You could call it the “Battle of Banner Grade.”

Or, as the father of the Julian coach says, “It’s kind of a Cal-Stanford Big Game.”

Coach Tim White, the son of University of California alum and legendary San Diego Chargers lineman Ed White,  guided his Julian Eagles to two touchdowns in the final four minutes and then saw his team execute a nerve-wracking extra point to defeat Borrego Springs 34-33.

The two far East County clubs have been playing each other since 1967 and this season’s second meeting may have been the best.

Julian’s winning touchdown pass came with a price, a 15-yard penalty against the Eagles’ receiver, who back pedaled into the end zone and pointed at the Rams’ defenders.

Instead of being penalized on the ensuing kickoff, game officials assessed the infraction before the point after touchdown, resulting in an attempt of 35 yards.  A medium-range field goal, at least.  The kick was good.

Football is only part of Tim’s job description.  He also teaches algebra, geometry, and algebra 2 and doubles as athletic director at the mountain school.  “I must be a glutton for punishment,” he laughed.

Julian and Borrego Springs usually play a nonleague game early in the season before their Citrus League contest.  “We play them twice because they’re the only school left (in the San Diego Section) playing 11-man football that’s the same size (enrollment) as us,” said White.

So last week White and his band of 20 or so Eagles trekked the 45 minutes to Borrego, a journey beginning down the winding Banner Grade to the desert below.  The joyous ride back up, amid the switchbacks and tall pines, didn’t seem that long.

PIRATES GAIN STATEWIDE

Oceanside bludgeoned La Costa Canyon 56-0 last week and was a unanimous No. 1 selection in this week’s  UT-San Diego poll.  The Pirates also climbed from 17^th to 14^th in Cal Hi Sports‘ weekly ratings and is No. 1 in Southern California Division II.

The South ranking keeps the Pirates (8-1) in the driver’s seat in the race to a state bowl game playoff berth.

Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis

First-place votes in ( )

Team + Record + Points + Last Week

1. Oceanside (29) 8-1 290 1

2. Helix 7-1 247 2

3. Cathedral Catholic 7-2 199 4

3. Mission Hills 7-2 199 5

5. Poway 7-2 170 6

6. Olympian 9-0 150 7

7. La Costa Canyon 7-2 122 2

8. St. Augustine 7-2 78 9

9. Madison 8-1 46 NR

10. Eastlake 6-3 27 8

Others receiving votes: Valhalla (22), San Pasqual (12), Valley Center (6), Brawley (5), Patrick Henry (4), El Camino (1), Grossmont (1).

The chapter on football would be very brief in the history of the Army and Navy Academy and its history goes back to 1910.

They turn out soldiers and sailors at the boarding school on Highway 101 in Carlsbad.

So old and new Warriors have snapped to attention.  Coach Frank Henry’s Cadets improved their season record to 8-0 with a 62-3 victory over The Rock and remained tied for first place with Tri-City Christian in the Pacific League.

Army-Navy has been 8-0 once before, in 1990, under legendary coach John Maffucci, but finished 8-1 after a 37-27 loss to Holtville in the Division I championship.    The Warriors were 7-1 and won the San Diego Section small schools championship  in 1972.

An  8-2-1 season in 1998 under Damian Gonzalez, now the head coach at Poway,  included a 41-13 loss to The Bishop’s in the D-IV title game, and a 9-3 season under Bert Ford in 2008 was marked by a 63-7 loss to Francis Parker in the D-V championship.

Army-Navy and Tri-City will decide the Pacific champion  in the final regular-season game in two weeks.

THEN THERE WERE 2

Olympian defeated Chula Vista 45-31 to improve to 8-0 and remain the only other unbeaten San Diego Section team.   Grossmont dropped out of the undefeated ranks with a 39-28 loss to Valhalla

Olympian coach Gil Warren is no stranger to 8-0.  He won his first eight games Castle Park in 1969 and ’74, and at Olympian in ’09. As a player, Warren was 6-0 at Sweetwater in 1957, finishing 8-2.

JUST LIKE THE PROS!

Escondido’s Hector Espinosa toed a 36-yard field goal with three seconds left to give Escondido a 27-24 victory over Otay Ranch.  With the casual aplomb of an NFL kicker, Espinosa raised his arms signaling the winning kick as soon as his foot met the ball.

TRUE GRID

Andrell  Snowden rushed for 319 yards and three touchdowns in 15 carries in Olympian’s victory over Chula Vista…Snowden started the season behind Manny Montano,  who returns next week from an early-season injury…Serra is moving toward a championship in the new City League…the Conquistadors, who topped San Diego, 35-7, last won a title in the Eastern League in 2008…Oceanside and La Costa Canyon, 1-2 in the UT-San Diego poll, meet for the Avocado League West marbles next week…”The kids were not allowed to use the word Oceanside all week,” Mavericks coach Sean Sovacool told  writer Terry Monahan after a 21-0 victory over Vista…UT-San Diego contributor Jim Lindgren liked the old-school bermuda grass field and double posted, wooden uprights at Mar Vista, where the Mariners won their 12th consecutive Metro South Bay League game since 2009 by beating San Ysidro, 48-3.

 

Oceanside held sway for the fifth consecutive week in the renamed U-T San Diego poll of sportswriters and sportscasters. The San Diego newspaper recently acquired the North County Times, which created the poll.

John Carroll’s Oceanside Pirates routed Vista 44-0 in a game that was played in less than two hours because of a running clock  in the second half after Oceanside left the field leading 42-0 at intermission.

Vista was a San Diego Section Division I playoff finalist last season.

Carroll pulled most of his regulars in the third quarter and played reserves the rest of way.  Vista coach Danny Williams also provided playing time to reserves in the second half.

Oceanside earned 25 first-place votes and La Costa Canyon, ranked second, had two first-place votes.  In the only changes from Week 6, Grossmont moved from 10th to ninth and Eastlake moved up to 10^th.

 

Duane Maley felt like the guy who discovered that his wallet had been lifted after being jostled in a crowded theater.

Maley  ended up on the wrong side of the coin minutes after conclusion of a tight, competitive City Prep League season.  Maley’s San Diego Cavemen and Walt Harvey’s La Jolla Vikings, each with a 5-1 record, tied for first.

Lawrence Carr, the President of the City Prep League, conducted a telephonic coin flip which went in favor of the Vikings, propelling Harvey’s club into the Southern California playoffs for the first time since 1938.

Only one CPL representative could be chosen for the playoffs.

You couldn’t blame Maley if he hollered.

That Carr resided in La Jolla and had been the Vikings’ head coach from 1932-35 was a coincidence, but Carr also was one of Maley’s bosses!

Carr was the boys’ vice principal at San Diego High.

Maley’s unpleasant playoff fate was shared by the tall, gentlemanly Carr, who had a long history in athletics (three-sport star at Grossmont) and coaching (La Jolla football and Hoover basketball and track), and empathized with his frustrated colleague.

To add to the discomfort, Carr also carried a legacy that went back almost a half century at San Diego High.  His father taught math there for many years and was the Hilltoppers’ baseball coach in 1911.

VIKINGS MOST DESERVING?

Supporters of each team could mount a strong argument for their favorite.

La Jolla beat the Cavers, 7-6,  in their head-to-head matchup in Week 4.  The Vikings,  perhaps looking forward to their game with San Diego, ran afoul of Hoover, 20-0, the previous week.

San Diego beat Hoover 13-6 in the season finale.  Both teams had wins over third-place Point Loma.

La Jolla won a taut, 21-14 struggle at Point Loma (“That last five minutes, my goodness, I thought the game never would end,” said  Harvey) on the last afternoon of the regular season and took home the bronze “Shoe”, emblematic of the schools’ long rivalry.

San Diego topped the Pointers 15-6 in Week 6 with defense and the kicking game. The Hillers’ Jim Duschel blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety and Terry Dale averaged 40 yards on six punts and coffin-cornered three at the Pointers’ 10, 8, and 5-yard lines.

BLOCK THAT KICK!

The La Jolla-San Diego game, before a fog-bound, afternoon capacity crowd of 5,000 at Scripps Field, turned when the  Vikings’ Stan Wyatt  blocked Terry Dale’s punt and Tom Tomaiko recovered the ball on San Diego’s seven-yard line in the third quarter.

A touchdown pass from Dick Greenfield to Tomaiko in the corner of the endzone and Greenfield’s successful conversion gave the Vikings a 7-6 lead.

The Jewel City club  held on for the last 19 minutes, 40 seconds, Harvey’s 4-4-3 defense keeping the fleet San Diego runners from mischief.

“We played the 4-4 but went to a six-man line on punts,” Harvey said in remembering the pivotal block.

Evening Tribune writer Jerry Brucker termed the La Jolla victory, which ended the Hillers’ 12-game, regular-season winning streak, “astounding.”

KEOUGH IS KEY

La Jolla also manned-up in its first-round playoff with Pomona at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, battling the favored Red Devils before bowing, 27-21.

Harvey’s team couldn’t overcome a blocked punt, which was recovered by the hosts and positioned Pomona at the Vikings’ one-yard line, resulting in a touchdown and 14-7 lead.

Quarterback Marty Keough, a future major league outfielder, also kept the Vikings on their heels, rushing for 92 yards and three touchdowns and completing 10 of 16 passes for 99 yards before a largely Pomona crowd of some 7,000 persons.

As Dick Corrick, the linebacker and blocking quarterback in La Jolla’s single wing observed, “That Keough, he was smooth as glass.”

Pomona went on to win the Southern California championship with a 26-13 victory over Monrovia.

‘NEEDY’ GOES OUT A WINNER

Coronado’s Hal Niedermeyer, who ended a 20-year coaching stint at Coronado after the 1950 season, guided the Southern California All-Stars to a 19-16 victory over the Los Angeles City All-Stars in the 1951, third annual  Breitbard College Prep game before 13,000 persons in Balboa Stadium.

Covina’s Jim Hanifan, a future NFL head coach with the St. Louis Cardinals and an assistant to Don Coryell at San Diego State, the Cardinals, and the San Diego Chargers, intercepted an L.A. pass and raced 30 yards for a touchdown that put the Southern Californians up, 19-10.

The game, played with a rubber football favored by Eastern teams in poor weather and not the traditional pigskin, involved recent high school graduates and had 10 San Diegans on the Southern roster, including San  Diego’s Charlie Powell.

Niedermeyer  joined the Coronado faculty in 1930, and posted a 62-54-10 football record in 14 seasons, beginning in 1937, and was 122-64 in basketball.  He bowed out with a co-Metropolitan League football championship.

A Long Beach Poly alum, Niedermeyer started at Coronado in 1930 and won a Southern Prep League championship his first season.

Niedermeyer’s successor, Lloyd (Jack) Whetstone, guided the Islanders to an 8-2 record this season.

The transbay team, behind halfback Harry Sykes, Swede Grimaud, John Hannon, and others, defeated Vista 32-0 in the first round of the lower division playoffs, and then bowed to eventual champion Brawley, 23-14, in the semifinals.

I WENT TO GROSSMONT, DIDN’T I?

For years actor and director Dennis Hopper said he was from Grossmont when asked where he went to high school.

A star in “Easy Rider”, “Hoosiers”, and other popular movies, including the 1955 classic “Rebel Without a Cause” with James Dean, Hopper was correct about attending classes at Grossmont, but may have had a memory lapse about which was his real alma mater.

Before he went on to a legendary Hollywood career, Hopper was voted most likely to succeed in the Helix graduation class of 1954.

Hopper’s freshman year was at Grossmont, but he was in the first wave of students at the new Helix High, which became the County’s 22^nd  high school when it opened in September, 1951.

Because the Helix campus still was under construction, Hopper and the rest of the new Highlanders attended split sessions at Grossmont.

School was for Grossmont students in the morning and Helix students in the afternoon.

COINCIDENCE, MAYBE

Hopper’s wasn’t the only Grossmont connection to “Rebel Without a Cause.” Beverly Long played the role of Helen, co-star Natalie Wood’s friend.

Beverly was a 1950 graduate of Grossmont and also appeared in television’s “Father Knows Best” before embarking on a long career as a casting director.

Was Beverly Long a possible connection to Hollywood for the aspiring Hopper?

Reader and Helix historian Roger Conlee pointed out that Hopper also acted in school plays at Helix and at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater before heading north.

FOOTBALL, TOO

The  60-odd candidates for coach Ken Maynard’s first Helix team weren’t able to take advantage of the split session and sleep in.  Football practice for Helix was at 9:30 a.m., followed by classes from 1 p.m. to 5:40 p.m.

Grossmont gridders weren’t taking the afternoon off at the beach.  Football practice began at 2 p.m. School classes went from 8 a.m. until noon.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

“West La Mesa High”, which was to open in September of this year, was admitted to the City Prep League when the CIF executive council  met in  Los Angeles in December, 1950.

Voters a month earlier had approved construction of the new “University Avenue High School”, which would be located  beyond the San Diego city limits in western La Mesa at 7323 University Avenue.

Neither of the school names were for long.  The name was changed in January, 1951, when the board of trustees of the Grossmont School district adopted “Helix”.

A board member suggested Helix in honor of the nearby, 1,365-foot Mount Helix, also known for religious services and a visible cross, erected at the peak in 1925.

HARBINGER 

Sophomore halfback C.R. Roberts provided a glimpse of the future, running 46 yards for a touchdown in Oceanside’s Week 2, 19-6 loss at Orange.

Roberts finished the season with five touchdowns and 30 points, a total he would match in single games more than once in his  junior and senior seasons.

HONORS

Tackle Andy Skief or La Jolla and guard Jim Schafer of San Diego were all-Southern California first team. Fullback George Stephenson and end John Van Hooser of Hoover were second team and halfback Frank Johnson of San Diego was third team.

Coronado center Wilson Whitmire and halfback Harry Sykes made the all-Southern California small schools team.

BIG GUYS SEPARATED

Hoover and San Diego did not meet in the final quarter of the 13^th annual City Schools’ carnival, in order to put other schools “on equal footing” with the two longtime giants, as school officials vaguely noted (read “jealousy”).

About 23,000 saw the West of Kearny, Hoover, and Point Loma beat the East’s Helix, La Jolla, and San Diego, 14-7.  Grossmont sat out.

Carnival squads operated under a new CIF rule that allowed a full, two-platoon system.  The system previously was allowed only on a limited basis.

CANDY CANES?

Hoover unveiled a new uniform of striped jerseys and matching socks when coach Bob Kirchhoff’s squad took the field in the carnival.

The Cardinals, who tied La Jolla,7-7, in the exhibition, were almost perfect in their usual season opener with San Bernardino.

Hoover defeated the host Cardinals 38-7 as George Stephenson rushed for 172 yards and three touchdowns.  The only glitch was in Hoover’s kicking game. John Clinger, who was more effective as an all-City tackle, had his last four conversion attempts blocked.

The Cardinals’ promising season was sidetracked when Stephenson’s backfield mate, Tom Chrones, went down with a season-ending injury in the third quarter of a 20-0 victory over La Jolla in Week 3.

Chrones had scored two touchdowns in the first game and three more in the second as Hoover defeated Helix, 32-6.

HOOVER’S WARRIOR

In what The San Diego Union writer Gene Earl said was a “season vibrant with excitement, explosive individual performances, close contests, and the unpredictable,” the play of George Stephenson in his final game for Hoover perhaps stood above all.

Stephenson touched the ball 40 times, either by running, catching or punting, and was unbowed, earning the admiration of the 11,000 fans in Balboa Stadium, despite the 13-6 loss to San Diego.

Stephenson was City League player of the year and enrolled at UCLA.

Unhappy, Stephenson  transferred to the University of California and was an unsuspecting participant in the breakup of the Pacific Coast Conference after Stephenson was interviewed by a Look Magazine writer who wrote of payoffs to players at conference schools.

Hoover coach Bob Kirchhoff remained friends with Stephenson, who was Kirchhoff’s partner on the sideline downs-and-markers, chain gang crew at San Diego Chargers games for more than 20 years.

QUICK KICKS

Harry Sykes of Coronado was the County’s leading scorer with 81 points, 11 more than runner-up Dick Greenfield of La Jolla…Mar Vista coach Gerry Spitler resigned after two seasons to take a position in the Marshall Islands as a recreation director…Helix coach Ken Maynard did not profit from the school split, inheriting only two lettermen and a few junior varsity and sophomore veterans…the lettermen were nuggets, halfback Ernie Merk and end Howard Fackrell…San Diego dominated old tormentor Long Beach Poly, 31-7, despite three first-half touchdowns called back because of penalties…the Cavers’ Week 2 game against L.A. Roosevelt was their first against an inner-city Los Angeles school since it met Manual Arts in 1925…freshman Karl Jordan  quarterbacked Helix in its first-ever game, a 19-13 win over St. Augustine…Kearny’s Kirby Woods ran 73 yards in the carnival, La Jolla’s Frankie Rivas 80 against Chula Vista, and San Diego’s Alex Hudson 83 against Long Beach Poly, but all were short of touchdowns…Rhode Island transfer John Mellekas became a second  team all-City lineman for San Diego, matriculated at Arizona, was drafted in the fourth round by the Chicago Bears, and played eight seasons in the NFL…Week 1 was bad for the Southern Prep League…Ramona, Mountain Empire, Army-Navy, Brown Military Academy, and Fallbrook were a combined 0-4-1…Ramona was beaten by Wildomar Elsinore 40-6, but was the only league team to score…Empire struggled to a scoreless tie with Calipatria…Erwin Hedstrom kicked a 30-yard field goal for the difference in Oceanside’s 9-7 win over San Dieguito, the first three-pointer in the County since four different players launched successful placements in 1942…Hoover’s John Clinger and San Diego’s Learnold Stallings, a pair of 200-pound tackles, each kicked 27-yard PAT’s after penalties set their teams back against La Jolla and Helix, respectively…press accounts of teams’ preseason prospects stressed whether the T formation was the offensive formation of choice  or the single and double wings, which some clubs still preferred…Hoover was offside on a kickoff return against Point Loma, negating a 65-yard return  by George Stephenson in a 14-0 loss…”We were terrible,” said Hoover’s Kirchhoff, whose team fell to 2-1 in league play…”It was like two sluggers pounding each other and we had the most punch,” said Point Loma’s Don Giddings, whose team went to 3-0 and added,  “Give all the credit to Hil Crosthwaite and Bennie Edens, who coach our defense”…San Diego’s 25-0 victory over Grossmont was vintage Cavers running game: Alex Hudson had 103 yards in 6 carries, Eddie Duncan 76 in 11, and Frank Johnson 64 in 6….

 

Army-Navy, Grossmont, Olympian, and Otay Ranch continue to win, each improving to a 6-0 won-loss record.  Calexico, Patrick Henry, Hoover, and West Hills all were beaten after winning their first five games.

Army-Navy scored a 1-0, forfeit win over Calvin Christian.  Grossmont defeated Granite Hills, 48-6.  Olympian beat El Capitan, 41-6, and Otay Ranch topped Bonita Vista, 40-10.

Week 7 will mark  showdowns in the second week of league play.

Otay Ranch visits Olympian in the Metro Mesa League.  Grossmont visitsSteele Canyon in the Grossmont Hills and Army-Navy is host to Maranatha Christian, which returned to 11-man football this season, in the Pacific League.

NO CHANGE IN TOP 10

As in Week 5, Oceanside is No. 1 in the North County Times Top 10 through Week 6, followed in the same order by La Costa Canyon, Helix,  Cathedral  Catholic, Mission Hills, Poway, Olympian, St. Augustine, Otay Ranch, and Grossmont.

COUNTRY DAY ENDS LOSSES

La Jolla Country Day’s 27-6 win over Francis Parker was its first over the Patriots since 1993.  The Torres snapped a 0-9-1 streak  to Parker, which holds a 20-8 edge since the series began in 1971.

SPARTANS’ MISERY

Chula Vista’s 49-21 loss to Eastlake embodied frustration.

The Spartans took the third quarter kickoff trailing, 34-21, and held the ball for 18 consecutive plays before settling for a field goal attempt, which was blocked and returned 88 yards by Kiefer Graham for a Titans touchdown.

TRUE GRID

Helix’ 5-foot, 9-inch, 260-pound defensive tackle Amu Milo was everywhere in the Scots’ win over Valhalla,  even passing on the halftime team meeting to be crowned Homecoming King…Orange Glen celebrated the school’s 50^th anniversary with a 24-20 victory over San Marcos…Rancho Buena Vista is 3-3 after 17 consecutive losses since 2010 and the 36-0 rout of Vista marked the Broncos’ first win over the Panthers since 2006…Oceanside’s cheerleaders were worn out after the 54-3 victory over Carlsbad, having dropped to the track at Simcox Field and doing pushups until matching the number of  points posted by the Pirates….

 

It has been said for years  that San Diego produces many  of the best of the best players, but falls short when matching up with teams from North of the County line. That holds true in 2012.

Not counting Imperial County members, San Diego Section squads were 29-25-2  in pre-league intersectional games this season, but many of those involved lower division or 8-man squads.

Well-regarded local clubs were 0-5 in high profile contests against ranked, Southern Section tough guys from Orange and Riverside Counties.

The breakdown, including up-to-date won-loss records of the Southern Section  teams in parenthesis:

(4-1) Temecula Chaparral 40, Oceanside 30.

(6-0) Mission Viejo 35, Mission Hills 21.

(4-2) San Clemente 21, La Costa Canyon 10.

(5-0) Vista Murrieta 21, Cathedral 10.

(6-0) El Toro 77, Valhalla 46.

There were exceptions:

LaCosta Canyon 42, Baldwin Park  0 (0-6).

Orange Glen 41, Oxnard Hueneme 7 (1-4).

Oceanside 34, Oakdale, Sac-Joaquin Section, 14 (4-1)

Steele Canyon 49, Canyon Country Canyon 49 (3-1-1).

Oceanside is the No. 1 team in the latest North County Times poll.  La Costa Canyon is second, Cathedral third, and Mission Hills fifth.  Valhalla is unranked.

Demographics, population areas, interest, and facilities aren’t that much different.  Most Orange and Riverside County  schools are within at least an hour from most of the San Diego schools.

Despite the losses, those San Diego coaches willing to schedule the tough nonleague games at the expense of wins and win streaks deserve some props.

WHAT GIVES?

 Why the domination?

“It’s the intensity of the programs up here,” says Dave Ogas.   “Nothing is overlooked.”

Ogas played for Don Coryell at San Diego State and was with the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills in the NFL.  Ogas  was head coach for more than 20 years at Rancho Santiago College  in Santa Ana and coached in San Diego at Mount Miguel  and Mission Bay.

Intensity may be the answer if you’re to believe the report out of Orange County recently that the coach and team president  were offering bounties …to their Tustin Pop Warner League team.

Give those San Diego Section coaches credit  who are willing to schedule the tough nonleague games year in and year out.

Hoover, Otay Ranch, Olympian, Calexico, Grossmont, Army-Navy, Patrick Henry, and West Hills represent the  San Diego Section’s Elite 8 this week as teams reached the halfway pole in the season and get ready to open league play.

The eight teams are the only 5-0 squads of the 95 playing football in the San Diego Section.

Grossmont  (11) and Hoover (8), the oldest schools, have more 5-0 starts than the others combined.

5-0 prior to 2012:

Grossmont , 1925, ’33, ’34, 47, ’61, ’66, ’67, ’70, ’95, ’02, ’10.

Hoover, 1934, ’35, ’49, ’54, ’56, ’99, ’07, ’09.

Patrick Henry, 1971, ’74, ’96, ’97, ’99.

Army-Navy, 1987, ’90, ’02.

Otay Ranch, 2004, ’05.

West Hills, 1995.

Olympian, 2009.

Calexico’s 5-0 is its first in the San Diego Section.  The Bulldogs and other Imperial Valley schools  joined the San Diego Section in 2000 and prior records have not been researched.

ONE UNHAPPY POWEGIAN

No one is claiming a record, except on the frustration meter.

Poway’s Ryan Sharpe returned three second-quarter punts for touchdowns against Valley Center…and all three were nullified by penalties.

The Division II Titans still overpowered the Jaguars, 38-6.  It was the second straight smackdown for D-IV Valley Center, which stepped up to face D-I  Mission Hills in Week 4 and lost 38-14.