2014 Week 1, Con’t: Helix Salvages Some Respect

Helix beat a good Ventura St. Bonaventure team, 24-20, Saturday night, but Mission Hills was beaten by Timpview of Provo, the No. 3 team in Utah, 42-28.

San Diego Section teams thus finished the first weekend far  in arrears against intersectional teams.

In games involving teams from the city and county, the area was 2-8 in California and 5-11 including Utah, Hawaii, and Arizona.

Included was the carnage of dishearteningly blowout losses of 55-10 for Cathedral against Folsom of the Sac-Joaquin Section and 38-0 for La Costa Canyon by Newport Beach Corona del Mar of the Southern.

Cathedral gets another shot this week, taking on strong Westlake Village Oaks Christian, which lost to Bakersfield, the defending state Division I champion, 34-21.

Helix is back at it against Loomis Del Oro, another Sac-Joaquin Section entry with big biceps, while Oceanside takes on Mission Viejo.

Del Oro, 9-3 in 2013, was beaten by Helix, 35-24, in the state D-II championship in ’11. The Golden Eagles lost a home game to Honolulu Kamehameha, 25-17, in their 2014 opener.

Mission Viejo, 11-1 a year ago, was surprised by Bakersfield Liberty, 18-7.

The UT-San Deigo top 10 will be out in a couple days.  My ballot, cast this morning, was:

1—Helix (1-0).
2—Oceanside (1-0).
3—Mission Hills (0-1).
4—St. Augustine (0-1).
5—Eastlake (0-1).
6—Poway (1-0).
7—Ramona (1-0).
8—El Capitan (1-0).
9—Rancho Bernardo (1-0).
10—Rancho Buena Vista (0-1).

 DEADLY VIRUS

Helix’s victory marked the first time the Highlanders have played a Ventura County team since 1957, when they bused North to Oxnard and went home with a 52-6 loss that became part of a footnote in area football history.

The 1957 season was marked by the Asian Flu epidemic which killed 70,000 Americans and about two million world wide.

Most area teams were forced to cancel games.  Twenty-two of Helix’ 45 players were home with the flu, including seven starters, but coaches and school officials decided to go through with the game.

Read about the effects of the flu in San Diego  in “1957:  Different Kind of Enemy“.