Big Brother split with Little Brother in two traditional games last week.

Younger Helix made it a quarter century of continued success with a 25^th consecutive win over older Grossmont, 29-14, and older Mira Mesa topped younger Scripps Ranch, 38-35.

Helix now is 46-18-2 against Grossmont since 1951, when the fledgling school divided enrollment and geographic borders with the Foothillers and struck out on its own.

Mira Mesa, honoring their late coach, Chris Thompson, who passed during the season, won its fifth game in a row under coach Aurelo Morales and took a 21-7 lead over Scripps Ranch in a rivalry the schools trumpet as “The Battle of Interstate 15”.

Scripps Ranch, which opened in 1994, is less than 2.5 miles from Mira Mesa and separated by I-15.

The Marauders (6-2), who played their first game in 1976, had the Falcons (7-1) on their heels, leading 14-0, 21-7, and 35-21 well into the third quarter. The game was tied at 35 when Mira Mesa freshman Eddy Medina kicked a 24-yard field goal as time expired.

According to Don Norcross of The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Falcons’ student section was shouting,  “No pressure! No pressure! No pressure!”

Medina replied to Norcross, “Were they?  I didn’t hear them.”

The Falcons twice had called timeout in an attempt to “ice” Medina.

Steady Eddy.

OVER-AND-OVER TIME

The Oceanside-Ramona thriller which went three overtimes before the visiting Pirates escaped with a 35-33 win was a record fourth triple extra since the first between Torrey Pines and Vista in 2002.

Other three-overtime games matched Cathedral and San Pasqual in 2013 and Escondido and Mira Mesa in 2014.

There have been 79 San Diego Section games since 1976 that were forced into an extra session, including 58 that ended in the first overtime and 17 that necessitated two, according to Henrik Jonson, who maintains our scores database and coordinates our website.

Jonson pointed out that the period of 2012-2014 favored frantic finishes.  There were 9 in 2012, 5 in ’13, and 7 in ’14.

RATINGS GAME

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES 

Mt. Carmel (8-1, 12), Mira Mesa (6-2, 11), El Capitan (8-1, 4),West Hills (9-0, 3), Eastlake (6-3, 2), Patrick Henry (7-2, 1), Poway (6-3, 1).

VOTING PANEL
Twenty-four sportswriters and sportscasters throughout San Diego County.

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Steve Brand, Thomas Gutierrez, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
• John Carroll, Nick Pollino, KUSI Ch. 51.
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3-FM The Fan).
• Adam Paul, ECPreps.com.
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com.
• Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com.
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego.
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, Mike Dolan, CIF San Diego Section.
• Ramon Scott, Eastcountysports.com.
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country, 107.9-FM.

How others see San Diego’s Top 10:
*The second entry in each rating is from the previous week.

Grossmont is going to beat Helix one of these years.  Maybe this week.

The way things have gone the last 40-odd that’s a lukewarm maybe.

The teams will meet for the 66^th time with host Helix holding a 45-18-2 record in the all-time series.

A victory for the Foothillers over their so-called younger sibling took place so long ago that those who played now are nearing their fifties. It happened in 1991 when Judd Hurlburt’s squad beat the Highlanders of coach Jim Arnaiz, 28-14.

Others have forgotten or perhaps gone to the gridiron in the sky since an earlier Grossmont win.  That was in 1978 when Pat Roberts’ team, which finished with a 5-3-2 record, beat a 10-2 Arnaiz club, 21-7.

Arnaiz won the CIF championship that season and, after losing his first four games in the rivalry, posted a career, 19-6-2 record against the Foothillers.

‘Twas not always.

Grossmont built a 16-11 series edge from 1951-77, when Arnaiz’ program kicked in and the Highlanders took off.

METRO LEAGUE SUES FOR RELIEF

Grossmont’s enrollment soared in the 1940’s, creating such a student body numbers mismatch that the Foothillers were ousted from the Metropolitan League, in which they had been a 1933 charter member with Sweetwater, Escondido, Oceanside, Army-Navy, La Jolla, and Point Loma.

Grossmont was bursting at the seams.

Enter Helix in 1951, about 4 miles West in La Mesa on University Avenue.

The Foothillers would have a new rival, after years being a traditional foe of Sweetwater.

Helix’ campus still was under construction when school opened, forcing Grossmont to share its digs for a year.

Grossmont students attended school in the morning and hosted Helix students in the afternoon.

The pubescent Highlanders joined Grossmont in the City Prep League, which had been created and included Grossmont in 1950.  Both schools re-entered the Metropolitan loop in 1955 and were charter members of the Grossmont League in 1961.

BELL TOLLS

Brawley and El Centro Central players can hear the clanging their sleep. They’ll go at it again next week in the historic desert rivalry.

Brawley leads El Centro Central, 50-27-1, since a  Bell trophy first rung in 1944, but the squads reportedly played twice a year most seasons from 1921 through 2003.

An actual bell was purchased by the student bodies of each school for a sum of $50  from a seafaring, San Diego vessel in 1943.

El Centro Central has won the last four meetings.

RATINGS GAME

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES 

Poway (6-2, 17 points), Mt. Carmel (7-1, 8), Ramona (6-2, 7), Eastlake (5-3, 4), Rancho Bernardo (5-3, 4), West Hills (8-0, 3), Mira Mesa (5-2, 2), El Capitan (7-1, 1).

VOTING PANEL
Twenty-four sportswriters and sportscasters throughout San Diego County.

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Steve Brand, Thomas Gutierrez, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
• John Carroll, Nick Pollino, KUSI Ch. 51.
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3-FM The Fan).
• Adam Paul, ECPreps.com.
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com.
• Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com.
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego.
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, Mike Dolan, CIF San Diego Section.
• Ramon Scott, Eastcountysports.com.
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country, 107.9-FM.

How others see San Diego’s Top 10:
*The second entry in each rating is from the previous week.

Three neighborhood rivals with long histories resume their versions of trench warfare this week.

Chula Vista and Sweetwater, 2.9 miles apart and the oldest schools south of the San Diego city limits, play for the 74th consecutive year in a chain that began when Chula Vista opened in 1947.

The Spartans lead the Red Devils, 39-33-3, in the longest continuous series in the County.

Chula Vista (4-2) is on a 2021 four-game win streak and Sweetwater (2-3), delayed by two cancelations because of Covid implications, is looking for a third straight victory.

HISTORY FAVORS OCEANSIDE

Carlsbad is ranked No. 1 in John Maffei’s Union-Tribune weekly poll below, but Oceanside is 38-18-6 against the Lancers.

The series began in 1958 when the schools, 3.9 miles apart, were coached by the legendary Herb Meyer (Oceanside) and Sveto (Swede) Krcmar, who had been an assistant at Oceanside when Meyer was a player there.

Meyer was 10-4-1 against Carlsbad when he moved to the new El Camino in 1976, but Krcmar’s Lancers won two small school CIF championships in head-to-head battles, 13-6, in 1962 and 12-3 in 1965.

SO CLOSE

Crawford is 1.5 miles east of Hoover, having opened and taken a chunk of Cardinals enrollment in 1957.  The two played every year from 1958-75 and then went their separate ways, only to return.

Over the decades Hoover and Crawford have been partnered in the Eastern, Western, Central, and Harbor leagues and are back together in the Central. The off-and-on relationship favors the Colts, 29-17.

HOLY BOWL

Not as close geographically as when Cathedral was University, with a Linda Vista address instead of Carmel Valley,  St. Augustine and Cathedral bring the heat, no matter the venue.

University began playing in 1957 and became Cathedral in 2004. The schools didn’t meet until 1966. Cathedral will take a 38-22 lead into their game at home this week.

RATINGS GAME

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Madison (5-2, 12 points), Poway 5-2, 8), Eastlake (5-2, 7), Ramona (5-2, 3), El Capitan (6-1, 1), San Diego (7-1, 1). 

VOTING PANEL
Twenty-four sportswriters and sportscasters throughout San Diego County.

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Steve Brand, Thomas Gutierrez, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
• John Carroll, Nick Pollino, KUSI Ch. 51.
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3-FM The Fan).
• Adam Paul, ECPreps.com.
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com.
• Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com.
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego.
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, Mike Dolan, CIF San Diego Section.
• Ramon Scott, Eastcountysports.com.
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country, 107.9-FM.

How others see San Diego’s Top 10:
*The second entry in each rating is from the previous week.

It didn’t have much influence on John Maffei’s Union-Tribune Top 10 poll through Week 7, but the Carlsbad-Torrey Pines game, a last-second, 34-33 win for coach Thadd MacNeal’s unbeaten Lancers, rates as the game of the year and easily the best since the pandemic.

Sophomore quarterback Julian Sayin drove the Lancers 90 yards in the waning moments and connected with Josh Davis on a 12-yard pass for a game-winning, come-from-behind touchdown with 0.9 seconds remaining in the game.

Sayin completed 18 of 28 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.

Carlsbad remained at the top of the poll but Torrey Pines dropped from fifth to sixth.  The Falcons, it says here, should have risen in the poll.

OLD RIVALRY

One of the oldest will be observed tonight when San Diego visits Coronado. San Diego leads, 16-9, in a series that began in 1915.  Infrequent is the best way to describe their meetings.

The teams didn’t play from 1919-43 and from 1945-89.  Coronado has led with nine victories to eight since then, with other lapses.

Each is now aligned in the City League after being together in the Central League.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Madison (4-2, 10 points), Poway (4-2, 10), Eastlake (4-2, 6), El Camino (3-3, 6), El Capitan (5-1, 2), Ramona (4-2, 10).  

VOTING PANEL
Twenty-four sportswriters and sportscasters throughout San Diego County.

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Steve Brand, Thomas Gutierrez, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
• John Carroll, Nick Pollino, KUSI Ch. 51.
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3-FM The Fan).
• Adam Paul, ECPreps.com.
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com.
• Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com.
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego.
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, Mike Dolan, CIF San Diego Section.
• Ramon Scott, Eastcountysports.com.
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country, 107.9-FM.

How others see San Diego’s Top 10:
*The second entry in each rating is from the previous week.

MaxPreps.com and CalPreps.com computer ratings are usually the same and based on strength of schedules and other factors.

Cal-HiSports.com ratings are created by publisher Mark Tennis, who coordinates with several state-wide sources.

And still others, such as the CIF San Diego Section Open Division power ratings, based on several factors including strength of schedule, with points noted:

1–Carlsbad, 47.17.
2–Cathedral, 46.29.
3–Mission Hills, 46.0.
4–Torrey Pines, 45.0.
5–Lincoln, 44.50.
6–Helix, 44.0.
7–Madison, 44.33.
8–Granite Hills, 44.00.
9–Eastlake, 43.67.
10–Grossmont, 42.50.

Carlsbad will be at  an interesting juncture as the regular season turns to the second half and the Lancers riding a 10-game winning streak.

At 5-0, duplicating its record in the pandemic 2020 campaign and 5-0 starts in 2013 and 2007, coach Thadd MacNeal’s team will try to become  6-0 for the first time since 2006 when it takes on Avocado League neighbor Torrey Pines Oct. 1.

The Falcons have won 17 of 26 games with the Lancers since 1975, but, although only about 17 miles and 20-25 minutes apart, the rivals were not always in the same league and would go years without playing.

Carlsbad won, 42-0, in 2020 and 42-7 in 2019.

The Lancers are first and have 13 No. 1 votes in the weekly The San Diego Union poll, but Cathedral, depite  thumpings by state powerhouses Corona Centennial and Concord de La Salle, still is getting love from the voters with 11 first-place votes.

Cal-Hi Sports ranks Carslbad 13th this week and Cathedral, despite the two losses, is 20th.

The clubs won’t meet unless they tangle in the Open Division playoffs. Torrey Pines, winner of 3 in a row since an opening, 28-14 loss to Cathedral and Cal-Hi Sports‘ 41st-ranked team this week, hopes to have a voice.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
El Camino (3-2, 19 points), Santa Fe Christian (5-0, 17),  Eastlake (3-2), Poway (3-2, 2). West Hills (6-0, 2), Oceanside (3-2, 1).

VOTING PANEL
Twenty-four sportswriters and sportscasters throughout San Diego County.

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Steve Brand, Thomas Gutierrez, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
• John Carroll, Nick Pollino, KUSI Ch. 51.
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3-FM The Fan).
• Adam Paul, ECPreps.com.
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com.
• Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com.
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego.
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, Mike Dolan, CIF San Diego Section.
• Ramon Scott, Eastcountysports.com.
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country, 107.9-FM.

How others see San Diego’s Top 10:
*The second entry in each rating is from the previous week.

MaxPreps.com and CalPreps.com computer ratings are usually the same and based on strength of schedules and other factors.

Cal-HiSports.com ratings are created by publisher Mark Tennis, who coordinates with several state-wide sources.

By three points, Carlsbad retained its lead over Cathedral, 226 points to 223 and will sit out this week with a bye.

John Maffei’s weekly The San Diego Union-Tribune Top 10:
First place votes in parenthesis.  Points on scale of 10 points to 1 point.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Mt. Carmel (4-0, 12 pts), Santa Fe Christian (5-0, 11),  El Camino (2-2, 6), Poway (3-2, 4).

VOTING PANEL
Twenty-four sportswriters and sportscasters throughout San Diego County.

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Steve Brand, Thomas Gutierrez, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindgren, Terry Monahan, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez, freelance contributors.
• John Carroll, Nick Pollino, KUSI Ch. 51.
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant, 97.3-FM The Fan).
• Adam Paul, ECPreps.com.
• Bodie DeSilva, scorebooklive.com.
• Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com.
• Christian Pedersen, San Diego Sports Association.
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego.
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net.
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez, Mike Dolan, CIF San Diego Section.
• Ramon Scott, Eastcountysports.com.
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country, 107.9-FM.

How others see San Diego’s Top 10:
*The second entry in each rating is from the previous week.

MaxPreps.com and CalPreps.com computer ratings are usually the same and based on strength of schedules and other factors.

Cal-HiSports.com ratings are created by publisher Mark Tennis, who coordinates with several state-wide sources.