Grossmont probably wouldn’t recognize the musket trophy if it defeats Helix this week.

The Foothillers (6-2) and Highlanders (7-1) meet for the 61^st time in what is known as the battle of the musket, although there has been only carnage lately.

Helix has won the last 19 meetings, by an average score of 39-10.

Since 2008, the average Helix victory is 51-13. The Foothillers’ last win was 14-11 in 1992.

‘Twas not always thus.

Grossmont was 19-20-2 against its younger rival from 1951-92.

It’s not that Grossmont isn’t one of the better teams in the San Diego Section.  Since alumnus Tom Karlo moved over from Mount Miguel in 2012, the Foothillers are 52-22.

A Helix student, probably named Campbell, donated a long-bore musket weapon favored by Scottish highlanders before the schools met for the first time in 1951.

STILL WINNING

Mission Hills, Ramona, San Diego, El Centro Southwest, and Calvin Christian each 8-0, and 7-0 The Bishop’s are undefeated heading into the regular season’s penultimate games.

This week is particularly significant for coach Damon Baldwin and Ramona.

Defeat Poway and the Bulldogs will be 9-0 for the first time since 1959 and the era of Allen Brown and Melvin White.  They were among the leaders of the Bob McCutcheon-coached 12-0 team that was 23-0 over two seasons.

SAY, AREN’T YOU…?

Sweetwater has won 4 of 5 since a 66-0 loss to Lincoln and is recovering from the 1-9 and 2-8 of the last two seasons.

The Red Devils’ coach has a familiar name, if you’re familiar with placekickers.

Bryan Wagner set a San Diego Section record with a 53-yard placement for Hilltop in 1979.  Wagner’s kick now is the eighth longest in section history, bettered by 6 different kickers.

Wagner was in the NFL for nine seasons, but never attempted a field goal.  He was a punter for five different teams, including the San Diego Chargers in 1994.

HEAT WAVE

The hot weather this week reminds of another blast- furnace stretch.  On Sept. 27, 1963, the temperature in San Diego was a record 111 degrees.

The high was 104 the next day and at least 100 when Helix and Hoover kicked off at Hoover at 8 p.m.

Hoover rallied late in the fourth quarter for a 14-13 victory before a crowd of more than 6,000.

QUICK KICKS

Mission Hills stayed at 14^th and Helix at 29^th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports state rankings while Ramona got with the program at 50th…San Marcos has “bubble” status….

The Week 9 Union-Tribune poll:

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Pouint Loma (5-3, 14 points),  El Centro Southwest (8-0, 12) , Valley Center (7-1, 7),  El Camino (4-4, 6), Eastlake (6-2, 6), Otay Ranch (6-2, 3), San Diego (8-0, 2), Carlsbad (4-4, 2), Grossmont (6-2, 1).

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul, East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

Four outstanding athletes who graced the San Diego sports scene were among those who passed in the past months.

HORACE TUCKER

He was late reporting for football practice at San Diego High in 1952, because Tucker and teammate Floyd Robinson were involved with the American Legion Post 364 baseball team that was runner-up to a Cincinnati squad in the national tournament.

Tucker’s .452 average led all batters in the event and he won the Louisville slugger award.

A year later Tucker was the Cavers’ leading scorer in football with 6 touchdowns and 4 extra points, his 40-point total setting the pace for 4 others Cavers who scored at least 5 touchdowns in the 7-3 season.

JERRY LIPSCOMB

Mount Miguel didn’t suffer the usual fate of first-year schools in 1957, posting  a 5-3 record and followed with another 5-3 mark in 1958..

Lipscomb was the Matadors’ starting halfback and became an immediate star for the new school.

Lipscomb scored 41 points in 1957 and 52 in 1958, earning all-Metropolitan League honors as a senior and an invitation to play for the San Diego team in the annual Breitbard College Prep game against the all-Los Angeles City squad.

CLAUDELL HOWARD

A three-sport letterman in the era of Ed Buchanan at Kearny, Claudell was one of the top broad jumpers in his class in Southern California.

Howard was the Class C champion in the 1957 finals at Ontario Chaffey with a leap of 21 feet, 6 ½ inches, finished second in Class B in 1958, and also played football and basketball.

BOB TOMLINSON

His 68-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage gave Sweetwater a temporary, 6-0 lead over the powerful San Diego Hilltoppers in 1945.

Tomlinson was the fourth leading scorer in the Victory League with 7 touchdowns in 6 games.  He trailed only behind only the San Diego’s Harry West, Cosimo Cutri, and Joe Adamo, who played nine games.

Tomlinson also was a standout at San Diego State and was the first coach when Hilltop in east Chula Vista broke ground in 1960.

San Diego continued to impress; coaches moved on leaders in all-time victories, and St. Augustine rebounded.

San Diego improved to 7-0 with a 34-7 over Kearny, which took a 6-0 record into the game, as big, fast Raiden Hunter rushed for 270 yards in 17 carries and scored two touchdowns.

An impressive Central League turnout of about 4,500 persons included a San Diego cheering section that filled the visiting stands.

A win over Patrick Henry this week would send the Cavers to 8-0, a feat accomplished by San Diego teams in 1916, ’25, ‘45, ’47, ’50, ’55, ’57, and ’58. Only the ’16 (12-0) and ’55 clubs (11-0-1) got to the finish line unbeaten.

San Diego has two games remaining after the Patriots, at Crawford and at Coronado.

UP THE LADDER

Monte Vista’s 24-17 win over Santana moved the Monarchs to 4-3 and gave coach Ron Hamamoto his 214^th victory, moving Hamamoto past Helix’ Jim Arnaiz into seventh place among San Diego County coaches.

Valley Center’s 37-21 victory against Rancho Buena Vista left the Jaguars with a 6-1 record and was the 213^th in Rob Gilster’s career, tying Gilster with Arnaiz for eighth.

Next up for Hamamoto and Gilster is Ed Burke, who won 215 games at San Dieguito and Torrey Pines.  Burke won another 40-plus at King City before coming to the San Diego area.

REVITALIZED

St. Augustine, beaten by Carlsbad, swamped by L.A. Loyola, and pushed around by Helix earlier in the season, knocked Madison from the ranks of the undefeated with a solid, 19-10 victory.

The effort of the Saints’ defense helped overcome the loss of star wideout J.R. Justice, who sustained what may be a season-ending leg injury the previous week.

By winning their second straight and moving to 4-3, the Saints are positioning themselves for the Catholic bragging rights battle with Cathedral in the season’s final regular-season game in three weeks.

QUICK KICKS

Lincoln (6-1) is off to its best start since the Tony Jackson-coached Hornets opened 8-0 in 2000…that Lincoln team finished 11-2, beaten twice by Mission Bay…a win over El Camino this week would give Mission Hills’ Chris Hauser his 150^th coaching victory, achieved by 14 others…the Grizzlies also advanced to 14^th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports state rankings while Helix gained a notch to 29^th…La Costa dropped out of the top 50 and now has “bubble” status with Ramona, which is 7-0, off to its best start since 2013, and third in the Union-Tribune poll this week.

The Week 8 Union-Tribune poll:

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  El Camino (4-3, 16 points),  El Centro Southwest (7-0, 9),  , Valley Center (6-1, 2), Eastlake (5-2, 1), San Diego (7-0, 1), Carlsbad (4-3, 1).

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul, East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

There was no Week 6 blog, with the attendant rankings from The San Diego Union, because we were celebrating my beautiful bride’s birthday on a seven-day cruise south, along the Mexican Riviera. I had a fat attack, unable to resist the relentless, daily, gastronomic temptations.

There are several interesting games this week, two in particular:  San Diego and Kearny, each 6-0, meet on Kearny’s almost-new, lighted field, with the winner taking a big step toward a Central League championship, although Crawford would have to be heard from, and El Centro Southwest (6-0) plays host to Brawley (4-2) for Imperial Valley bragging rights.

KOMETS-CAVERS

Kearny has pulled ahead, 19-16, in a series that dates to 1950, when San Diego defeated the undermanned Komets, 58-12, but lost star player Charlie Powell for the rest of the season and half of basketball when Powell took a knee to the kidneys in the third quarter, when the Cavers led, 58-0.

Three seasons later the confident, 7-0 Komets played San Diego for the City Prep League championship but were dismissed, 27-0.  Birt Slater was in his first season as an assistant coach to Duane Maley at San Diego.

Coincidentally the unveiling of a plaque this week that will recognize the Kearny gridiron as “Birt Slater Field” salutes the man who left San Diego, made Kearny a dominant program in the ‘sixties and ‘seventies, and changed things with the Cavers.

Kearny had lost its first nine games against San Diego and faced a good Cavers team in the final regular-season game in 1963. The Larry Shepard-led Slater team shocked the Cavers, 52-14, sending the Komets flying into the playoffs and to their first San Diego Section championship.

Slater didn’t like talking about it but that breakthrough for Kearny may have represented the most satisfying victory of the 134 he amassed from 1959-76.

Slater had been in line for the San Diego job as early as the winter of 1956-57, but his  appointment would be contingent on when Maley retired, but Maley didn’t step down until after the 1959 season.

Birt had  moved on.

EVEN?

The Cavers are off to their best start since Maley’s 1958 club won its first six games.  The level of competition isn’t the same and San Diego shouldn’t be confused with those great Cavers teams of the ‘forties and ‘fifties, but winning has gotten alumni buzzing and students finding a reason to go to games.

Comparative scores seem to indicate a tossup.  Coach Will Gray’s Komets beat Francis Parker, 40-3, and San Diego Southwest, 59-28.  San Diego, under former University City mentor Charles James, defeated Parker, 54-7, and Southwest, 28-7.

DESERT DUSTUP

Brawley and El Centro Southwest joined the San Diego Section in 2000 and Brawley, in keeping with its seniority, has ruled the Eagles’ roost.

The Wildcats are 17-1 against Southwest since 2000.  The average score of the 18 games is 38-8, including 72-8 and 63-0 indignities.  Brawley has won 10 Imperial Valley League titles since the millennium and finished no lower than second in all other seasons.

Coach John Self has picked up the mantel handed down by John Bishop, known as the Desert King during his many years in the Valley, and Bishop had followed the tradition of Bob Farrell, whose ‘fifties Brawley teams were formidable Southern Section small-school operatives.

Southwest’s one victory in the series, 32-27 in 2010, marked the only season the Eagles have won the league championship.

But the school near Interstate 8,  at South 23^rd Street and Ocatillo Drive, has won 24 of its last 30 games since 2015 under coach John Mitosinka, while Brawley is 18-10 over the same period.

CALIFORNIA TOP 50

Mission Hills is 16th, Madison 23rd, Helix 30th, and La Costa Canyon 43rd in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports statewide rankings.

San Marcos, 45th last week, dropped out after a quasi-surprising, 38-21 loss to Torrey Pines.  Ramona, 6-0 for the first time since 2013, attained “bubble” status.

The Union-Tribune Week 7 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  El Camino (3-3, 15 points),  El Centro Southwest (6-0, 5),  Eastlake (4-2, 4), Valley Center (5-1, 4), St. Augustine (3-3, 2), Christian (5-1, 1), Grossmont (4-2, 1), Mira Mesa (5-1, 1).

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul, East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

Twelve former San Diego Section stars made the 32-team NFL rosters of 1,693 players at the start of the 2017 season.

Thirteen made the list in 2016 and 15 in 2015.

Helix was one of 40 schools with 3 players active.  St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, had 12, followed by Long Beach Poly with 7, two schools with 6, and six  with 5.

Florida led all schools with 212 players, followed by California (191), Texas (179), and Georgia 120.  Miami led by city with 25. Houston (17), and Fort Lauderdale (15) rank second and third.

The NFL incorrectly listed five players as having attended either San Marcos, Serra, or Cathedral from the San Diego Section.  Those players were from Santa Barbara San Marcos, Gardena Serra, and Los Angeles Cathderal.

Please contact me with corrections or additions.

Opinions are like a certain area of the anatomy.  Most of us have one.

The opinion of Scouts.com, which maintains a running list of  who’s who in high school football and who is being recruited by whom, is that the following table is indicative of the probable 10 best players in the San Diego Section.

The table reflects Scout.com‘s individual ranking for California players and is updated daily.

Helix’s Isaac Taylor-Stuart is considered the No. 4 player in the state, behind only three, five-star wide  receivers, Amron-Ra St. Brown, Santa Ana Mater Dei; Devon Williams, Lancaster Antelope Valley, and Jalen Hall, Long Beach Poly.

Other rating services will differ.

A FEW AT 5-0

At the regular season’s halfway juncture there are six teams with 5-0 records and eight with 4-0 records.

Three City League teams are on a collision course.  Kearny and Crawford are 5-0 and San Diego is 4-0.

The Komets, overlooked by us last week, are off to their best start since 1978.  Crawford was 5-0 as recently as 2013. San Diego is traversing ground not covered since the 5-0 team of  2011.

San Diego is favored this week as it opens league play against visiting Clairemont (2-3). Crawford is idle and will prepare for tough University City (4-1) at Hoover the following week.  Kearny also is off and awaits Coronado (1-3)  at home next week.

Other 5-0 teams are Mission Hills, San Marcos, Ramona, and La Costa Canyon.

Clubs with 4-0 records:  Calvin Christian, Christian, El Centro Central, El Centro Southwest, Madison, Mira Mesa, The Bishop’s.

TWO-SPORT THREAT

La Costa Canyon’s Karson Lippert, football player or track man?

He’s taken the field by storm in each.

Last week the 165-pound junior rushed for 312 yards in 20 carries ad scored on runs 80, 82, and 90 yards as the suddenly lethal Mavericks ran past Carlsbad, 36-21.

Lippert caught everyone’s attention in June at the state meet in Clovis, finishing a surprising and scorching second in the 400 meters in :46.91, second fastest in area history.

La Costa Canyon is off to its best start since 2009 but faces the meat of its schedule the next three weeks against Avocado League toughies El Camino, Mission Hills, and San Marcos.

GRIZZLIES,WARHAWKS ON MOVE

Mission Hills and Madison continue to make incremental gains in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports rankings.

The Grizzlies, No. 1 in San Diego, rose from 18th to 17th on Cal-Hi‘s state list.  Madison moved from 26th to 25th, and Helix dropped from 30th to 31st.

San Marcos crashed the top 50 at 48th and La Costa Canyon got some “on-the-bubble” cred.

The Union-Tribune Week 5 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Carlsbad (3-2, 14 points), Torrey  Pines (3-2, 13), Christian (4-0, 13),  Valley Center (4-1, 2), Mira Mesa (4-0, 1), Point Loma (3-2, 1), St. Augustine (2-3, 1).

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul, East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.