic Federation crowned Northern and Southern Section champs, but awarded no overall titles.

The Poly-Notre Dame game was a Southern Section quarterfinal. A semi-final match between Edison and Santa Margarita is scheduled for Dec. 1. The southern section championship game airs Dec. 9.

The following day, FSN will cover the championship committee selection process, including the live announcement of the six teams that will advance to the state championships.

Finally, on Dec. 16, FSN will telecast the California State Football Championships in three divisions, with kick-offs at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Local advertisers have long benefited from supporting school sports. This year Toyota has secured the sponsorship for the tournament, and one big-box retailer will get plenty of mentions thanks to the name of a stadium in Carson.

"As for SoCal, we're going to have those three games back to back, about 11 and a half hours of programming in one day," said Jennifer Johnson, communications director at FSN. "It will be great exposure for the Home Depot Center and all the events that happen there."

While FSN has an exclusive with the championship games, other broadcasters have moved into high school sports. KABC (Channel 7) has Sports Zone, KCAL (Channel 9) has Sports Central, KNBC (Channel 4) has bulked up its prep coverage and cable franchise-holders often air local games.

There is one somewhat annoying side effect to the increased coverage for fans attending the games.

"They have TV timeouts for commercials just like the big guys," said Notre Dame fan Dominic Manente of Burbank.

Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at [e-mail], or at [phone], ext. 237.