And another milestone is near.
Joel Allen of The Bishop‘s rampaging Knights of La Jolla could become the 43rd San Diego Section coach to win a 100th career game.
The Bishop’s will have to win out but you’d have to go to eight-man football to find any team scoring 55 points or more six times in a season, which the Knights have done.
Allen, 95-34-1 record in 10-plus seasons at the school, will have the favored team in the last three regular-season games, versus Tri-City, Classical, and Santa Fe Christian.
Win those and go deep into the Division II playoffs to get the necessary wins for 100. Right now Allen is looking only to winning No. 96.
The Knights blew out La Jolla Country Day, 60-14, last week as Tyler Buchner, who has 29 touchdown passes in seven games, and his teammates overwhelmed the Torreys, who have their own gifted quarterback, Eric Kreutzman, author of 30 touchdown passes.
I gave the Knights a top 10 vote in the Union-Tribune poll this week, but they’re not getting much traction with my colleagues and still are in the “also receiving votes” category.
BY COMPARISON
Allen was 10-13-1 in his first two seasons. San Diego’s Charles James is following a similar trajectory.
James was 1-9, 2-8, and 2-8 in his first three seasons at the famous school that originally overlooked the city but had lost relevance as students who could play football were moving east, to Lincoln and Morse, and eventually to all locales in the city.
San Diego went into a downward spiral, with infrequent breaths of success, after coach Duane Maley retired following the 1959 season.
The Cavers are enjoying a renewal. Since that 4-26 start they are 29-4 and James now has an above water, 33-30 record.
Things will get tougher for the erstwhile Hilltoppers, beginning with a City League home game against 7-0 Scripps Ranch this week.
The Cavers moved up from Division IV to D-III this season and are 5-1, including a reality-check, 41-7 loss to the Central League’s D-IV Serra, which has won five straight after opening with losses of 18-0 to Scripps Ranch and 30-14 to Santana.
The San Diego Union-Tribune Week 8 poll:
Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
First-place votes in parenthesis. NR–Not ranked. *Includes forfeit loss.
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | PREVIOUS |
| 1. | Helix (31) | 7-1 | 310 | 1 |
| 2. | Cathedral | 7-1 | 264 | 2 |
| 3. | St. Augustine | 6-1 | 253 | 3 |
| 4. | Carlsbad | 6-1 | 211 | 4 |
| 5. | Steele Canyon | 7-0 | 188 | 5 |
| 6. | Mission Hills | 5-2 | 157 | 6 |
| 7. | Grossmont | 6-1 | 82 | 9 |
| 8. | La Costa Canyon | 4-3 | 59 | 10 |
| 9. | Oceanside | 4-3 | 51 | 9 |
| 10. | Madison | 4-3 | 44 | 7 |
Others receiving votes: Vista (5-2*, 37 points), The Bishop’s (7-0, 19), Santana (7-0, 6), Lincoln (4-3, 4), Scripps Ranch (6-0, 2), Granite Hills (4-3), Montgomery (6-1), Rancho Bernardo (5-2), 1 each.
Voting panel of 31 sportswriters, sportscasters, various County football honchos:
- John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
- Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
- Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone,Ted Mendenhall, KUSI Chl. 51
- Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
- Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
- Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
- Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090
- Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions
- Troy Hirsch, Kaylyn McMakin, Tabitha Lipkin, Fox 5, San Diego
- Rick Smith, PartletonSports.com
- Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, Ron Marquez, CIF San Diego Section
- Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
- Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
- Bob Petinak, free lance.
- John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
- Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
- Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.
- Christian Pederson, SoCal Prep Insider.
- Joe Heinz, Athletics Director, Sweetwater School District.
- Eric Williams, WBK Sports/San Diego Friday Night Lights Magazine.
AS OTHERS IN CALIFORNIA SEE SAN DIEGO’S TOP 10
| Team | Record | Cal.Preps.Com | Max Preps | Cal-Hi Sports |
| Helix | 6-1 | 60.1/59.6 | 10/8 | 9/9 |
| Cathedral | 7-1 | 64.6/64.2 | 7/7 | 13/14 |
| St. Augustine | 6-1 | 51.6/48.3 | 18/16 | 20/21 |
| Carlsbad | 6-1 | 45.6/38.1 | 31/30 | 40/40 |
| Steele Canyon | 7-0 | 38.1/35.8 | 50/40 | 50/Bubble |
| Mission Hills | 5-2 | 40.7/27/1 | 43/57 | Bubble/Bubble |
| Grossmont | 6-1 | 30.3/26.5 | 98/115 | NR |
| La Costa Canyon | 4-3 | 36.2/36.2 | 62/53 | NR |
| Oceanside | 4-3 | 31.7/29.7 | 84/90 | NR |
| Madison | 4-3 | 36.7/35.8 | 60/56 | Bubble/NR |
The second set of numbers or scores in the three columns to the right represent last week’s rankings. Cal Preps.com and Max Preps ratings are based on computer algorithms. Cal-Hi Sports ratings are product of publisher Mark Tennis’ eye test and information from Tennis’ correspondents throughout the state..
Strange that Madison, a 34-13 victor over Grossmont, is rated lower than the Foothillers.
The vagaries of weekly polls. Madiason got whacked last week by Cathedral and has lost 3 games. Grossmont is 6-1. Madison was not in my top 1`0 this week but I would favor them in a rewmatch with the Foothillers.