The Magical Mystery Tour - Central Section Week Five
by Chris Terrence

There could be a whole lot of titles for this weeks central section high school football report. “Who Would Have Thunk It?” might have been another...or how about , “You Never Know”,...or even “The Invasion of the Sophomores!” might be another... This week’s games provided many thrills and spills around here for football fans of the Valley. Let’s see, where to start....well, how about with the homecoming party at Lamonica where the Timberwolves of Clovis East returned home to their familiar woods after such a thrilling job they did back in Texas, defeating the legendary Midland Lee High School Rebels. Midland Lee, so great a Texas tradition, with enough state and national championships to their credit that Hollywood made a movie about them, and the T-Wolves of Coach Tim Murphy go back there and knock off the Rebels in overtime in front of 15,000 wild Rebel fans. Definitely a huge victory for Clovis East and Valley football in general. Enter the Edison Tigers. They came into Lamonica Stadium with a 1 and 3 record, the previous week giving up 43 points in a loss to Buchanan suffering from special teams misery for the second week (and loss) in a row. This young Edison team has been suffering with inexperience and injuries after starting the season out with a terrible tragedy where members of their family lost their lives.

Coach Tim McDonald and his staff have been hard at work leading the Tigers back. The Timberwolves didn’t see them coming on Friday night. Down 20 to 7 in the third quarter, the Tigers started their move to the front with a blocked extra point try by Philip Torres after a 51 yard TD run by Andrew Pancotti. Then they kept on driving behind sophomore quarterback Jerry Davis’ eight straight completions and 125 yards passing, a touchdown pass to Sonny McCree, and a 10 yard TD run by and two extra point kicks by Nathan Jones. The Tiger defense did not allow another point in the game. Final score: Edison 21, Clovis East 20. This game gave both of these fine teams and coaching staffs something to work on as this season heads in to high gear.

Clovis West was also knocked from the unbeaten ranks this week after losing to Centennial-Corona, 42-21, down in Southern California. The Golden Eagles, who had already knocked off the famous DeLaSalle Spartans, from the Bay area, becoming the first school EVER to win back to back games against the Spartans, ran into a Husky team that has another soph sensation in Ryan Bass who gained

307 yards and ran for 4 touchdowns against the Eagles. Centennial QB, Chris Scott, completed 16 or 18 passes for 262 yards in helping to knock West off of their perch of being second ranked in the state. Credit the Eagles for coming back from 21 points down to make a game effort of it, with special teams getting a 50-yard punt return TD from Zak Hill, and Ato Lakatoni’s 95-yard kickoff return for a TD. .. Who would have thunk that Hoover, Yosemite, Sanger, Immanuel, and Chowchilla would be the only undefeated teams after 5 weeks of the season? Hoover kept going with a 27 to 7 victory over Sunnyside behind the all-round play and leadership of Mike Servantes.....Yosemite blew out Kerman 57-21 in their NYL opener as the Badgers continued to roll with QB Chris Rolf who has more receivers to go to than Pacific Bell. The Badgers have runners too, like Aaron Wilkins and Josh Nunes who combined for over 280 yards for the ground attack to go along with 4 TD’s between them. What is swelling up down the road is a mighty clash between the Badgers and the also undefeated Redskins of Chowchilla in that tough North Sequoia League. Chowchilla had a league game this week against another toughie in Sierra. The game was scoreless until the Redskins scored 21 fourth quarter points. Credit the Sierra defense for holding that Chowchilla nuclear offense scoreless for three quarters. ......Immanuel? What are they so grumpy about? First they spoil Central Valley Christian’s 29 game winning streak, staying undefeated themselves, and then they roll over Woodlake 61 to 0, with 9 different names in the scoring tally after getting the party started with the 66 yard TD run by Josh Fixel. Watch out for the Eagles, these boys are serious........Bullard had it all clicking in a 30 to 0 win over Central. The Knights have it going on this year and they are fun to watch. Huerta, Hedrington, Jamie, and the big fella McCoy and those lines are getting stronger every game. Another one of those huge games we are going to be treated to this year in the Valley will be when Bullard and Sanger meet in a big County/Metro clash of Titans.....The CMAC is awesome this year with the Knights, the Apaches, and the big surprise Patriots of Hoover High. Gonna be fun.

Sanger knocked off the struggling Fresno High Warriors this week, 50 to 6 in a game where lots of players got to participate....Meanwhile, the ever improving and certainly not to be counted out Buchanan Bears beat North Bakersfield 28 to zip. The Bears have a lot of weapons with the likes of Darrin Vogt, a bunch of receivers, and Jon Fox, a great all round player, but we were really impressed with young Mr. Mark Lampford, the junior running back who is getting better every game.....Speaking of “Don’t ever count them out.”, the Clovis Cougars go down to Bakersfield and drill the Drillers 20 to 9. Brett Behlen threw for 242 yards, completing 14 of 16 passes. All eyes are on the Tri-River this year as there are so many powerful teams to be reckoned with and the Cougars are right in there. Don’t count anybody out, ya hear me.........

We were really lucky this week to be there to televise the Central Valley Christian vs San Joanquin Memorial battle. Fred and I have been lucky to see some great games this year, but this one was a blast. Two pretty evenly matched teams, well coached, lots of individual talent combined with great team effort. It was a game of big plays, both on offense and defense. Intense football and it offered precision plays and occasional razzle dazzle and the crowd was really entertained. When the smoke cleared, CVC’s Cavaliers came away with a one point, 14 to 13 victory. Both teams fought hard right to the very end of the drama. Our Players of the Game awards went to Fred Leyendekker for CVC and Willie Wilson of SJM, but there were many outstanding performances in this one. CVC, who should not have any trouble winning the East Sierra League (although props to Templeton’s unblemished record so far) and the Cavs will certainly contend for the Div 4 Valley title. Memorial now is 0 and 5 as they head into North Yosemite League action and let me just say that they are the best 0 and 5 team in the Valley at this point and we be right up there as they head for league play and playoff action...look for the Panthers to be a darkhorse in the playoff races...

We got two TV games this week on Cocola Broadcasting stations and Comcast. On Thursday (13th) we will be at McLane for the game between the Highlanders and the Roosevelt Rough Riders. Coaches Dave Barton of McLane and Jo Jo Reyes have been rebuilding both these teams and they are coming along. Lots of heart.....Then on Friday (14th) we will be in Madera for the game between two contenders in the Tri-River Conference, the Coyotes and the Bears of Buchanan. This is going to be a great game and now that we are in league action, this all counts, baby....check your local listings for TV times.... Special props this week too, to Fred Clark who won a Good Conduct Award in the press box for laying off any beans or cheese before the game. See you
next week.

Chris Terrence