Christian, El Centro Central, Francis Parker, Kearny, and Torrey Pines continue to set the pace, each with a 6-0 record. Seven teams, Valhalla, Patrick Henry, Ocean View, El Cajon Valley, Hoover, Mabel O’Farrell, and Clairemont, are setting a reverse pace, each without a win.
La Costa Canyon, which I had voted as the top team in the Union-Tribune poll since the start of the season, lost to San Marcos and fell from the undefeated ranks last week. The score of 12-8 sounded like a game between the tackles in the 1950s. The Knights held the Mavericks to 47 yards rushing, forced four turnovers, including an intercepted pass returned for a touchdown, and had six quarterback sacks.
The San Marcos-La Costa scoring paucity was in contrast to adding-machine totals at three other area venues.
GOING LIKE SEVENTY
Of the 45,000-plus games played in the County since San Diego High first teed it up in 1891 against the “San Diego Football Club”, there have been a reported 139 in which the winning team scored at least 70 points. Eighty-four have come in 11-man football, 55 in eight-man.
San Diego tied a 1944 school record in a 72-0 win over Mission Bay last week. The Cavers toppled Hoover by that score 74 years ago in a contest remembered in news accounts for Hoover players bumping into each other while attempting single or double reverses.
Valley Center also got into the act with a 70-7 win over Fallbrook, matching the Jaguars’ highest point total since they set their record in a 70-0 blowout over Orange Glen in 2010.
Every Valley Center victory, 157 in all since the eastern North County school opened in 1998, have been with Rob Gilster at the coaching reins.
Kearny’s 66-0 beat-down of Patrick Henry brought back memories of the great Birt Slater teams.
Slater squads seldom, if ever, played a game at home, a convenience now enjoyed by Coach Will Gray’s burgeoning program, which competes in a sleek, on-campus facility named after Birt, but originally misspelled “Bert” on the electronic scoreboard.
Slater’s home field was Mesa College, beginning in 1964, although the school record, 70-0 rout of Crawford in 1969 was on the Colts’ then-home field, Aztec Bowl.
CAL-HI SPORTS
A 35-28 win over Carlsbad didn’t impress the newsletter, which dropped Torrey Pines, No. 1 in San Diego, from 13th to 14th in the state top 50. Cathedral moved up one spot to 15th. The loss to San Marcos resulted in La Costa Canyon’s falling all the way from 14th to out. Eastlake and Helix were unchanged, remaining at 42 and 46, respectively.
La Costa Canyon now has bubble status in Cal-Hi’s view, along with Carlsbad, San Marcos, and St. Augustine.
QUICK KICKS
Ramona’s Damon Baldwin could become the 43rd coach with 100 career victories but the Bulldogs will have to go deep in the playoffs for that to happen this season…Baldwin is 94-59-1 since taking over in 2005…Granite Hills is 48-20 from 2013 under coach Kellan Cobbs, following a 1-9 start with Cobbs in 2012…Sweetwater, under second-year coach Bryan Wagner, a former NFL punter who played for the San Diego Chargers after a high school career as a placekicker at Hilltop, rebounded from successive losses of 62-0 to Carlsbad and 69-0 to Lincoln, with a couple shutouts, 35-0 over El Cajon Valley and last week 56-0 over San Ysidro…Sweetwater last had back-to-back shutouts in 1993 when Gene Alim held sway and the Red Devils had 4 in a row…San Marcos held La Costa Canyon to 213 yards total offense after allowing 737 to Oceanside 3 weeks before…Granite Hills’ return to the Grossmont Hills League from the Grossmont Valley loop, where the Eagles won three championships in four years, was an initial success…a dramatic, 30-27 win over Steele Canyon, last year’s state III-A champion…the Eagles scored with 48 seconds to go, then had to ride out a Steele threat that was stopped with 9 seconds remaining when Noah Medeiros sacked the Cougars’ Nathan Barnett on the game’s final play…Cathedral coach Sean Doyle, after the Dons’ 49-7 rout of Madison, to the Union’s Don Norcross: “For twenty years I think I have the best defensive coordinator in the state,” referring to John Montali. “My opinion hasn’t changed.”….
Week 7 Union-Tribune poll:
| Rank | Team | 2018 | Points | Previous |
| 1. | Torrey Pines (23) | 6-0 | 293 | 1 |
| 2. | Cathedral (7) | 5-1 | 257 | 3 |
| 3. | Helix | 3-3 | 221 | 4 |
| 4. | La Costa Canyon | 5-1 | 182 | 2 |
| 5. | Eastlake | 5-1 | 169 | 5 |
| 6. | San Marcos | 5-1 | 150 | 9 |
| 7. | St. Augustine | 5-1 | 149 | 7 |
| 8. | Madison | 4-2 | 67 | 6 |
| 9 | Granite Hills | 6-0 | 39 | NR |
| 10. | Carlsbad | 3-3 | 35 | NR |
Others: Christian (6-0, 20), Lincoln (4-2*, 20), Oceanside (3-3, 12), Poway (5-2, 5), Rancho Bernardo (4-2. 5), Mission Hills (2-4, 2), El Centro Central (6-0, 1), Kearny (6-0, 1), Monte Vista (1-0, 1).
Voting panel (30 sportswriters, sportscasters, various County football honchos):
- John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
- Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Union-Tribune correspondents
- Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, KUSI Chl. 51
- Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
- Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
- Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
- Ted Mendenhall, Tyler 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, Ron Marquez, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego Section
- Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
- Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
- Montell Allen, MBA Sports/San Diego Friday Night Lights Magazine
- Bob Petinak, Fox 1360 Radio
- John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
- Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
- Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.
