Valley High School Football in Full Swing
By Chris Terrence

High school football in the Central Valley continues to make many fans around California and the nation take notice of the caliber of play coming from our area. Last week it was Clovis West defeating the national powerhouse DeLaSalle from Concord , and Edison 's big win over Serra HS of San Mateo that got the ball rolling. This week's action showed a Clovis East win over a big and powerful East Anchorage ( Alaska ) team, 34-14 at Lamonica Stadium. The Timberwolves' Tracy Slocum broke loose for 3 touchdowns and gained 204 yards on 20 carries. Then it was Chowchilla's turn to take it to another good Division One team from up north by thrashing St. Mary's 49-7. Clovis East has one more out of the area matchup coming up as Coach Tim Murphy will lead the Timberwolves all the way back to Texas to take on the Midland Lee HS team that was featured in the movie Friday Night Lights. Look out Billy Bob.

Week two showed us some great Valley matchups right here at home. Bullard's Anthony McCoy had a terrific game in leading the Knights to a hard fought victory over Clovis in a game seen on our CBC stations (Ch 43, and Ch 32) as well as Comcast Cable outlets around the Valley. McCoy, the Knights senior 6'4”, 235 pound wide receiver and defensive end had the kind of a game that comes out of a sports novel. Anthony caught eight of quarterback Alex Huerta's passes for 133 yards, scored on a 43 yard TD pass from Huerta, THREW for a 75 yard touchdown pass to Paul Jaime, and also played a great defensive game. McCoy stopped a huge fourth and inches quarterback sneak with a no gain tackle on Cougar QB Ron ny Torres, that stopped a Clovis drive as the game was wearing down, and then, on the Cougar's last possession, big Anthony administered three consecutive QB sacks, the last of which was a safety. McCoy was a star in an exciting game that had many good efforts by players from both sides. There were many lead changes and momentum changes and one could get the feeling that if the game went on for hours, it would still be changing leads right through the night. McCoy was our player of the game for Bullard and Nick Palomino won the award for Clovis after a great game on offense and defense. Palomino is a good runner, blocker and tackler. It's always a great game between Bullard and Clovis and the last three have been won by less than a touchdown.....The Knights are now 3 and 3 since coach Arax took over. You can always count on a good close game between these two schools.

Meanwhile, week two saw Clovis West continue to roll with a big victory over Granite Hill, with the Eagles getting good games from Kyle Duffy, Chris Lewis, Zak Hill, Beau Sweeney, Brett Springer and many others. Duffy, Lewis, and company saw limited action and Coach Jim Hartigan was able to give playing time to Eagle reserves.........There is usually a big upset somewhere over these football weekends in the Valley, but the Edison loss to Yosemite , 36-22 up in Oakhurst, would have to go down as one of the biggest in a few years. The Tigers beat the Badgers last year, 63-7 while holding the Badgers to minus 15 yards rushing. Josh Nunes rushed for 114 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Badgers, while QB Chris Rolff threw for three TD's....Rolff starting only his second game for the Badgers, has already broken the single game passing record for yards...........The Tigers have to regroup this week in time to be ready for a big game this Friday with Clovis West. We will be covering that game on Cocola Broadcasting and Comcast. Check your local paper for times. ...Also this week we will be televising another big game when Clovis East takes on Bullard in a battle of unbeatens. Both of these games will be battles....Again, check your local listings for stations and times of airing. Clovis East vs Edison is on Thursday at McLane Stadium, and the Clovis West and Edison game takes place on Friday at Grizzlies Stadium.....

In a game played Thursday at Sunnyside, Hoover High upset the Grizzlies of Central High, 28-18 in a really terrific high school football game. Fred Clark and I went to the game and enjoyed it very much. Central, the always well-coached and tough, playoff bound team, went up against the Patriots who have a much smaller team than most others, not just in size, but in numbers as well. The first quarter of the game went pretty much as one would expect as the Grizzlies executed well en route to a 15-0 lead. After that, Hoover , led by a young man with lots of heart, Mike Cervantes, began coming back. Cervantes was the star in this one, running, passing, playing great defense, heck he was even the long snapper on punts, but most of all it was his leadership that brought the Patriots back as they outscored the Grizzlies 28 to 3 and win the game. Hoover now finds itself undefeated in the early going, and after the game, as the players all gathered round for the singing of the Hoover alma mater, I heard one of the players yell, “Hey you guys, we're for real!!!” and you know what? They are. Head coach Rick Lyons and his staff have a lot of big games ahead of them this year, and they will be right there in all of them.................The Madera - Fresno game, well, that's a different story. No doubt about the fact that this is a rebuilding year for the Warriors, but any time you got a score of 74 to 0, well that's not a good look at what high school football and sports in general are supposed to be. I guess the fact that Madera 's outstanding young quarterback, Nick Bates, was still in the game through the fourth quarter, not much more needs to be said. Perhaps the Coyotes were still upset about the previous week's loss to Merced , but it makes you wonder.

Some other scores this week saw the Buchanan Bears traveling to Visalia to run over a tough Redwood team, 34-21. The Bears were led by the 247 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns by Jon Fox..........In a close game in Easton the Washington Union Panthers edged out Atwater , 14-7.....also Coalinga beat Kerman 22-8..... Tulare knocked off Lemoore 49-42 in a game that well over 1,100 total yards were logged...(Wow!)........Reedley fell to Exeter, 28-7....and Strathmore beat Fresno Christian 29-13.....Hats off to the young Liberty-Madera Ranchos team as the Hawks beat McFarland, 35-0, giving the Hawks their first shutout in school history....Dos Palos beat Los Banos 31-21 in one of those great rivalry games....Immanuel beat Caruthers 28-0, and Central Valley Christian stomped Orosi 50-0....Central Valley Christian is a real powerhouse. Should they be a Division 5 team? Is that fair?...Anyway the fastly improving McLane Highlanders beat Sierra 31-14. Don't forget that McLane put up 37 points on the scoreboard in a loss to Yosemite last week.....Meanwhile Sanger beat Porterville 42 to 19 and Chuck Shidan's troops will be around at playoff time you gotta believe.

Chris Terrence