Wither, Oceanside?

The 45-0 loss to Mission Hills last week shook the foundation of the dynastic program at the school overlooking the intersection of old U.S. 101 and Interstate 5.

It’s one thing to get blown out, but even in losses the Pirates have usually managed to score. Their dominance in  the  North County, though being challenged the last few years by onrushing Mission Hills, hasn’t been in question.

The loss marked  the Pirates’ first shutout  to a North County team in 130 games. Carlsbad blanked them, 28-0, in 2005.  No North County squad had scored that many points in 152 games.  Fallbrook ran off with  a  51-28 victory in 2003.

There have been occasional whopping defeats–El Camino routed John Carroll’s 1991 team, 63-27, for example, but the highest shutout margin had been 39-0 by Carlsbad in 1979.

Margins like 45-0 haven’t been accomplished by San Diego Section teams in 89 years. There were losses to Metropolitan League rivals Coronado, 47-0, and Sweetwater, 57-0, in 1926, the Oceanside’s first football season.

The Pirates will attempt to get their swashbuckling groove on this week against 1-5 Torrey Pines.  Mission Hills probably will run the table in the regular season if it gets past Rancho Bernardo.

Coach Chris Hauser’s Grizzlies close versus weak Del Norte, pedestrian Vista, and better-than-average San Marcos, a 28-10 loser to Oceanside in the opening game.

Mission Hills’ victory kept the Grizzlies atop the weekly Union-Tribune voting and they picked up two additional first place votes that had been held by Helix, which defeated Steele Canyon, 41-6.

Some shakeups above raised Mission Hills a notch to 14th in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.  Helix follows at 15th.  Cathedral, La Costa Canyon, and St. Augustine are among 30 others on the bubble.

Week 8 poll, after seven weeks of games:

Nonleague and intersectional games just about out of the way, 16 of the San Diego Section’s 19 leagues swing into action this week.

The Eastern, Metro Pacific and Metro South Bay tee up next week.

El Camino, 5-0, for the first time since 2000 in the days when Herb Meyer had the Wildcats on an 18-game winning streak, takes on La Costa Canyon, at 4-1, same as in 2014 before a 9-5 loss to El Camino signaled a flattening out to 6-6.

El Camino finished with a 10-3 record in 2000, unequaled since.  The winner of this Avocado West opener will feel pretty good about itself as it points to a late-season game with Oceanside.

The Pirates, 4-1 in their first season since 1988 without coach John Carroll holding sway, visit Mission Hills (5-0) in the annual, nonleague Battle of Highway 78.

Oceanside has come along well since a 49-13 loss to Washington power Sammamish Eastside Catholic in the season’s second game.  First-year coach Dave Rodriguez rallied the Pirates to victories over San Pasqual, Temecula Chaparral, and Rancho Buena Vista.

Westview should determine whether its contending or pretending, taking its 5-0 record  to Rancho Bernardo, which is 4-1 and the probable favorite in the Palomar circuit.

The Union-Tribiune poll this week revealed promising  matchups:   No. 1 Mission Hills and 3 Oceanside,  5 El Camino and 6 La Costa Canyon, and 7 Westview and  8 Rancho Bernardo.

DONS ON LONG TRIP

Cathedral has one more intersectional on its schedule, this week at Damonte Ranch of Reno, Nevada.

Coach Sean Doyle’s Dons are 3-3, with all losses to Cal-Hi Sports‘ state-ranked teams.

The Damonte Mustangs are 1-4, losing to Carson City Carson, 17-14;  Reno, 14-13; Placer of Auburn, California, 41-26, and Sparks Edward Reed, 58-39.  Damonte defeated Reno North Valleys, 52-6.

Week 7 poll, after six weeks of games:

Two readers of our website looked at our table showing  13 San Diego Section high school graduates in the NFL and found a couple glaring errors.

The NFL list of 1,696 players also included safety Tony Jefferson of Eastlake and kicker Jason Myers of Mater Dei, which we missed.

We also were alerted  to Larry Warford, but Warford graduated from high school in Kentucky after two years at Oceanside and was not identified as being from this area.

Two great running backs, Cathedral’s Tyler Gaffney and Escondido’s Ricky Seale, are getting paid by NFL teams, but Gaffney is on Injured Reserve with New England, and Seale was a game-day deactivation for Buffalo on opening weekend.

The annual NFL list includes the 32 teams’ 53-man active rosters on opening day.  So Gaffney and Seale, and possibly others, were not acknowledged.

The revised list with 15 names and a Partleton thanks to Greg Durrant, Richard Porter,  and Deontae Patterson:

Name	Position	High School	Team	Year	College
Khalif Barnes	T	Mount Miguel	Oakland	11	Washington
Sam Brenner	T	Oceanside	Miami	3	Utah
Reggie Bush	RB	Helix	San Francisco	10	USC
Nate Chandler	T	Mira Mesa	Carolina	5	UCLA
Arian Foster	RB	Mission Bay	Houston	7	Tennessee
Leon Hall	CB	Vista	Cincinnati	9	Michigan
Tony Jefferson	S	Eastlake	Arizona	3
Levine Toiolo	TE	Helix	Atlanta	3	Stanford
Jason Myers	K	Mater Dei	Jacksonville	1	Marist
Brian Schwenke	C	Oceanside	Tennessee	3	California
Alex Smith	QB	Helix	Kansas City	11	Utah
Kenny Stills	WR	La Costa Canyon	Miami	3	Oklahoma
Jamar Taylor	CB	Helix	Miami	3	Boise State
Damien Williams	RB	Mira Mesa	Miami	3	Oklahoma
Jimmy Wilson	S	Point Loma	San Diego	5	Montana

GRIZZLIES AND HIGHLANDERS RATE

Mission Hills is 14th and Helix 15th in Division I in Cal-Hi Sports‘ weekly Top 10.

St. Augustine is sixth and Cathedral 10th in II.  Rancho Bernardo is on the bubble in II and Christian (III) and The Bishop’s (IV) are other bubble teams.

At the end of the regular season teams will be seeded for the state playoffs, possibly 1-25 from the North and 1-25 from the South.

According to commissioner Jerry Schniepp, the six division champions from San Diego will be invited from the South, along with 13 from the Southern Section and the rest from the L.A. City and Central Sections.

Section divisions will not be in play when the game pairings are formulated.

 

 

Helix is one of 12 schools in the country with at least 4 alumni players who made 2015 opening-day rosters in the NFL.

Thirteen San Diego Section graduates were active, down from the 16 of 2013, the last year we published this information from the NFL Communications Department.

Reggie Bush, Levine Loiolo, Alex Smith, and Jamar Taylor also represented Helix in the 2013 survey.

Saint Thomas Aquinas (alma mater of tennis’ Chris Evert and  all-pro receiver Michael Irvin of the Dallas Cowboys, among others) leads all U.S. high schools with 15 NFL players.

Cleveland Glenville (6), Miami Norland (6) and DeMatha Catholic of Hyattsville, Maryland (5), round out the top 4,

Calfornia’s Long Beach Poly, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, San Mateo Serra, Anaheim Servite, and Westlake Village Oaks Christian joined Helix with 4 each.

Oceanside and Mira Mesa each has 2, tying 155 schools.  There are 1,172  with 1 player.

Florida is the leading contributor with 204 players.  California was next with 203, followed by Texas (181) and Georgia (114).

Miami (31), Fort Lauderdale (20), Atlanta (16), and Houston (14) were leaders in the “hometown” category.  Los Angeles city had 10.

Alabama, with a population of 4,779,736, based on the 2010 U.S. Census, is the leader “per capita”  with one player for every 75,869 persons.

The pool of 1,668 NFL players in the U.S. population of 308,745,538 represented one player per 185,099 persons.

Name	Position	High School	Team	Year	College
Khalif Barnes	T	Mount Miguel	Oakland	11	Washington
Sam Brenner	T	Oceanside	Miami	3	Utah
Reggie Bush	RB	Helix	San Francisco	10	USC
Nate Chandler	T	Mira Mesa	Carolina	5	UCLA
Arian Foster	RB	Mission Bay	Houston	7	Tennessee
Leon Hall	CB	Vista	Cincinnati	9	Michigan
Levine Loiolo	TE	Helix	Atlanta	3	Stanford
Brian Schwenke	C	Oceanside	Tennessee	3	California
Alex Smith	QB	Helix	Kansas City	11	Utah
Kenny Stills	WR	La Costa Canyon	Miami	3	Oklahoma
Jamar Taylor	CB	Helix	Miami	3	Boise State
Damien Williams	RB	Mira Mesa	Miami	3	Oklahoma
Jimmy Wilson	S	Point Loma	San Diego	5	Montana

The Watergate break-in and burglary in Washington, D.C., still was about nine months from taking place, but spying and potential dirty tricks already were part of a fierce Eastern League rivalry.

St. Augustine’s defending San  Diego Section champion was scheduled to play Patrick Henry, the city’s “elite”, newest public school, one that quickly had become thought of as being a little full of itself.

In only its fourth year, the San Carlos campus numbered 3,281 students in three grades and would grow to more than 4,000 later in the decade, making it one of the larger three-year schools in the state as well as the country.

Head coach Russ Leslie had smoothly built a strong program, posting records of 5-4 and 6-3 in its first two varsity seasons.

Nine miles away in North Park, nestled amid 50- and 60-year-old Craftsman homes, St. Augustine annually enrolled no more than 650 in an all-boys environment and for years had sought respect and recognition.

As defending champion, the Saints were the preseason top-ranked by the Evening Tribune.

The Patriots were No. 2 but the probable favorite to win the San Diego Section championship, especially after a 17-0, opening-game victory over 1970 finalist Grossmont that was followed by a 24-8 win over Point Loma.

The Saints also had opened smartly with victories over Clairemont, 32-0, and University, 21-6, under new coach Larry Shepard, a fiery competitor who learned at the knee of the legendary Birt Slater and had led Kearny to the 1963 title.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Leslie was directing practice Tuesday before the game when it was brought to his attention that St. Augustine students were attempting to “chart and photograph” Patriots’ formations and plays.

“At first we noticed two of them sitting in the stands,” Leslie told the Evening Tribune’s Bill Finley.  “We have four or five kids patrolling the place and they saw these guys writing information in their tablets (probably three-hole binders; this long before I-Pads).

Leslie continued.  “Okay, so we asked them to leave.  A little while later, though, we noticed the two of them along with a third guy in a Saint letterman’s jacket watching us from their car on the hill overlooking our practice field.”

The Patriots swung into action.

“Some of our players scrambled up the hill, jumped the fence and caught them,” said Leslie.

Leslie offered some evidence.  “We have the letterman’s jacket and the camera,” he said.

SHEPHARD RESPONDS

Bill Finley made a telephone call to St. Augustine coach Larry Shepard.

“Yeah, those were our kids,” said Shepard, who added, “I didn’t send them.  They did it on their own.”

Shepard told the writer that the students had come to the coach’s office the following morning.  “They said, ‘Here’s what they’re doing’ and gave me some stuff on paper.  You know, I threw it all away.”

PHONE LINES SCORCHED

Shepard discounted the value of the students’ “scouting”, but was beginning to warm up.

“They can talk all they want about this ‘spy’ stuff, but somebody out there with a good mouth has been calling our coaches and players at home all week to tell us what’s going to happen to us on Friday night.”

Things had not been rosy between the schools since Henry upset the Saints, 7-0, in 1969, forcing a three-way tie for the Eastern League championship with Henry and San Diego.

“Sure, we remember that,” said Shepard.

“What we remember most is that someone watered the (Aztec Bowl) field the day of the game.  We had all that speed in Jesse Ochoa and Frank George and there was no way in the world they could get outside in that muck.”

The Saints won, 7-6, in 1970 and Shepard told Finley he personally made sure that there was no watering of the Balboa Stadium gridiron, which represented the Saints’ home field.

And this year, at Aztec Bowl?

“We’re going to have a guy out there keeping an eye on the sprinklers.”

MANY MASCARIS

St. Augustine linebacker Larry Mascari was the sixth from his family to play for the Saints. He was preceded by his dad, Larry, Sr.: uncle, Clarence, and brothers Frank, Billy, Phil, and Mike….

THEY LOOK LIKE THE PACKERS

Patrick Henry’s colors were green and gold and its uniforms were replicas of the Green Bay Packers.  The Patriots wanted to run the ball in the fashion of Vince Lombardi’s teams.

Patrick Henry won the early showdown with the Saints, 17-8, rolled all the way to the San Diego Section finals, and lined up again against Grossmont.

“Our team is the type no one likes to see,” said Leslie, pointing out that the Patriots ran 17 consecutive plays off tackle in a 14-8, semifinals victory over El Capitan.

“I’m tired of reading about ‘em,” said Grossmont coach Pat Roberts.  “Every time I think about ‘em I get an anxious feeling from head to toe.”

Roberts’ anxiety was relieved when the Foothillers drove 90 yards to a tying touchdown with 9:38 left in the game.

LET’S GO FOR 2

Grossmont then executed a two-point conversion and edged the Patriots, 8-7, in the lowest scoring San Diego Section final, a yawner played before more than 13,000 in San Diego Stadium.

Grossmont quarterback Mike Rundle kept the winning play alive, drifting out of the pocket before he passed to tight end Chuck North in the left corner of the end zone.

“That’s the first time we’ve run that play to the left,” said Roberts.  “We’ve run it to the right, but they had us scouted.”

“The play should work every time,” said Rundle.  “They’re trying to cover three receivers with two defenders.”

Henry contributed to its defeat with three intercepted passes and five lost fumbles.

Roberts pointed to running backs Larry Olson and Mike Hicks when asked why the Foothillers usually disdain the pass, but the coach added, “Maybe I don’t have enough guts.  Whenever we pass I want to hide under the bench.”

HAINES AGREES

Vista’s Dick Haines echoed Roberts.

“Look at the pros,” said Haines.  “Teams that pass 30 times a game lose.  Teams that pass 10-15 times a game win, but maybe we’re just cowards.”

Nick Canepa of the Evening Tribune suggested that Haines brought some of Woody Hayes’ Ohio State offense when Haines relocated from Dover, Ohio.

A 34-12 defeat of Oceanside was Vista’s first over the Pirates since 1960 and only their third in 27 years.

The win was the 131^st in Haines career.

“I wouldn’t have known that if my wife hadn’t told me,” claimed the Panthers’ mentor, who won 12 consecutive league championships in Ohio and took with him to Vista assistant coaches Dave Parks and Steve Korcheran.

Haines won 125 games in the community 80 miles south of Cleveland and would claim another 194 at Vista before he retired following the 1994 season.

Vista, 0-9 in 1969 and 4-5 in 1970, Haines’ first season, completed a remarkable turnaround, closing at 10-1 following a 34-7 playoff loss to Grossmont.

DEDICATED TO FALLEN COACH

Clairemont players voted to play the day after popular teacher and coach Gerry Stryker was killed in a plane crash following takeoff from Montgomery Field.

Stryker, 32, a Kearny and San Diego State graduate, and his parents and brother perished along with Stryker’s uncle, who was piloting a twin-engine craft.

The plane struck power lines on both sides of the I-805 construction site and crashed into a house in the 4000 block of Antiem Street.

No one was hurt on the ground, although Mrs. Edward Peterson told investigators she was thrown from her bed after the plane tore out a tree and crashed into the side of her residence.

Observers reported that the plane began to lose power after takeoff.

“This game was solely for coach Stryker,” said Mark Jones, who rushed for 138 yards in 33 carries and scored the winning touchdown with 1:30 remaining as the Chieftains defeated University, 22-20.

KOMETS NOW 0-5

Kearny was going nowhere in the playoffs but traveled in style to get there.

The Komets were bounced by Grossmont, 21-17, in the first round, making their fifth consecutive early exit,  but Kearny ended the season with a Western League winning streak of 28 games and 33 without loss.

Kearny couldn’t stop a Grossmont play called “52 Veer”, which the Foothillers ran with success through the left side of the Linda Vistans’ defense.

“I think we called it five times and got four big gains,” Grossmont’s Roberts said of the maneuver.

“We’re snakebit,” said Kearny coach Birt Slater.

On the brighter side, the Komets hadn’t been beaten in league play since dropping a 19-14 decision to Point Loma in 1966.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Only 28 of Marian’s first 86 games since the school opened in 1961 were played on campus.  Night games at home were out, until Week 3 this season.

“We got some old lights from Mar Vista and we’re in the process of aiming them,” Crusader coach Joy Gritz told Will Watson of The San Diego Union.

Gritz singled out booster club president Chuck Perkins:  “He got the lights, some old telephone poles, and put the transformer in.”

It was Coronado that saw the light(s), defeating the host Crusaders, 10-7, in Marian’s first home game under the arcs.

WHAT IS CETY’S?

The name began showing up in results involving San Diego teams in 1969, when Mountain Empire scored an 18-6 victory over CETY’s of Mexicali. Borrego Springs dropped a 23-8 decision this season.

Centro de Ensenanza Tecnica y Superior of Mexicali opened in 1961.  Translated the name essentially means Superior Technical Education Center.

A Tijuana campus would open in 1972 and another in Ensenada in 1975.

San Diego teams in the future would schedule many American football games against squads from the two older Mexican institutions that offer high school and university business and technical curricula.

TRANSBAY CAMELOT

Coronado raced to a 5-1 start, its best since the Harry Sykes days and the 8-2 club of 1951.

A 5-0 start in the Metropolitan League also had Islanders followers honking horns on Orange Avenue and celebrating on their yachts in Glorietta Bay.

“We haven’t met the strength of the league,” cautioned coach Gene Greene before a 16-7 victory over Bonita Vista.

Greene knew.  A capacity crowd of more than 3,000 at Cutler Field the next week witnessed a 38-0 loss to Sweetwater.

Coronado was outscored, 85-21, in its last three games, all losses.

Despite the flat finish the Islanders’ 5-4 record was their best since the Roger Rigdon-coached squad was 4-3-1 in 1962.

Quarterback Jim Skaalen, who would go on to a 40-year career as a player,  scout, and major league coach in baseball, was so valuable that Greene said, “If we lose him we might as well close our doors and go home.”

Skaalen also starred in basketball and signed a baseball contract out of San Diego State.

WALLY’S WORLD

The yards weren’t coming for Wally Henry.  He rushed for 910  and made the all-San Diego Section third team at San Diego as a sophomore.

Henry transferred to Lincoln and his numbers fell off to 600 yards this season.

“We just don’t block for him,” said Hornets coach Earl Faison.  “If he could block for himself he’d be a lot better off.  Wally might be the best blocker we have.”

That Henry was as dangerous as any runner in the area was demonstrated when he scored on a game-deciding 26-yard run as Lincoln beat Crawford, 10-7, knocking the Colts out of the playoffs, and pushing Lincoln through the door.

INSECT INFESTATION?

“A cold East wind swept through here making it an evening not fit for man or beast.  But it apparently was perfect weather for Bugs.”

So wrote the Tribune’s Harlon Bartlett on a blustery, late-fall night at Ramona High, where Julian’s James (Bugs) Ponchetti rushed for 194 yards in 28 carries and scored three touchdowns.

The 170-pound Ponchetti, a Diegueno Indian from the Santa Ysabel band, also played middle linebacker as the Eagles defeated Army-Navy, 30-8, for the San Diego Section A (small schools) championship.

“Bugs”, who has a brother named Charles but is better known as “Goody,” also led the section in scoring with 118 points.

A STEP FORWARD

Football would not come until 1983, but The Bishop’s School became co-educational for the first time since opening in 1909 when the all-girls La Jolla student body merged with San Miguel School.

San Miguel originally was located in National City but moved to Linda Vista to a site that would be occupied by upper level students of Francis Parker.

Parker, which began as a college prep curriculum in 1912, had housed all students at its Mission Hills location.

THEY SAID IT

University coach Robert (Bull) Trometter, on the origination of his nickname:  “I used to smoke Bull Durham tobacco.  I couldn’t afford the expensive stuff.”

Santana coach Joe DiTomaso, on diminished success at Santana after a 12-0,  season at St. Augustine in 1970:  “The last time I walked on water, I fell in.”

QUICK KICKS:  Sweetwater’s Steve Riiff set a San Diego Section record with 52 career touchdown passes, bettering the 48 by San Diego’s Ezell Singleton from 1956-58…Riiff’s mark would stand until Helix’ Jim Plum passed for 70 touchdowns from 1979-81…El Capitan outscored Helix, 14-0, in one quarter and led the East to a 14-0 victory over the West in the 11^th annual Grossmont league carnival actually 16^th  including 1957-60, when the schools were in the Metropolitan circuit…St. Augustine was in its 50th season, but Crawford ate the celebratory  cake, winning, 21-14,in a wild game that saw a total of 185 yards in penalties and St. Augustine quarterback Charlie Flower’s being ejected for throwing a punch at Crawford’s Mike Oliver…Crawford’s  victory  “was the best win for me since I’ve been a head coach,” said the Colts’ Bill Hall…Hall was 1-8 in 1970 but improved the Colts to 6-2-1 this year….

*With apologies to the late, syndicated gossip columnist Walter Winchell, who described bitter rivals as “don’t invitems”, as in don’t extend them an invitation to the same event.