How significant is 4-0?

Depends on your perspective.

Nice, but, hey, we’re used to being there, would be the reaction from Mission Hills, Calexico Vincent Memorial, Christian, Crawford, El Centro Southwest, San Marcos, and Calvin Christian.

All of those teams have reached the above juncture at least once since 2013.

Madison, La Costa Canyon, and El Centro Central have reason to feel more than nice.

Madison?

No, the Warhawks, despite winning state championships in ’12 and ’16, haven’t been 4-0 since 2011. La Costa Canyon last was 4-0 in 2009 and El Centro Central in 2008.

Which leaves two others from this eclectic group of 14. They wouldn’t know 4-0 from a leather football.

None of the 2017 University City or Mira Mesa players were around when their schools were unbeaten and untied at this point.

For U. City it hasn’t  happened since 1992, when the Steve Vokojevich-coached Centurions finished with a 9-2 record, best in school history.

For Mira Mesa it was 1997, when the Marauders were 8-4 in Gary Blevins’ second season as head coach.

University City was 60-151-3 (.287) under seven different coaches from 1993 until 2014, when Charles James, now trying to rejuvenate San Diego High, was 7-5.  The Centurions are 19-9 since 2015 under Ryan Price.

BLEVINS FOLLOWED BRAD

Blevins, in his 22^nd season, is only the second head coach at Mira Mesa.

Brad Griffith ran the program from its start-up in 1977 until he retired after the 1994 season.

Try finding another of the 90-odd teams playing football in the San Diego Section with similar stability.

Over 196 games during Griffith’s 18 seasons, the Marauders  compiled a 112-76-2 (.577) record, won two league championships, appeared in one San Diego Section title game, and got to the playoff semifinals four times.

Blevins reached game 196 in his 16^th season in 2010 and was 120-73-3 (.620), had won or tied for 5 league titles and reached the semis five times and the championship game once.

Mira Mesa is only 28-39-1 since 2011 and their unbeaten start will be facing stiffer challenges, beginning this week against Steele Canyon, followed by Morse and Western League rivals Point Loma, Cathedral, St. Augustine, and Madison, opponents with a combined 11-8 record.

University City is not faced with such a daunting challenge as it prepares for City League play. Crawford, in Week 6, is the most formidable. Combined, Centurion opponents, also including Serra, Hoover, Patrick Henry, and La Jolla are 8-11.

The Union-Tribune Week 4 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Eastlake (3-1, 36 points), Torrey  Pines (2-2, 30), Christian (4-0, 10),  St. Augustine (2-2, 5), Oceanside (2-2, 1), Cathedral (1-3, 1), Olympian (3-1, 1), Point Loma (2-2, 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.

Baby steps to others are leaps and bounds at San Diego High.

Save for a 13-8-2 record by the Keir Kimbrough-coached squads in 2010 and 2011, the Cavers have endured stretches of apathy and losses that extend into the misty past.

San Diego is 32-109-3 since 2002 and have had 12 winning seasons in the last 48, dating to 1970.

Shan Deniston’s 1974 club, led by the great running back, Michael Hayes, was 6-3 and tied for the Western League championship with Clairemont.

The Cavers have not finished that high since.

Which gives rise to their 2-0 start this season under coach Charles James, who took over the downtrodden program and was recipient of several kicks to the pelvic region in the 1-9 and 2-8 seasons of 2015 and ’16.

SCOREBOARD BUSY

San Diego has scored 82 points in 28-7 and 54-7 wins over San Diego Southwest and Francis Parker.

Such offensive fireworks haven’t been witnessed since…better take a seat…since the heyday of legendary Duane Maley and the fearsome Cavemen of the 1950s.

Maley’s 1958 squad scored 84 points in its first two games, defeating Kearny, 25-0, and La Jolla, 59-0.

The 82 points in the first two games of the 2017 team have been bettered in only four other seasons by the squads originally known as the Hilltoppers, in 1945, 1925, 1920, and 1919.

The Cavers face 2-1 Montgomery this week in what looks like an even matchup, one more challenging than the first two.

Whatever lies in store for the Cavers and James, who has roots at University City and Morse, it’s still a nice way to start the season.

CHANGES

Parris Pisiona, 12-12 since 2015, is out at El Cajon Valley.  He was replaced by the school’s vice principal before a 32-21 win over Clairemont.

The mysteries surrounding the tenures of Jerry Ralph at El Camino and Hans Graham at Castle Park drag on as the coaches remain in limbo.

Neither Ralph nor Graham has coached a game this year.

QUICK KICKS

Beat Casteel High of Phoenix-area Queen Creek this week and Monte Vista coach Ron Hamamoto will tie Helix’ Jim Arnaiz for seventh place among all-time County coaches with 213 victories…Arnaiz held sway at Helix for 27 seasons, 1973-99…Hamamoto, beginning in 1985,  spent 11 years at University, 11 at Rancho Bernardo, 4 at Lincoln, and is in his sixth season with the Monarchs…Mission Hills’ Chris Hauser, who started at Vista in 2000, won his 144^th game last week over Desert Hills of St. George, Utah, and is tied with Escondido’s legendary Bob (Chick) Embrey for 18th…San Ysidro, 3-0 for the first time since the school opened in 2004, steps up in competition at Calexico Vincent Memorial, also 3-0 and 18-7 under David Wong since 2015…Damon Baldwin’s Ramona Bulldogs will try to become 4-0 for the first time since 2014 when they begin Palomar League play against visiting Rancho Bernardo….

The Union-Tribune Week 3 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Ramona (3-0, 44 points), La Costa Canyon (3-0, 44), Oceanside (2-1, 9) St. Augustine (1-2, 9), Christian (3-0, 4), Eastlake (2-1, 3), Grossmont (2-1, 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.

Palm Springs defeated Scripps Ranch, 42-35, in two overtimes and Army-Navy’s topped Perris Military, 21-20, in one overtime last week.

Both of those game results presumably were more easily reached than the first in 1976.

That was the year of imposition of the new “California Tie-Breaker”.

As noted by Steve Brand, The San Diego Union representative who covered the game:

“History-making events are supposed to be heralded with sounding trumpets and helium-filled balloons.”

But a 6-6, semifinals playoff tie between Morse and El Camino resulted in “disappointment and confusion,” all because of the new rule, wrote Brand.

The young scribe, on a morning newspaper deadline, was not a happy camper.

Brand, as one deadline after another was missed, described “a twenty-minute discussion between officials, coaches, players, and statisticians over first downs, penetrations inside the 20-yard line, and a mysterious stopping of the clock just before the game ended.”

The teams had tied with 7 first downs each and both had made two penetrations inside their opponent’s 20-yard line.  Those represented the first two elements of the new system.

Play resumed when the third tie-breaker kicked in.  Each team was given four plays from the 50-yard line.

Morse lost the coin toss and had first possession.

The Tigers had a net of minus two yards after four plays that included a 15-yard penalty. El Camino took over and essentially fell on the ball four consecutive plays, according to Brand.

The Wildcats were declared winners but the game went into the books as a tie.

Brand noted that the game was played at Vista, a technically neutral site, but the clock “inadvertantly” stopped as time was running out and El Camino close to what would be an eighth and tie-breaking first

What happens if there still is a deadlock after each team has had three possessions of the ball in overtime?

A touchdown and two-point conversion can send everyone home, as long as the other team doesn’t match.

There is no time limit and no finite number of overtime periods.

BEWARE

Earth to San Diego’s usually elite teams:  Give certain Orange County squads a wide berth.

But if you’re Helix, or Cathedral, or Mission Hills, you’re not afraid of challenges, even if the results haven’t always been positive.

Cathedral, the defending state Division 1-AA champion, ran afoul of the Trinity League’s Orange Lutheran last week in one of the Honor Bowl games.

The 37-0 loss was the Dons’ most decisive since a 40-14 defeat by another Trinity team, Rancho Santa Margarita, in 2015.

Helix had Santa Margarita neighbor Mission Viejo of the South Coast League on the ropes but a fumble with two minutes left opened a door through which the host Diablos scored a 32-28, Southern California playoff victory in 2015.

Mission Hills, which dropped a 35-21 decision to Mission Viejo in 2012 and now is No. 1 in the weekly San Diego Union-Tribune poll, is one of the handful of San Diego Section teams that annually schedule major intersectional opponents.

The Grizzlies have gotten off seemingly easy this season, defeating Paramount of the Southern Section, 41-14, in their opener and slamming Desert Hills from St. George, Utah, 42-7, last week.

Cathedral is ninth in the Union-Tribune voting after its second consecutive loss (Loomis Del Oro, a stout Sacramento area entry, won, 22-13, in Week 1) and Helix dropped from first to third when it was upended, 23-6, by Lancaster Paraclete in the Honor Bowl.

TRUE GRID

Mission Hills rose from 41^st to 23^rd and Madison  from 35^th to 27^th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports’ poll…Helix dropped from 10^th to 29^th and Cathedral, St. Augustine, and Torrey Pines are on the bubble…all six Trinity League teams are in the top 25 and Orange Lutheran rose from 25^th to 14^th…Lancaster Paraclete moved from 32^nd to 21^st.

The Union-Tribune Week 2 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Cathedral (0-2, 49 points), Oceanside (1-1, 16) Eastlake (2-0, 13), Ramona (2-0, 10), Valley Center (2-0, 10), La Costa Canyon (2-0, 7).

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.

Too early for trends, but Cathedral’s defending state 1-AA champion has some catching up to do and Helix is positioning itself to make a run such as the Dons’ in 2016.

The Highlanders, preseason ranked 12^th in Cal-Hi Sports’ overview, eased to a 35-0 victory over Utah’s No. 15 West Herriman, and moved up to 10^th in this week’s poll.

The competition revs a notch for the Scots this week, when they meet Lancaster Paraclete in an Honor Bowl game at Cathedral.

The Spirits, from Southern California’s Antelope Valley, 70 miles North of Los Angeles and 87 miles Southeast of Bakersfield, were an unknown quantity when they first faced a San Diego team in 2016.

Paraclete, 12-4, ushered undefeated and 13-0 Mater Dei out of the Southern California playoffs, 34-18, won the state D-III championship, and opened last week with a 48-24 win over Phelan Serrano.

Cathedral, Cal-Hi’s preseason No. 14, dropped to 22 this week after visiting Loomis Del Oro, near where the Dons topped Stockton St. Mary’s, 38-35, in Sacramento in the state final in 2016.

The Dons were tied, 12-12, in the third quarter but Del Oro, 13-3 a year ago, preseason ranked fifth in the Sacramento area, pulled away to a 22-12 victory.

Cathedral gets back into the fray this week in another Honor Bowl game at home against Trinity League toughie Orange Lutheran, which defeated La Mirada, 11-3 a year ago, 35-13 last week.

Mission Hills opened with a 41-14 yawner at Paramount and gets Utah’s St. George Desert Hills this week.

TRUE GRID

Grossmont was surprised, 22-13, by The Bishop’s and there was an online report that Foothillers coaches and players suffered from intestinal flareups after the team meal…coach Tom Karlo is 5-1 in openers at Grossmont and was 7-0 from 2005-11 at Mount Miguel…Crawford improved to 26-15 in its occasional rivalry that dates to 1958 with neighboring Hoover…the schools are only a mile and a half apart in East San Diego, but the Colts’ 31-0 victory was in their first meeting with Hoover since 2010 and the first over the Cardinals since 2003…Carlsbad’s 49-0 beatdown of Del Norte was the Lancers’ most one-sided win in an opening game since 54-0 over Hoover in 1980…football is not catching on at Del Norte…the Nighthawks are 27-50 all-time since 2010…Bonita Vista’s 39-7 loss to Poway marked the Barons’ poorest first-game effort in school history dating to 1967…Christian’s 60-38 win at Hurricane, Utah, was the Patriots’ seventh opener in a row without a loss and made coach Matt Oliver 12-1-1 in first games…Manuel Diaz, Sr., was 1-5 in openers at Clairemont from 1997-02…son Manuel, Jr., won the first game of his head coaching career, leading Clairemont to a 34-0 win over Orange Glen…what a difference year makes:  San Ysidro whacked Coronado, 41-14, after losing to the Islanders, 39-12 in 2016…Imperial beat Yuma Cibola of Arizona, 55-14, after losing to the same team,  33-27 last season…St. Augustine, despite a 51-12 victory over North Las Vegas Canyon Springs, dropped from 22 to 23 in Cal-Hi rankings.

The Union-Tribune Week 1 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  The Bishop’s (1-0, 36 points), Eastlake (1-0, 15) Ramona (1-0, 11), Carlsbad (1-0, 10), Valley Center (1-0, 6), Poway (1-0, 3), San Pasqual (1-0, 2), La Costa Canyon, 1-0), Valhalla, 1-0) 1 point each.

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.

Enriched by the transfer from St. Augustine of running back-defensive back Isaac Taylor Stuart (a four- or five star recruit, according to  grading services), coach Robbie Owens’ Helix Highlanders begin the season as the No. 1 team in the San Diego Section, according to the 28-member Union-Tribune voting panel.

The Scots, 10-3 a year ago, received 19 first-place votes.  Cathedral, defending state D-1AA champion,  received seven, and Mission Hills and Lincoln one each.

Helix is 12th in Cal-Hi Sports‘ preseason, California top 50 poll.

Cathedral, 14, and St. Augustine, 22, are the other San Diego Section teams in Cal-Hi‘s first 25.  Madison is 36th, Mission Hills, 43rd, and Torrey Pines is on the bubble.

The state CIF has 1,587 schools, although many do not field teams..  The internet site Max Preps  lists 94 schools fielding teams of the 127 dues-paying members in the San Diego Section.

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  The Bishop’s (14-1, 24 points), Point Loma (5-7, 22), Mater Dei (13-1, 15), Rancho Bernardo (11-1,15), Grossmont (9-2, 14), Carlsbad (4-8, 13), La Costa Canyon (6-6, 13), Eastlake (2-9, 8), Olympian (8-5. 6), Valley Center (10-2, 5), Ramona (5-6, 2), Valhalla (8-3, 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.

David Grayson, who retired before the 1971 NFL season as one of the pro game’s all-time defensive backs, passed away recently at age 78.

Grayson intercepted 48 passes from 1961-70 in the American Football League and NFL as a member of the Dallas Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, and Oakland Raiders.

The 5-foot, 10-inch, 187-pounder with sprinter speed  was named to the all-time all-AFL team, the high point of a great career that began in the San Diego City Prep League.

Grayson was a starting defensive back and played fullback on the 11-0-1, 1955 San Diego High team that won the Southern California championship and was acclaimed the national high school team of the year.

Grayson and teammate Luther Hayes transferred to Lincoln after their junior football seasons at San Diego and they put the fledgling program of coach Walt Harvey’s on the map the following year.

Lincoln posted a 5-2-1 record in 1956 and came within a few feet of tying San Diego and Hoover for first place in the City Prep League.

Grayson’s  45-yard pass interception return set up one touchdown in the season-ending, 26-19 loss to San Diego and his 36-yard option pass to a diving Leonard Burnett put the Hornets on San Diego’s eight-yard line with time running out in the fourth quarter.

Hayes gained five yards but then was stopped short of the goal line  as the game ended.

“I should have given the ball to Grayson,” Harvey said of the last play years later.

The coach’s reasoning was that the quicker Grayson, shorter and more compact than the lanky Hayes, would have been able to find space in the Cavers’ defensive line and get the Hornets into position to tie the favored Cavemen.

The 170-pound Grayson made the all-City League team on offense and was one of the premier sprinters in the County during the spring track season with a best time of 10 seconds in the 100-yard dash.

Grayson and Lincoln also posted a time of 1:29.2 in the 880-yard relay and qualified for the CIF Southern Section finals.

Grayson was a member of San Diego Junior College’s 1957 Metropolitan Conference football championship squad and teamed with Roscoe Cook, Bobby Staten, and Fred Lucas as the Knights set a national JC record of 1:25.6 in the 880-yard relay in 1958 at the West Coast Relays in Fresno.

Grayson then moved onto to the University of Oregon, competed in football and track, and was co-captain of the Ducks’ 1960 football squad.

AL WAIBEL, 91

Waibel was a passing quarterback for the 1943 Oceanside Pirates, who were unbeaten with a 6-0 record in the World War II-shortened Southern Prep League campaign.

Waibel was head coach at Fallbrook from 1959-64.

The often undermanned Warriors did not join the newly formed San Diego Section in 1960 and competed in the Riverside County De Anza League, winning the league title and posting as 6-3 record.

VINCE KILPELA, 80, EARLY HORNETS STAR

The most-valuable player in the 1955 Lions Club Baseball Tournament was lefthanded pitcher Vince Kilpela of the emerging Lincoln High program.

Kilpela signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals and led the Sooner State League with 272 strikeouts in 1956.

Kilpela posted a 14-9 record for Ardmore, Oklahoma, pitching a whopping 231 innings and completing 25 starting assignments.

He also pitched at Fresno, Winston-Salem, and Billings, but a sore arm ended Kilpela’s career in 1957.