Oceanside won the regular-season poll and could end up meeting No. 2 Helix in the AA finals at Escondido High in four weeks.

And dust is kicking up in the  sand dunes around Glamis as the Imperial Valley girds a for a possible second-round meeting of two area big shots. Brawley (9-1) has a first-round bye in Division IV and awaits the winner of La Jolla (3-7) and favored Imperial (8-2).

Seedings and sites were selected over the weekend and the trend of teams with losing records and no chance to win continues.

Sixty of the 96 teams playing football in the San Diego Section are in the postseason.

Two clubs with winning records, Calexico (8-2) and San Pasqual Academy (6-3) are not in, because of electronic convenience.

Computerized power ratings and strengths of schedule formulas created by MaxPreps and CalPreps eliminated the two teams with winning records. Also missing was the echo of coaches pounding the table and loudly advocating for their squads, a staple of past seeding meetings.

The  trend of bad teams getting to extend their seasons started in 1984, when Bonita Vista and Fallbrook were the first losing squads in the Section’s 25-year history to be accepted into the playoffs.

The Barons were 3-7 in the regular season but the AAA playoffs had been lengthened from 3 to 4 weeks, which meant a need to fill brackets and invite more teams.  Vista quickly dispatched Bonita Vista, 40-16.  Fallbrook, 4-5 in the regular season, was ousted in the first round, 48-7, by Sweetwater.

MORE DIVISIONS, MORE TEAMS

A fourth playoff division was added in 1993 and a fifth in 2005, which indicated more brackets and more teams.  The flood gates had been opened.

The coach of one North County club actually was elated in 2006.  His 0-10 squad was given a D-III playoff berth.  Playing in the same division with schools of less enrollment San Marcos still was ushered out in the first round, 27-21 by Coronado.

Purists would rather see a shorter playoff season involving winning teams.  But playoff games add to revenue streams and “the kids”, as coaches are wont to describe their players,  are said to want to be part of the excitement, blowouts and bad records notwithstanding.

The UT-San Diego poll suspends its weekly voting until after the last game has been played.

1. Oceanside (29) 9-1 290 1
2. Helix 8-1 257 2
3. Mission Hills 8-2 203 3T
4. Cathedral Catholic 8-2 202 3T
5. Olympian 10-0 170 6
6. Poway 8-2 166 5
7. St. Augustine 8-2 110 8
8. Madison 9-1 63 9
9. Eastlake 7-3 48 10
10. La Costa Canyon 7-3 37 7

Place. Team (1st place votes) Record Points Last Week
Points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis
Others receiving votes:
Valhalla (26), Grossmont (8), Brawley (6), Patrick Henry (6).

The most important letter in the alphabet was V.

World War II was nearing the halfway point.  The dark days of early 1942 had receded and Victory, while not in sight, would come.

V had become a symbol, visible everywhere throughout the country. There were hundreds of references, from military training programs (V-12), to graphics on sporting event tickets to the ultimate goal of V-E (Victory in Europe) and V-J (Victory in Japan).

School honchos in San Diego had created the Victory League and put the Metropolitan League on hiatus just weeks  before the start of the 1942-43 basketball season.

The move was part of the wide-ranging war effort that would extend until Victory was achieved.

Football followed this season.

LONG TRIP

The Metropolitan League stretched more than 40 miles, from National City (Sweetwater) to Oceanside and Escondido.

The California Interscholastic Federation, which governed sports in Southern California, invoked a limit of 6 scheduled games and a  travel distance of 15 miles.

The travel mileage restriction seemed to have some leeway, but there was no travel outside teams’ league reaches.

The Northern San Diego County schools were aligned in what the CIF called the Group 12 League, comprising Oceanside, Vista, Escondido, Army-Navy, San Dieguito, and Ramona.

St. Augustine and Brown Military were members of the Group 12  but they played a limited schedule and their games did not count in the standings.

The season did not start until October and ended by the middle of November.  There would be no Southern California playoffs.

A smaller, travel-safer, and more manageable high school football world was important, as was fuel and rubber conservation.

The players also contributed to the war effort.  Many left school during the season, before graduation, and answered the call from Uncle Sam.

ADDRESSES CHANGE, AGAIN

San Diego and Hoover were in a different league for the fourth consecutive year.

They left the Coast League, which the Cavers had help found and were members of from 1923-40, as the CIF experimented with a 17-school “Major Conference” in 1941.

With the war on and travel an issue, the Cavers and Cardinals split their squads and became part of a 11-team Metropolitan Conference the following season.

There were 18 high schools in the County, but only 15 played football.  Julian would not field a team until 1967.  Fallbrook had suspended play in 1942 and there is no published record of Mountain Empire’s fielding a squad.

The Cavers and Cardinals each dressed out one squad as part of the seven-member Victory, which also included Grossmont, Sweetwater, Point Loma, La Jolla, and Coronado.

CARDINALS  FLY

Raleigh Holt, who began his coaching career in the Imperial Valley and who turned out outstanding cross-country and track teams for three decades at Hoover, guided the Cardinals to a 5-0-1 record and the Victory League title.

Holt, assisted by former Cardinals lineman Bob Breitbard, relied on a meat-and-potatoes attack that featured  Eddie Crain, Gene Ricard, Julius Kahn, Freddie Espy, Frank Smith, and Bob Paramore.

Crain scored on runs of 14, 35, and 1 yard and completed the only pass (for a touchdown) Hoover attempted in a 40-13 victory over Coronado the week before the Cardinals met San Diego in the 11^th annual rivalry game for city bragging rights and the league championship.

Bill Bailey had moved from Point Loma to San Diego, replacing Joe Beerkle, who went into administration and became principal at Memorial Junior High.

Beerkle had advocated the  T formation introduced by coach Clark Shaugnessy at Stanford University and which was hailed as the difference in Stanford’s 1941 Rose Bowl victory over Nebraska.

Bailey, assistant to Charlie Wilson  several years at Point Loma, led the Pointers to a 6-1-2 record in 1942, and then brought his single-wing attack to San Diego.

Formations and modes of attack were taking a back seat.

CAVERS LOW IN NUMBERS

Bailey facetiously told Bob Lantz of The San Diego Union that he considered suiting up a tackling dummy, his team was so short-handed.

Of more import to the San Diego coach, pass-catching Everett Posey, who  missed a week of practice,  would be available for the Hoover game.  Posey had received his induction notice and reported to Fort McArthur in Long Beach.

Another Caver, junior halfback Sam Balesteri would be playing his final game.  He was awaiting a call from the military.

SMALLEST TURNOUT

A crowd of 9,000, representing the lowest attendance in the history of the game, saw the Cardinals strike with a third-quarter, 84-yard drive in six plays to score the game’s only touchdown in a 7-3 victory.

Crain and Espy collaborated on a 45-yard touchdown pass.  Guard Frank Smith toed the point after.

The Cavers had taken a 3-0 lead in the second quarter on Neal Black’s 23-yard field goal, the first such placement in the series.

Hoover was fighting off a threat at game’s end.

Sam Balesteri’s  passing had moved the Hillers 63 yards but they came up short. Harlan Davenport caught a pass from Balestreri and was tackled on Hoover’s four-yard line. The game ended before another play could be run.

HONORS

Single wing quarterback (actually, blocking back) Al Sawaya of San Diego earned a CIF Southern Section first-team honor. Second team choices were La Jolla quarterback Ed Teagle, San Diego tackle Ralph McCormick, and Coronado center John Ludwig. Hoover tackle Dick Chase made the third team.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Mayor Harley Knox told the Carlsbad Rotary that, for the first time in generations, San Diego was ready to abandon dumping in the bay and that Harbor Drive, bordering the bay from Point Loma to Chula Vista was almost complete.

Knox also said that the city had asked the government for 13,000 more new housing units.  Previous construction of 13,000 units of government housing mostly was occupied by aircraft plant workers.

TRUE GRID

Coach Dick Rutherford’s Oceanside-Carlsbad Pirates, behind quarterback and future Fallbrook coach Al Waibel,  swept the CIF Group 12 League with a 6-0 record…the Pirates defeated  host Escondido 31-6 in a  showdown which drew a record crowd of 3,000 persons to the inland community…newspapers’ accounts variously identified Oceanside, Army-Navy, Escondido, Vista, Ramona, and San Dieguito as representing the CIF County League, CIF Northern County League, or the CIF Northern Victory League….about 8,000 servicemen, students, and a few fans watched a East contingent of Hoover, Sweetwater, Grossmont, and  Coronado defeat the West’s San Diego, Point Loma, and La Jolla,19-0, in the fifth annual football carnival…San Diego got it coming and going, surrendering touchdowns to Sweetwater in the first quarter and to Hoover in the fourth…Coronado scored the East’s other touchdown against La Jolla…Point Loma-La Jolla matched two graduates of an Imperial Valley shuttle…La Jolla’s Larry Hanson was head coach at El Centro Central and Point Loma’s Bill Maxwell was Hanson’s assistant in 1938 and ’39 …Hanson went on to coach the nationally-recognized, often-100-point Los Angeles Jefferson basketball teams in the 1950s…tailback Larry Purdy of Point Loma was son of the Pointers coach of the same name in 1929-30…after 8 consecutive losses dating to 1915, Sweetwater’s Leroy Jackson returned an intercepted pass 65 yards with 40 seconds remaining in the game to give the Red Devils their first victory, 6-0, over San Diego…Grossmont saved all its points for a 26-0 victory over St. Augustine…the Foothillers did not score a point in six Victory League games….

“Elevator! Elevator! We got the shaft!”

The age-old shout from unhappy cheering sections, usually directed at game referees, was leveled by head coach Dick Haines and Vista partisans at nine coaches charged with seeding and selecting teams for the San Diego Section playoffs.

The mentors, reportedly by an 8-1 vote, nominated San Dieguito as the twelfth and final team in the 3-A playoffs.  Vista was out for only the fourth time in the last 17 seasons.

San Dieguito defeated Vista 16-7 on the final Friday night of the regular season.

The Mustangs won the head-to-head meeting. So what’s the problem?

Vista and San Dieguito  each posted a 6-4 record, but the Panthers were 3-3 in Palomar League play and  took on a more difficult  nonleague schedule that included Oceanside, Fontana, Morse, and Cordova Rancho Cordova.

San Dieguito was 2-4 in league competition and played nonleague games against Granite Hills, Patrick Henry, Helix, and San Diego Southwest.

EVEN GRANITE HILLS?

Vista also was bypassed by Granite Hills, a playoff participant with a 5-5 record.

Vista coach Dick Haines, who did not attend the meeting open to coaches at Francis Parker High, teed off on his colleagues.

“They’re logic isn’t very logical,” Haines suggested to Steve Brand of The San Diego Union. “I’m dumb enough to think that people will do what’s right.

“I don’t have a vote,” Haines added, more or less explaining his absence.

‘DIFFICULT’ DECISION

“It was difficult to keep Vista out, because of the respect we have for Vista,” said Fallbrook’s Tom Pack, the Palomar representative, “There was a lot of discussion but what it came down to was which team was stronger at the end of the season.”

Well, maybe.

Two days later coaches on the panel were more candid, their comments coming at the same time a Union story reported that coaches of possible at-large teams in the future would be required to attend seeding meetings.

DID PANTHERS CARE?

“I honestly feel that if Dick Haines had been there they would have been in,” Helix coach Jim Arnaiz inferred to Steve Brand.  “It came back to us, at least to me, that Vista was somewhat indifferent about being in the playoffs.”

“The feeling was, ‘He’s not here, why should we put him in?'” said Pack.  “My feeling is that a lot of teams didn’t want to see Vista in there. There are some people in the County that don’t want to play them.”

Arnaiz also noted that coaches with teams having a chance of being selected were required to show up at the end of the seeding meeting to exchange game film with their first-round opponent.

Channeling his inner “I’m-Dick-Haines-don’t-you-know-who-I-am?”, Haines declared, “You show me where it says everybody has to attend.  The CIF bulletin says coaches may be there.  Logically, we are in, but there was no logic here.”

LAW SUIT THREATENED

Meanwhile, parents of several Vista players talked about legal action and hired a lawyer.

“There’s something wrong in Denmark, not to offend anyone in Denmark,” attorney Frank Gould said of the process.  “I just find it very strange that eight coaches would vote for San Dieguito.”

When apprised of the parents’ involvement, Haines seemed curiously ambivalent: “They asked me.”I said, ‘Hey, they’re your kids.  It’s your decision.’  I’m all for it.”

Haines did not attend the parents’ meeting with Gould.

The lawyer later withdrew, telling the parents that chances of obtaining a restraining order and having the Panthers invited to the postseason tournament were “slim.”

GARDEN OF EDENS

Bennie Edens didn’t spend his entire life at Point Loma.  It only seemed that way.

The 1944 Hoover graduate joined the coaching staff of Don Giddings in 1949, a year in which the Pointers were 9-1-1 and won the Southern California lower division championship.

Edens became head coach in 1955 and was there until a health scare forced him to retire following the 1997 season.

Edens’s coaching career is defined by years of great success and some of, figuratively, “when’s this season going to end?” The decade of the 1980s was his best, and Point Loma enjoyed a stretch unlike any other in the school’s history, which dates to 1926.

The Pointers were 93-32-3 from 1981 to 1991.  It’s arguable which was Bennie’s best team, the 13-0 club of 1987, the 13-1 team of ’91, or the 11-0-1 squad of 1982.

COTA LIKED HIS CLUB

Stephen Cota, a second-team, all-San Diego Section linebacker (and the son of Ron Cota, a first-team all-Section center at St. Augustine in 1961) opted for his 1987 team and may have said it best:

“Our team had about 30 players.  Half of us were from Point Loma or Ocean Beach and the rest were from Southeast San Diego or East San Diego.  It was a great mix.

“I think we got Bennie at the top of his game.  He was a better coach in his sixties than he was in his thirties and a better coach in his sixties than he was in his seventies.”

Eleven of the ’87 Pointers played on Division I college teams.

Linebacker Israel Stanley (Arizona State) made the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and tight end and team most-valuable player Bob Brasher (Arizona State) had cups of coffee with the San Diego Chargers and Los Angeles Rams.

(Brasher became part of a memorable tradition as recipient of the Golden Helmet, given annually to the top Pointer and in the memory of Kathy Edens, Bennie’s deceased daughter).

BROWN SIDETRACKED

Junior safety Marcel Brown would start as a freshman at Southern California, but his potentially brilliant career was ended by an off-field incident that resulted in Brown’s incarceration.

Of the Pointers’ 13 victories, three were against Lincoln (24-21) and Morse (14-13 and 16-14 for the AAA championship).]

“Those were real battles,” said Cota, who was a starting linebacker at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and  college teammate of Mike Hastings, who succeeded Edens in 1998.  “Our players from the Morse and Lincoln areas took a lot of verbal abuse for leaving to come to Point Loma.  I was proud they were my teammates and that they could shut out a lot of that stuff.”

A galvanizing moment came when the Pointers were 4-0 and visited 3-1 Sweetwater.  A Sweetwater defender knocked  Michael Bennett, the third of three brothers to play quarterback at Point Loma, out of bounds and spat on Bennett.

Bennett got up, rubbed the spittle off his forearm and faced the Sweetwater player.  “You ain’t —-,” Bennett verbally saluted, and then  returned to the huddle and led the Pointers to a 10-0 win.

The 43-season Edens era, defined by the 11 from 1981-91, also included stretches of 16-23-2 from 1955-59, 49-19-6 from ’60-’67, 51-64-3 from ’68-’80, and 30-34-2 from ’92-’97.

The ups by far outweighed the downs in Bennie Edens’ career.

UNHERALDED MATADOR 

Mount Miguel’s Robert Griffith, while not having the resume of more renown players, went on to an outstanding professional career.

Griffith was undrafted  by NFL teams out of San Diego State, so he signed  with the Sacramento Gold Miners, the first American team in the Canadian Football League, in 1991.

A year later Griffith earned a  free agent, training camp shot at strong safety with the Minnesota Vikings.

Griffith played 13 seasons with 3 NFL teams, started 164 of 195 games, intercepted 27 passes and made 36 tackles for loss in his regular-season career.  He played in 11 postseason contests..

REMEMBERING BRENT

Brent Woodall was an all-San Diego Section running back at La Jolla.  He played football and was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and pitched in the Chicago Cubs’ baseball organization.

A shoulder injury ended Brent’s baseball career and he took a position as an equities trader in New York.

Brent worked for Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, on the 89^th floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower.  He was killed with 66 co-workers on 9/11/2001.  On April 22, 2002, Brent’s widow, Tracy, gave birth to a daughter, Pierce Ashley.

A memorial scholarship was created in Brent’s name at La Jolla High.  In 2006 a bench in New York’s Central Park was named in Brent’s honor, with the inscription “Brent James Woodall July 20, 1970-September 11, 2001  A Quiet Place to Sit and Remember Good Times”.

Woodall was the fourth highest scorer in the San Diego Section  with 91 points, on 12 touchdowns, 13 points after touchdown, and 2 field goals.

I WILL BE FIRED!

Oceanside coach Roy Scaffidi predicted his demise to writer Tom Krasovic.

Scaffidi said he had alienated school district officials and Oceanside faculty members with his efforts to gain eligibility for star quarterback Jerry Garrett, who missed the final six games because he didn’t pass the San Diego Section-required number of units for the semester.

“There definitely is some tension,” said Scaffidi.  “I think some people perceive I believe football is more important than academics.”

Scaffidi defended himself, citing 15 years as an educator and a decision to bench a starting tailback against Rancho Buena Vista earlier this year.

The Pirates were 4-5-1 this season and Scaffidi was not fired.  He would be replaced after a 9-4 season in 1988.  Scaffidi’s replacement was destined to become a North County legend:  John Carroll.

WILD AND CRAZY

Marc  Sherman scored 4 touchdowns in a sequence of five plays for Francis Parker in a 45-18 victory over Julian in an eight-man game.

–Julian, which hadn’t been scored on in the season’s first five games, led 18-0 before Sherman caught a nine-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds left in the half.

–Julian was forced to punt on its first second-half possession and Sherman returned the ball 47 yards for a touchdown.

–A Parker penalty on an ensuing punt return interrupted Sherman’s touchdown count.

–Sherman took quarterback William Beemer’s pass and scored on a 73-yard play (on Parker’s 80-yard field) on the Patriots’ first possession following the penalty.

–After a fumble recovery, Beemer passed 15 yards to Sherman for the fourth touchdown.

Francis Parker scored three more touchdowns.  Two Julian players were ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Fights broke out all over the field following Parker’s final touchdown.

Game officials had enough.  The game was called with 3:45 remaining in the fourth quarter.

BAD TASTE FOR U. CITY

Darrin Wagner transferred from University City to Lincoln after the seventh game of the 1986 season.  Controversy followed, but Wagner was cleared by the CIF to play at Lincoln before the end of the season.

Wagner scored on runs of 60 and 24 yards as Lincoln beat the host Centurions 34-13 in Wagner’s return.

SECOND COMING OF O.J.

Individual scoring for Mountain-Desert League teams was haphazard and not always reported, so the efforts of Army-Navy’s Jason Simpson are impossible to quantify, but his football pedigree was impressive. Jason’s father is O.J. Simpson.

OOPS

Patrick Henry goofed and scheduled Orange El Modena and Grossmont on the same weekend. Section commissioner Kendall Webb solved the problem by getting Grossmont to play El Modena.  Patrick Henry was forced to sit out the weekend.

Former Patriots coach Walt Baranski had scheduled a two-game, home-and-home series with El Modena in 1986.  When no one from the Orange County school responded to Baranski’s numerous calls to confirm the 1987 date, Baranski then scheduled Grossmont.

QUICK KICKS

Mount Miguel’s smallish “Thunder Midgets” were in the middle of a terrific run, 9-3 in 1986, and 11-1 this year…Jesus Alvarez’ 47-yard field goal turned the tide in Mount Miguel’s favor in the Grossmont title-clinching, 16-7  victory over Helix…Coronado fashioned a 15-game winning streak, including the ’86 and ’87 seasons…Patrick (Duke) Gonzales scored three touchdowns and five extra points to lead University to a 41-8 win over Mar Vista…Gonzales’ grandfather nicknamed him The Duke, after actor John Wayne…new Serra coach Skip Coons drafted his two sons, 21-year-old Lon and 18-year-old Lou to his coaching staff…Lincoln’s Darrin Wagner edged Morse’s Larry Maxey,  160 points to 156,  to win the County scoring title, but Maxey outrushed Wagner, 224-109 in their head-to head meeting…Morse reversed a 51-0 loss to Lincoln in 1986 with a 40-12 triumph…Morse coach John Shacklett said before the game, “This is the game that’ll let us know how we’d do in the playoffs”…Morse went to the 3-A finals…the Tigers’ 6-foot, 8-inch, 290-pound Lincoln Kennedy, a future No. 1 draft choice out of the University of Washington by the Oakland Raiders, was tabbed a blue-chip prospect by college scouts in The Union‘s annual listing…Point Loma tight end Bob Brasher and linebacker Israel Stanley  were  “strong college prospects”…the lights went out at Coronado’s Cutler Field with 40 seconds to play and the Islanders leading St. Augustine 13-6…play resumed after 10 minutes and several unsuccessful attempts to turn the light back on…the Saints scored with seconds to play but failed to make a two-point conversion…

 

 

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.