City schools experimented with a schedule of Saturday games for one week.

At the same time it was revealed that the board of education had supplemented schools’ associated student body accounts with $49,000 since the ban on night games began in 1974.

The school board said it hoped to determine whether parents and students would prefer games on the weekend.

“The Great Experiment…was neither a success nor a disaster,” wrote Steve Brand of The San Diego Union.

Brand noted that none of the games approached the former Friday night crowds and attendance pretty much equaled that of Friday afternoons.

The switch from night to day was the result of postgame violence at Friday night venues.

The move to day games in 1974 resulted in such a continuing decline in attendance that the city came up with the Saturday plan halfway through this season.

“Economic pressures will force a move (back to Friday night),” said Crawford coach Bill Hall.  “The choices are going back or going broke.”

CITY ROCKED BY “F” WORD

Five games in the Eastern and Western Leagues were forfeited, effectively changing the records of six teams in one of the city’s most widespread instances of the ubiquitous “dreaded administrative glitch”.

Patrick Henry forfeited three games and Hoover and San Diego one each.

Kearny, Point Loma, and Madison were the beneficiaries of Henry’s malfeasance.

San Diego forfeited to Hoover and Hoover forfeited to St. Augustine.

Residential impropriety and academic hi-jinks usually are the reasons for administrative judgment. Both were in effect.

Hoover was peripherally involved in Henry’s forfeits when two Cardinals players transferred.

TAX RETURNS, TOO?

“The parents simply did not want their sons attending Hoover,” said Henry coach Russ Leslie, who thought that his school had jumped through all necessary hoops to make the players eligible.

“However, when rumors persisted we asked for and received specific guidelines for change-of-address eligibility,” said Leslie.  “I had never seen them and I’ll bet none of the other coaches have either.”

The procedure requires more than telling the postman you’re moving.

“Some of the items which indicate change of address are changing the address on a driver’s license, on auto registration, on income tax returns, and so forth,” said Leslie.

“If rent was involved, as it was in this case, rent receipts are needed.  They were provided, but some of the other criteria, which were not even known to me, were not,” Leslie added.

The two tranfer players became eligible and Henry, 9-3 on the field but 6-6 legislatively, battled all the way to the San Diego Section semifinals before bowing to Oceanside, 14-0.

QUID PRO QUO?

Coach Roy Engle’s Hoover Cardinals lost their last seven games of 1973, scored all of seven points in 1974, and were working on a 18-game losing streak after a 21-20 loss to San Diego.

But the Cardinals caught a forfeit break, thanks to the Cavers.  Hoover finally scored a victory on the field when it outscored St. Augustine, 22-8, a month later.

Not quite.  Another ineligibility.  St. Augustine was declared winner.

NO GOOD DEED UNPUNISHED

The newspaper headline said, “Edens Feels Sting Of Own Prep Project.”

Point Loma coach Bennie Edens was instrumental in developing the city’s overtime rules which rewarded the team with the most yards gained during the extra session.

Madison was given a 1-0 victory over Point Loma when the  tie-breaker was used for the first time in the season’s Week 8.

The defeat knocked Point Loma out of contention for a San Diego Section playoff berth and kept Madison in the hunt for a Western League championship.

Edens’ colleagues in the city voted, 8-2, to change the tie-breaking rules.  In answer to a mail poll, 10 County coaches voted for the California Tie-Breaker, in which each team gets four downs, starting at the 50, alternating plays.

San Diego Section squads would use a “new” California Tie-Breaker beginning  in 1976. The state CIF invoked overtime in 1968, not including playoffs.

WHAT’S THAT, BENNIE?

Edens exonerated his kin when discussing the forfeit frenzy:

“It’s never pleasant to win or lose by forfeit.  While we all hate the concept of a forfeit you have to have rules, not so much for the coaches, but for the students who might take advantage.”

SHACKLETT AND MORSE CONNECT

John Shacklett’s fourth season at Morse did not portend greatness.

The Tigers were only 14-20-3 as Shacklett was building a program in his first three seasons but they came from behind to defeat Patrick Henry, 14-9, for the Eastern League title and their 10-1 finish signaled the beginning of a remarkable, quarter-century run for Shacklett and the players he coached at the Skyline Drive campus.

From 1975-99 Morse was 207-67-6, for a .742 winning percentage. Shacklett’s teams won five Section titles in eight appearances and his 1990 squad, perhaps the best ever assembled in San Diego, was No 1 in Southern California, No. 2 in the state and No. 4 in the country.

Demographic change struck quickly and devastatingly at Morse around  the Millennium.

Bad coaches will lose with good players.  Good coaches, as was Shacklett, will not win with bad players.  The talent pool at Morse shrank.

Shacklett was 8-31 in his last four seasons but finished with 229 victories, fourth highest total in San Diego County history.

MARCUS ALLEN ARRIVES

Crawford led Lincoln, 3-0, deep into the fourth quarter.

From writer Steve Brand’s game account on Oct. 18, 1975:

“Lincoln coach Vic Player inserted 6-foot, 180-pound sophomore Marcus Allen with only 3:30 to play.

“Allen hit Matthew Santos for a 38-yard gain to the Crawford 25.  Four (sic) plays later, Lincoln had gained only one yard.  Allen seemed trapped on what surely would have been Lincoln’s last play.  He scrambled loose, passing the ball to Santos on the one.”

Mild controversy on the play.

Crawford’s Dennis Uhle, who earlier had intercepted two of Lincoln starter Lederer Hampton’s passes, stepped in front of Santos and thought he had an interception, but referee Gary Todd, a Crawford graduate, ruled simultaneous catch.

Lincoln retained the ball and scored on the next play to win, 7-3.

The Hornets would enjoy a great ride with Allen, as would USC and two NFL teams in a 15-year, Hall of Fame career.

YOU’RE OFFSIDE

A Bonita Vista security guard would not allow a car to park in the restricted upper level of a garage at Southwestern College, where the Barons were scheduled to play Castle Park.

The driver patiently explained to the guard who he was, that traffic had made him late, and that he desperately needed to park in the more accessible space.

The security guard, perhaps flushed with authority, denied the request and the now pissed off and irate visitor was forced to park on the street, a hundred yards away.

The inconvenienced driver happened to be a member of the four-man game officiating crew.

The game official and his colleagues didn’t take it out on  the host Barons or their parking garage enforcer.

Bonita Vista was penalized 10 yards to Castle Park’s 90.

For Castle Park coach Gil Warren, the garage incident was the beginning of a bad evening.

Warren’s Trojans fell behind, 20-0, but rallied with three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to go ahead, 27-20, and then apparently stopped a Bonita drive at Castle Park’s 40 yard line.

Holding, Castle Park. Fifteen-yard penalty.

Given life, Bonita’s Russ Palser connected with Don Slater for a 25-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds left in the game.

ESCHEWS TWO-POINTER

Barons coach Jan Chapman kicked for the one-point PAT and the game ended in a tie at 27.

Chapman’s reason against going for a two-point conversion and victory  was that, with one point, Bonita would clinch at least a tie for the Metropolitan League championship that could be outright if Castle lost one of its last two league games.

The teams finished tied with 6-0-1 records, but Bonita Vista was given the league’s top seeding in the playoffs, with Castle Park second.

“We feel we should have been number one,” said Warren, “but anytime you have a vote of coaches personalities get involved.  The principals vote, but the coaches tell them how to vote.”

Castle Park had a five-point advantage in comparative league scores, 215-121 to 151-62.

Both teams won opening playoff games but were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Kearny beat Mount Miguel, 20-6, in the first round of the playoffs and Matadors quarterback Steven Slater was sacked three times and intercepted thrice.

“He’s like I am,” said Slater’s father, Birt, the coach at Kearny, after Steven angrily pulled away from dad after the game.  Steven was not, as Michael Grant of the Union wrote, “interested in some parental consolation.”

“We’re both pretty competitive and he’s ticked off,” said Birt. “He wanted to win as badly as I did.”

Steven scored Mount Miguel’s only touchdown.

TAKE THE THREE

Field goals were becoming more and more a part of the landscape.  La Jolla’s Dick O’Neil, who toed a 37-yarder with 16 seconds remaining to give La Jolla a 17-14 win over Coronado, was tied for the state lead with 10 for the season.

German exchange student Jens Halle of Fallbrook kicked a 25-yarder in the first American football game he ever saw or was part of, and scored Fallbrook’s first points of the season.

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND…

Pat Roberts’ Grossmont team was going to play Granite Hills on the Foothillers’ “home” field, Helix.

“I feel guilty about taking my kids over there to play,” said Roberts.  “It’s a terrible disgrace to high school football.”

Roberts asserted that “I must have thrown 15 rocks off the field, all about seven inches in diameter,” the previous week, when Grossmont topped Helix, 42-14.

So as not to think Roberts was dumping on hated-rival Helix, Roberts widened his scope of criticism.

“There aren’t any good fields in the league,” he said, also putting the knock on Granite Hills’ Valley Stadium and lighted venues at Monte Vista, El Capitan, and Mount Miguel.

Roberts, 77-52-7 in 14 seasons from 1968-81 with one championship and two appearances in the finals, may have been taking an oblique shot at his Grossmont School District bosses.

Like, why can’t we have lights?

The Foothillers predated Helix as the oldest school in the district, having opened in 1920, while the Highlanders came along in 1951 and had their own, campus facility by 1954.

Grossmont continued to travel to Helix and to Aztec Bowl for home games with an occasional afternoon tussle on its campus.

QUICK KICKS

El Camino’s Toussaint (Tootie) Tyler was named after the man who freed Haiti of Napoleon’s rule:  Pierre-Dominique Toussaint l’Overture…Tyler’s 168 rushing yards were the difference in Oceanside’s 25-14 victory over Granite Hills for the CIF title…a osing team made the playoffs for the first time…Fallbrook was 4-5 and Patrick Henry was 4-5, although 7-2 on the field in the regular season…Patrick Henry quarterback Steve Fairchild went on to play at Colorado State, was head coach at his alma mater, and also coached in NFL…Official attendance at the championship in San Diego Stadium was 9,200…writers had estimated the turnout at 13,000..Morse’s starting backs, Eddie Ford, Charles Crews, Delvin Barnett, and Barry Alexander, called themselves the “Four Horses”…St. Augustine’s 422 points allowed was a San Diego Section record, topping the 357 of Mount Miguel in 1970…the show must go on?  Because of rain vendors refused to sell game programs at playoffs between Castle Park and Morse and Patrick Henry and Bonita Vista…La  Jolla Country Day dropped football and wouldn’t field a team again until 1981…Chula Vista’s Bob Korzep would remember his first coaching victory, 14-7 over Marian, in which the Spartans intercepted 9 passes and Oscar Ohnessorgen returned one for a 100-yard touchdown…With quarterback Mark Malone leading the way, El Cajon Valley won its first league championship since the school opened in 1955…Russ Boehmke, 10-5-1 in two seasons as Lincoln’s quarterback in 1956-57, guided Valhalla to an upset win over Helix and a 3-4-1 record in the Norsemen’s first varsity season….

An outstanding run by Sweetwater, starting in the 1960s, actually was just beginning.

The Red Devils went 12-1, won a championship for the first time since 1972 and launched a 36-game winning streak.

They would claim another title in 1985 and posted an ’80-’87 record of  80 wins and 11 losses, 73-9-2 under coach Gene Alim.

Starting in 1968, David Lay’s second season as head coach, the Red Devils compiled a 20-season record of 172-40-6 an .803 winning percentage.  Between Lay and Alim, Al Jacobus was 23-7 from 1978-80.

Alim retired after the 1987 campaign and later came back to coach at Sweetwater, Eastlake, and Otay Ranch.  His success at Sweetwater from 1981-87 is unparalleled in San Diego Section history.

The 1983 season was Alim’s third.  He was 10-1-1 in each of his first two, knocked out in the playoff semifinals each year.
Alim, a 1970 Mar Vista graduate whose 22 pass interceptions tied for the career high in San Diego Section history, was not the most popular coach, but he commanded a grudging, sneering respect and usually was a step ahead of his competition.

Alim didn’t push the envelope.  He  shoved it.

BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU SAY

A possible, 37-game Sweetwater winning streak was short circuited in the opening game.  The Red Devils defeated Morse 10-0 but had to forfeit because of an improper residential transfer, also known as the “dreaded administrative glitch.”

Morse quarterback Carlos Siragusa transferred to Sweetwater during the 1982-83 school year and was quoted in newspapers after the opener as saying he was better suited to the offensive system used at Sweetwater, rather than the predominant wishbone of Morse’s.

Siragusa’s remarks caught the attention of San Diego Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb.  “I mentioned to Gene that even if he had changed schools for the reason he mentioned, it didn’t look good to say so,” Webb told Steve Brand of The San Diego Union.

Alim’s conversation with Webb begged a question, usually posed only in situations involving interscholastic athletics:  Did Siragusa’s family move with him?  “It turned out there was a violation of rule 218 in the CIF green book,” said Webb.

Siragusa, according to Webb, was living with his mother and brother in the Sweetwater district, but the father remained at a residence in the Morse district.

Morse is a city school, Sweetwater a county school but they’re barely five miles apart, a quick ride up and down Sweetwater Road.

“We’ll take it to court if Carlos is ineligible, or if we’re forced to forfeit the Morse game,” Alim huffily told Steve Brand.  “We know we won.  The County knows we won.”

Webb said that although Siragusa would be eligible as soon as his father established Sweetwater district residence, the forfeit would stand, because legal residence had not been established before the Morse game.

Siragusa was declared clear to play later in the week.

MAD MARIAN

Three games later the Red Devils were working on their fourth straight shutout.  They led Marian 47-0 after three quarters when Marian coach Bill Kinney  raised the white flag.

Kinney still was furious with Alim three days after the game:  “I’ve never been in a situation where one team was 40 points ahead and didn’t play the reserves,” said Kinney.

“I can understand him playing his first-string defense,” Kinney said.  “They hadn’t allowed a point all season, but he had two fourth-and-long situations in the third quarter and he passed. I’ll never play him again.”

Sweetwater was in the 3-A Mesa League and Marian was in the 2-A  South Bay League.  As part of the Metropolitan Conference the Mesa and South Bay leagues annually scheduled interleague games.

Marian and Coronado wanted the right to decline a game with an 3-A team.  Metro Conference bosses voted down the two schools but the San Diego Section board of managers sided with Marian and Coronado.

Kinney stepped down at the end of the year and Sweetwater and Marian went on hiatus.

Sweetwater was 15-0 against the Crusaders since Marian joined the Metropolitan League in 1967.  Marian didn’t play the Red Devils again until 2000, when it went on a four-year rampage, punishing its old antagonists,  35-27, 44-6, 48-13, and 60-17.

Coronado  and Sweetwater had played 64 games in a rivalry that started in 1914, but the Islanders had not been competitive since Harry Truman was president, losing 35-0 this season and having gone  1-20-1 since 1952.

Few people remembered but Coronado once dominated the rivalry and knew about piling on, a point brought home in 1929 by Frank Greene’s 11 touchdowns and 14 extra points in a 108-0 Islanders victory.

POLITICAL ROAD TO STADIUM

The San Diego Section was in a financial fourth and long.  It cost money to play the football championships in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The rental fee and assorted expenses were beyond the CIF’s reach in 1982 and the 3-A and 2-A championships were played at Southwestern College and Mt. Carmel High, respectively.

“We saved $10,000 in expenses,” said Kendall Webb.  That was the good news, quickly followed by the bad news. “We simply did not get the gate receipts,” Webb said of attendance at the smaller venues.

The rental free was $5,000 at the Stadium, but other costs, for ushers, ticket takers, lighting and scoreboard use would bring the total to than $15,000.

The 1983 playoffs would present the same problem.  Webb went to the Stadium Authority, a board made up on local businessmen-sports fans, and asked for the stadium rental fee to be waived.

The Sports Authority, not the most powerful entity, was sympathetic but declined, saying it did not want to set a precedent.

The CIF geared up for a stronger push and found an ally in Councilman Ed Struiksma, who was able to place the CIF request on a City Council meeting agenda.

Webb marshaled support from the media, had the mother of Marcus and Damon Allen prepared to read a letter to the Council from Marcus, and was supported by numerous ex-athletes and burgeoning politicians, including ex-Charger Mike Garrett, who along with the supporting Bob Filner, was seeking a Council post.

The Council was proactive.  In chamber, before the scheduled Oct. 1 meeting, the policy-making group voted to support the CIF and underwrite the Stadium rent fee for the next five years.

GOOD MORNING, VIET NAM!

Ba Ly, a general in the South Vietnamese army, ordered his family to leave four days before Saigon fell during the war with North Viet Nam in 1975.  Ba Ly stayed behind.

The general’s son Chau Ly, was 10 years old, did not speak English and had never seen or heard of American football when he relocated that year with his mother and siblings in Carlsbad.

Two years later Chau signed up for Pop Warner, mainly because of his newfound friends.  Three years of Pop Warner and a year each of freshman and junior varsity competition took the 5-foot, 5 ½-inch, 135-pound junior to the Lancers’ varsity as a running back and cornerback.

“I love the contact,” said Ly.  “I love to run with the ball and I love to hit.  Even when I get hit I get a good feeling.”

Ly caught three touchdown passes in the first two games, threw a 33-yard pass completion to set up the winning touchdown in the third game, and ran 80 yards for a touchdown against El Camino in the fourth game.

Carlsbad’s 3-1 start translated into a 7-3 finish, third behind playoff powers El Camino and San Pasqual.

“If I had 11 Chau Lys  I wouldn’t care about their size.  We’d do all right,” said Carlsbad coach Mel Galli.

Ly’s father still was held in a North Vietnamese prison.  Chau sent his dad a photo that the father did not receive, but Chau reported that his father was allowed to write occasionally and to receive mail.

THE VAQS ARE BACK

Snow on neighboring El Cajon Mountain, better known to locals as El Cap, was becoming more common than victories over Helix and winning seasons at El Capitan High.

The Vaqueros had one victory in 1982, no winning seasons since 1977, and five straight losses to Helix, during which they had been outscored 139-13.

So East County rodeo buffs, 4-H aspirants, and state highway 67 commuters took notice along with the rest of the Grossmont League when the Vaqueros beat Helix 20-7 to open the season 4-1.

El Capitan would run the table with an 8-0 league record.  The Vaqueros’ overall, 8-2 mark tied the 1963 San Diego Section finals team for best in school history.

Running back Allen  Murray scored 102 points, second in the County, and reminded Lakeside denizens of the Friday night exploits of former Vaqs  Dave Duncan and Bill Fudge.

Guided by ex-Helix standout Joe Rockhold, in his second tour as head coach, the Vaqueros lost only their opener, 21-7,  to Mira Mesa, which advanced to the 3-A finals, and to Castle Park, 34-21, in the 2-A quarterfinals.

NEIGHBORS AT A DISTANCE

Lincoln and Morse, not more than 2 miles apart, got together at Mesa College, 15 miles away.

Morse, which won the 3-A title in 1979, then fell back, would emerge again in what would be a great last half of the decade for John Shacklett’s Tigers.  Declining enrollment and optional school choice would continue to bedevil Lincoln.

Shacklett had begun to discard his traditional wishbone offense for a straight, power I.  The Tigers put a 57-25 whipping on the Hornets, equaling the most points ever scored by Morse, tying a similar outburst against Hoover in 1975, and the most ever allowed by Lincoln.

Darrel Rosette ran 60 and 10 yards and returned a punt 62 yards for first-half touchdowns as Morse opened a 40-13 lead.  A rare, official counting of the house took place at Mesa, where the attendance was announced at 4,457 persons.

In an era when you actually had to be a good team to earn a playoff bid, the Tigers were 8-2 with 262 points against 134, but finished third in the Eastern League and out of the postseason.

SCOTT WHO?

It didn’t take long for Helix to find a successor to graduated record-breaker Scott Webb.  Joe Nikodem kicked field goals of 20, 37, 40, and 37 yards and 1 point after for all of the Highlanders’ points in a 19-19, opening-game tie with Montgomery.

GOT YOUR BACK, COACH

“Chula Vista coach George Ohnesorgen prepared to inspire his unranked, 2-0 team as the 2-A squad took on 3-A power and neighorhood tough Castle Park.

“They wouldn’t let me say a word,” said Ohnesorgen, a former San Diego State star who, in 1970, scored 21 touchdowns for his alma-mater, Castle Park.

“They were all shouting, ‘This game’s for you, coach!'”.  I couldn’t respond. I guess I really didn’t have to say anything.”

Bud Maloney wrote in the Evening Tribune  that “Ohnesorgen probably came as close to giving into his emotions as he ever will.”  The coach tightened up and his voice was hushed as he described the pregame moment after Chula’s 21-9 victory.

“This is the best win I’ve been associated with anywhere any time,” Ohnesorgen managed to say.

Ohnesorgen may have changed his mind after the season’s final game, a 17-13 victory over El Camino for the 2-A championship.  The Spartans’  12-1 season was  stalled only by a 20-14 loss to Sweetwater in the 37^th  meeting between the backyard rivals.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Port District commissioners granted amnesty to taxi drivers, who had been given almost 300 citations in the last 13 months for illegal parking at Lindbergh Field…a driver in downtown San Diego sported a “Don’t let San Diego become another Waikiki” bumper sticker but also was wearing a Hawaiian aloha shirt…condos were priced from $71,000 to $142,000 in “North City West.”

 QUICK KICKS

Brothers Kevin (senior) and Terry (sophomore) Rodgers scored all of Sweetwater’s points in the 20-0, 3-A semifinal win over San Pasqual…Kevin returned a kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, shades of his Heisman Trophy-winning father Johnny Rodgers… San Diego failed on two field goal tries in the final 3 seconds against Kearny…a 35-yarder missed, but the Komets drew a penalty… the second attempt was botched by a bad snap from center… Crawford opened 4-0 for the first time since 1973 (and 1972 and ’71)  when the  Colts’ Alex Bolden intercepted a blocked pass and Crawford drove 95 yards in the last three minutes to beat Kearny 14-7…Point Loma had a 14-game winning streak snapped by Carlsbad,13-10…the Pointers were 16-0-2 from 1938-40… Lincoln forfeited two games with uncommon scores, 26-4 over Inglewood and  8-8  with Madison… the Hornets overcame a third and 10 to go 98 yards and top Hoover 13-7 in the final three minutes… Lincoln went 66 yards to beat Crawford 19-13 in  the final 13 seconds… Pro Football Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff was assisting Paul Moyneur at Orange Glen and ex-Chargers tight end Pat Curran helped Lynn Cole at Grossmont… Tom Pack’s passing game, orchestrated by guru Jack Neumeier, was in full bloom at Fallbrook, with junior varsity graduate Jaime Miramontes at quarterback, brothers Kirk and Erik Hanson as flanker and slot receivers, and Paul Newlan at running back… the Union’s Steve Brand said Fallbrook’s passing game made the Chargers’ Air Coryell look like a commuter airline… Fallbrook scored 327 points in a 10-1 season, ended by a 24-21 playoff quarterfinals loss to Mira Mesa… Sweetwater and Chula Vista each was 6-0 when they kicked off, the latest since the 1953 season that both teams were undefeated….

Business has picked up at Kearny, where the Komets have won three in a row and can finish the regular season with their best record since 2011.

Takoda Browne, who has scored touchdowns by running, receiving,  kickoff, punt, and pass interception returns, and two-point conversion attempts,  leads the San Diego Section with 23 touchdowns and 142 points in eight games.

Kearny is 4-5 and can clinch the Central League championship in two weeks against Clairemont. The Komets have as many victories this season as they had during a 4-24 stretch that began in 2012 after an 8-3, league-championship 2011 season.

AIR CORYELL?

Not quite, but Mike Lewis, the executive director at Helix who stepped in when head coach Troy Starr was forced to withdraw from Friday’s game because of a health issue in his family, is the son-in-law of the late and iconic San Diego State Aztecs and Chargers coach Don Coryell.

Lewis, who had previous assistant coaching experience in the Grossmont League,  guided the Highlanders to a 42-14 victory over Valhalla.

QUICK KICKS

Oceanside’s three-game losing streak is the longest for the Pirates since they dropped three in a row in the middle of the 2005 season…Carlsbad’s 21-6 triumph was its first over Oceanside in 10 years and clinched at least a tie for the Avocado West title…the Lancers are 3-0 in league play and 5-3 overall…Helix’ Nate Stinson is second in the San Diego Section to Takoda Browne with 114 points…St. Augustine’s Elijah Preston follows with 110…Valley Center’s  28-17 win over Rancho Buena Vista gave Jaguars coach Rob Gilster 193 career wins, tying Gilster with Dick Haines for ninth place…Christian’s double-overtime, 13-6 win over Morse clinched a tie for the City League championship….

Week 10 poll, after nine weeks of games:

Action above, including Long Beach Poly’s 52-6 loss to Concord De La Salle, has resulted in Mission Hills and Helix getting another boost in Cal-Hi Sports newsletter’s unofficial, weekly state rankings by division.

Mission Hills is 10th and Helix 11th in Division I, partly because Poly dropped from eighth to 13th.  The Grizzlies and Highlanders were 12th and 13th, respectively, last week, and have been inching up almost each week for the last month.

Other San Diego Section teams:

D-II

St. Augustine (6-1) remained sixth.  Cathedral (4-3) is 11th, and Westview  (7-0) 12th. Idle last week, Cathedral dropped from 10th and Westview rose from 15th.

D-III

Mission Bay (7-0) is on the bubble.  The rankings for D-III and lower are 1 through 10, with bubble teams following.

D-IV

Mater Dei, 7-0 on the field but 6-1 legislatively after losing a game because of a player’s ineligibility, and Santa Fe Christian (6-1) are on the bubble.

D-V

La Jolla Country Day (6-1) moved from fourth to third.  Simi Valley Grace Brethren (7-0) and Temecula Linfield (6-1) rank 1-2.

Division nomenclature is different in the San Diego Section, i.e., Mission Hills, Helix, Westview, Cathedral, and St. Augustine are in I, Mission Bay in  II.  The teams in IV and V are slotted the same by the newsletter.

 

 

Losing had become an unshakable habit for Coronado.

It had come to this for the Islanders:  Point Loma essentially begged them to play a scheduled game.

Outscored, 104-0, in the season’s first four games, down to maybe 17 able-bodied players, and facing a strong city school, Coronado was thinking long and hard about exposing its athletes to another gridiron slaughter.

Pointers coach Bennie Edens made an offer.

Edens assured Islanders athletic director Ernie Dickerson that Point Loma would play no starting seniors, provide a running clock in the second half of the game, and halt the contest at anytime if Coronado did not feel it was safe to continue.

Point Loma won, 36-0.

Four games later, staring at a South Bay League game against powerful Chula Vista, the Islanders forfeited and ended their season with a 0-9 record and a scoring total of 6 points, with 242 against.

It was the culmination of 18 losing seasons in the last 22.  The nine losses tied a record set by Islanders teams of 1953, ’65, ’75, and ’81.

NO ROOM FOR GROWTH

With an enrollment of just over 700 and surrounded by water, Coronado was a small fish in a big pond, with virtually no immediate chance of increased enrollment or improved  talent level.

The Islanders once were a viable and competitive member of the Metropolitan League, annually jousting several of the teams that now are members of the South Bay League.

Coronado won a league championship with a 7-0 record in 1951 and were 8-2 overall after advancing to the Southern California lower division playoff semifinals.

But successive seasons of 3-5-1 and 0-9 made it easier to merge the Islanders into the new Avocado League in 1954.

When the Avocado, with most of its members located in North San Diego County, began to expand, the Islanders bounced back to the Metropolitan League in 1963.

COAST NOT CLEAR

A 15-49-2 Metropolitan League record from ’63-’72 prefaced another move to the new, seemingly more palatable Coast League, which disbanded after three years, not before Coronado posted a 2-15 loop record.

The Islanders were headed  back to the Metropolitan League, promising more pain.  They were 15-22-2 with two winning seasons from 1976-80. The Metro, with 10 schools, was forced to split.

The Islanders found themselves in more deep water.  They were 5-31-3 in the Metro South Bay circuit from 1981-84.

Survival necessitated another change.

The Islanders would move to the 1-A Mountain-Desert league for the 1985 season.

DREAM GAME A DREAM

What better than a matchup of the best, from far reaches of the San Diego Section?

El Camino of Oceanside was 12-0 and Sweetwater, 51 miles South in National City, was 12-0.

El Camino had outscored its opponents 377-31 and Sweetwater, working on a 24-game winning streak, had 420 points to its opponents’ 52.

It was the first time since 1970, when Grossmont (11-0) met St. Augustine (11-0) that two unbeaten, untied teams had reached the finals.

A dream game in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium?

Problem. Sweetwater was in the 3-A final, facing Vista (10-2) and El Camino was in the 2-A championship, meeting Chula Vista (11-1).

Still,  an outstanding doubleheader matchup that drew an announced attendance of 16,911.

The four teams came into the Stadium with a combined,  45-4  record,  better than any grouping in the 25-season history of the San Diego Section, and the geographical divide ensured a North County-South County, bragging-rights twin bill.

There was no mistaking that the best teams were in the finals, although Mira Mesa gave No. 1-ranked Sweetwater an argument before bowing 16-6 in the semifinals. Vista routed Mount Miguel 35-0.  Chula Vista thumped Kearny 42-14, and El Camino defeated Clairemont, 42-0.

Sweetwater’s record,  24^th consecutive victory,  28-13,  over Vista repeated a 20-0, semifinals win over  Vista in 1983  and that win was followed by a 21-13 championship triumph over Mira Mesa.

But the second straight 3-A title was more rewarding than the first for a pair of Sweetwater’s less heralded players, seniors Ronnie Cortell and Rolando Jarin.

The pair still was on the field an hour after the game, kneeling at the 50-yard line and taking in the moment. Cortell probably still was catching his breath.

CORTELL ALL-AROUND ‘DEVIL

A 5-foot, 9-inch, 160-pound running back and linebacker who would go on to a fine career at Colorado  State, Cortell concluded his season by being named San  Diego Section defensive player of the year and was a repeat,  first-team all-Section choice at linebacker.

The wiry, heady  inspiration of coach Gene Alim’s defense, Cortell made 10 tackles, had two pass interceptions, and scored on a fumble recovery to give Sweetwater a 28-7 lead.

Cortell also made his weekly contribution on offense, gaining 37 yards in seven carries and scoring the ‘Devils’ first touchdown.

Cortell, who returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown during the regular season, took over when Terry Rodgers left the game early with a sore ankle and complemented running mate Martell Black, who rushed for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“If he doesn’t make All-World off this game, nobody will,” said Alim.

Sweetwater would enter the 1986 season with a 25-game winning streak, longest in California.

UNCOMFORTABLE BROGANS

“I’d hate to be in our shoes,” said George Ohnesorgen, who must have meant he would have been happy to be in El Camino’s shoes.

The Chula Vista coach figuratively was wearing a pair of 11s but needed 12s.

“This is their third straight championship game and the third time is a charm,” the coach said of the Spartans’ opponent, which  tied Point Loma, 6-6, in 1982 and was beaten by Chula Vista, 17-13, in ’83.

Ohnessorgen’s feet must have been killing him.

El Camino defeated the Spartans, 24-17.

For awhile it looked as if Herb Meyer’s Wildcats would come up short again, trailing, 17-7, at halftime.  But the El Camino defense, which had pitched nine shutouts in its last 10 games and had given up only 31 points in the first 12, gave the offense field position.

El Camino’s two, second-half touchdown drives started at Chula Vista’s 42- and 33-yard lines.

THE RIVALRY

Sweetwater of National City and Chula Vista were both undefeated for the fifth time when they matched up in their 38^th consecutive  regular-season game since 1947.

The Red Devils and Spartans, both 8-0, never had played each other with clean records this late.  Chula Vista was 6-0 and Sweetwater 5-0-1 in 1953 and there were three years in which each team came into the game at 3-0.

Sweetwater, closing in on the County record for most consecutive victories, increased its lead in the series to 28-10 with a 24-8 victory before a packed house at Chula Vista’s Chet DeVore Stadium.

The win was Sweetwater’s 21^st a row.  They tied the 24-game, unbeaten streak of 1932-35 Grossmont and 1963-65 Kearny with a 16-6 win over Mira Mesa in the 3-A semifinals.

“We don’t even talk about winning streaks,” head coach Gene Alim told Steve Brand of The Union. “Maybe in thirty years I‘ll look back and it’ll mean something, but not now.”

After stopping Vista for No. 25 and  the 3-A title the following  week, Alim showed more interested in Sweetwater’s place in history. “This shows our program is an ongoing one, not just a one-year thing,” said the coach.

OOPS

When Mira Mesa and Patrick Henry tied 14-14 in the opening Eastern League game, the schools were supposed to use the California tie-breaker to determine a winner.

Coaches Walt Baranski (Henry) and Brad Griffith (Lincoln) and game officials didn’t remember.

“Everyone just  forgot,” said Wayne DeBate, secondary athletic consultant to San Diego City Schools.  The rule, in use for playoffs, was adopted as a regular-season measure by city schools the previous spring for the ’84 season.

The tiebreaker allows each team to put the ball in play for four plays beginning at the 50-yard line.  The team that has the most yardage or outscores its opponent wins.

“Nobody remembered until it was too late,” said DeBate.

The unintended consequence was that if Mira Mesa and Patrick Henry tied for first or second in the league they’d be at the mercy of a vote for playoff consideration.

Not to worry.  Mira Mesa finished first with a 4-0-1 record and Patrick Henry was  third at 3-1-1, making a vote unnecessary.

WHO, US?

El Camino took a 33-0 drubbing from Fallbrook in Week 3 of the 1983 season but gave an  indication of what to expect this season when the Wildcats suffocated the Warriors, 23-0, in Week 3.

An aroused El Camino held the Warriors to zero first downs until the last minute and half of play.

Fallbrook rushed for minus 24 yards and sophomore quarterback Bill Dunckel might have considered taking up another sport, or changing positions.  Dunckel completed 1 of 23 passes for 3 yards, with 4 interceptions.

Herb Meyer was asked if his team was in a pay-back mood.  “We don’t point for games and if we did we wouldn’t point for a nonleague game,” said Meyer.

Dunckel recovered.

He scored 166 points as a kicker-wide receiver two years later as Fallbrook won the 3-A championship.

FALSE ALARM

“El Cajon Clears First Rebuilding Hurdle” shouted the headline in The San Diego Union.

The Braves had beaten Coronado 27-0 in the season opener the night before.

El Cajon Valley coach Gene Watkins talked about players lifting weights at 6 in the morning, enthusiasm on campus, and the good thoughts all around the Madison Avenue school.

The Braves’ victory ended a 21-game losing streak, but they started another, dropping their next nine.

DEFINITELY WURTH IT

Monte Vista’s Tom Wurth set a San Diego Section record with a 54-yard field goal in a 35-3 win over Valhalla.

Wurth was successful on two other field goal attempts but missed two points after.

One of the extra point failures was from 47 yards, after a series of penalties.

Another twist to Wurth’s season came in the opening game when his 50-yard field goal gave the Monarchs a 3-0 win over Mira Mesa.

Ten weeks later Wurth toed a 48-yard field goal on the Monarchs’ first possession, but Mira Mesa won the quarterfinals playoff, 30-3.  Marauders quarterback Ricky Joseph, recovering from shoulder surgery, missed the teams’ first game.

Healthy, Joseph marshaled the Mira Mesa attack and completed of 11 of 13 passes for 187 yards.

EIGHT-MAN AMBUSH

Francis Parker won a rematch with Borrego Springs for the Coastal League championship and was declared San Diego Section 8-man winner, then was added to the field of the Southern Section  8-man playoffs.

As was the case during this era, the San Diego representative usually was seeded last in an eight-team field.  The Patriots were beaten by Canoga Park Faith Baptist, 61-10, at Northridge State.

REMEMBER THE NAME

Choia Lin Liu staked his place in The Bishop’s history  when Lin Liu scored six touchdowns in the Knights’ 68-0 victory over Midway Baptist.

The win was The Bishop’s first ever in football after seven straight losses in 1983.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

“The Rock”, a monument to concrete on Pacific Highway, was going to undergo a $2.9 million renovation.  The consulting architect described the seven-story edifice as a fire hazard.

Erected in 1942 by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Convair) and now serving as headquarters for the United Port Authority, The Rock was built virtually without  windows, because Consolidated executive Reuben H. Fleet desired air conditioning, which was to  have been more effective without windows.

Panoramic views of neighboring Lindbergh Field and the Embarcadero exist only from the seventh floor and the only the first and seventh floors are used extensively. The third through fifth floors were to be sealed off.

SPIDER SCRAMBLES

San Diego Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb changed kickoff times for the 3-A and 2-A championship games.

Not exactly a shout to stop the presses.

But it was the third time in three weeks that Webb was compelled to switch.  Spider’s problem had nothing to do with San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium availability.

It seems that bands from all contending teams had day gigs and would not have been able to make originally suggested starting times of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Webb finally settled on kickoffs at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. after times of 5 and 7 also had been announced.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE…

Aaron Petrich, son of former Chargers linebacker Bob Petrich, kicked field goals of 33, 26,and 27 yards, as Granite Hills beat Helix, 16-0.

Ken Zampese, son of Chargers assistant coach Ernie Zampese, was a starting  wide receiver at University and Granite Hills’ leading rusher Bruce Weber was son of Chargers linebackers coach Chuck Weber.

Terry Rodgers of Sweetwater came from a family of football royalty.  Terry’s father, Johnny Rodgers, was the 1971 Heisman Trophy winner and a first-round draft choice of the Chargers in 1973.

QUICK KICKS

Kearny defeated Clairemont, 19-0, for its first Western league title since 1977… the shutout was Clairemont’s first since 1979, a span of 54 consecutive games…Patrick Henry’s game at  Inglewood Morningside Oct. 6 was canceled…the teams agreed to play before realizing that date was the evening of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur…there was a standing-room crowd of more than 4,000 when Henry turned on the lights in its football stadium for the first time in the school’s 17 years…Henry defeated Mt. Carmel, 21-7…Crawford’s 25-14 victory over Lincoln clinched the Central League championship on the last day and ended a Hornets league winning streak of 19 games…Vista, paced by Sal Aunese’s 132 yards and four touchdowns, rushed for 485 yards and had 496 total in a 40-8 win over Poway…El Camino’s Darron Norris was one of the state’s fastest with a best of :10.45 for 100 meters and played four years at Texas before becoming a ninth-round draft choice  of the New England Patriots…Francis Parker’s 22-7 loss to Borrego Springs was its first in three seasons in the Coastal League…when Borrego defeated Julian, 26-20, the Rams celebrated the Coastal title and their first championship in any sport…Parker turned the table the next week, defeating the Rams, 31-12. for the 8-man title…Carl Parrick continued to make a difference at Southwest, which was 7-4 after logging 2-7, 5-6, and 6-5 records in Parrick’s first three seasons as head coach…Stan Canaris stepped down at Hilltop after compiling a 44-33-3 record in eight seasons…Canaris’ neighboring colleague, Bob Korzep, called it quits at Castle Park, where Korzep was 31-18 in five seasons….