Playoffs Round One - Load the Wagons

The first round of the CIF Central Section playoffs was a blessing for some, good fortune for some others a nightmare for others, and if you happen to be a Hanford Bullpup fan, you’re somewhere in between. Let’s start out with the blessings. Those would be the schools with the first round byes.  Blessings because it gave those teams a week to rest, lick wounds, and heal and drink some hot chocolate.  That came in real handy for Clovis East as the Timberwolves have been hurting of late. They lost Tony Ferguson to a broken leg in that big victory down in Texas, and with running back Tracy Slocum nursing a leg injury for most of the year, which had put a lot of the offensive load on Andrew Pancotti.  Pancotti certainly answered the bell and had been having a great season for the 9-1 and top ranked Wolves until he went down with a shoulder injury.  So the Wolves have been hurting and the bye was a welcomed break in the action. Slocum and Pancotti might be in uniform for round two, but weather or not they are ready to play is uncertain. Coach Tim Murphy has a lot of depth on this tough Clovis East squad, but they face a tough Clovis team who can play with anyone (at full strength or not) on any given night.

Other first round byes this year went to Bullard, who from this set of baby blues, is probably the team to beat right now.  The Knights are healthy, peaking, and certainly focused, and they have more stars this year then the Grammy Awards.  McCoy, Huerta, Jamie, Hedrington, Snelling, Staley, Brown, Gilbert, heck the list goes on like the roll credits for the latest Star Wars movie.  One thing though that will hurt, Coach Don Arax will not be on the sidelines for this game with Liberty-Bakersfield.  Coach Arax received a one game suspension for getting tossed in the last regular season game, the Battle of Barstow victory over Hoover.  It was a controversial call that got the coach ejected and it could be a big factor in round two.

More blessed first round byes were Tulare Union and  West of Bakersfield in Div II, El Diamante, Golden Valley, and Yosemite of Div III, Immanuel, Coalinga, Dos Palos, Chowchilla, and Templeton in Div IV. The Good Fortune people in round one and moving on are  Clovis High, Sanger, Liberty-Bakersfield, Clovis West, and Madera.   In Div II games, it was Hoover, Hanford West, Garces,  and Hanford  and in  Div III Lemoore, Washington, Exeter, Dinuba, and Arvin, while Shafter, Kerman and Taft move on in Div IV and Caruthers, Coast-Cambria, Central Valley Christian and Tranquility are still around in Division V.

Oh and back to the tweener team.  That would be Hanford.  The Bullpups played a great game against San Joaquin Memorial, Coach John Clark and his crew had this team ready for these playoffs and yes they move on to play Tulare in round two. The bad news is that they will be playing that game without star running back Avery Horn, who was terrific against SJM, linebacker Devon Griffith who also was outstanding in this game, and receiver Austin Spikes, all who were ejected after a brawl with the Panthers ten seconds into the second half and Hanford leading by 20 points.  It all started after Griffith intercepted Panther QB Trent Soares’ pass and returned it deep into Panthers territory. It was Soares’ third intercepted pass in the game  and after the play fists started flying and it was on.  Referee Dan LaCroix and his crew and the coaches from both teams did a good job restoring order (after about 10 minutes) and when the smoke cleared, Horn, Griffith and Spikes, along with Soares, receivers Anthony Soto and Timmy Cecil were all gone from the game.  Now the Bulpups are going to have to face undefeated Tulare, which by all accounts would have been a great match-up, but without the services of Avery Horn who came into the SJM game averaging 129 yards a game rushing and an important key in the Handford defense scheme. Griffith also is a two way player for the Bullpups.  Very unfortunate indeed.

Round Two:  Some great games here: Clovis West vs Madera, Clovis vs Clovis East,  Bakersfield at Sanger, Liberty Bakersfield at Bullard, that Hanford vs Tulare game will still be good, just not as good, and  then there’s Garces and Monache, Hoover and West, a possible great one between Washington and Lemoore, Coast-Cambria vs Central Valley Christian could be a battle and others as well because it’s playoff time right now and anything can happen.  Hope your team does well and we’ll see you in Round Three

Chris Terrence