Setting Sails, Leagues Underway - Week Six

by Chris Terrence

Geeze, it’s Sunday night and I’m just now sitting down to write this week’s football report. Lots of great high school games to talk about but, just for the heck of it, let’s start this one time with a little bit about the college game that had to be one of the best games I’ve ever seen in my life.

USC and Notre Dame put on a game for the ages. More thrills than that new ride on top of the Stratosphere in Vegas. More endings than an old time soap opera. More fun than a marel full of bonkeys. No wonder Matt Leinart won the Heiseman last year. No wonder Reggie Bush should win it this year. Wait a minute, that Brady Quinn kid was great too, and how about that tough guy Tom Zbikowski running back that punt for the Irish. So many great players, plays, offense, defense, you name it, this game had it all. You know you are watching greatness when just about every play is raising the hair on your neck or arms. This was football at it’s best. The fans were awesome and I’m sure there were millions and millions of others watching it on TV that screamed as loud as they did in South Bend. I know there was a lot of that where I live.
....I was thinking how cool it is that Fresno State is going to be playing these guys (USC) on November 19th and how there would be no way for the Bulldogs to be any kind of matchup at all with USC, but you know, you never know. What a great opportunity for the Dogs to take on the Trojans at the Coliseum. Olympic all time great Bob Mathias (from Tulare) went down from this Valley to this same Coliseum fifty plus years ago to go up against a large group of the best athletes in the United States in trying out for the 1948 US Olympic team in the decathlon event.....and he not only did well against all the big stars of the day, but he beat them as well, and then went off to win the Olympic Decathlon in London a month later. And he was only 17 years old! Our Valley has sent many athletes to the LA Coliseum and many have done doggone good...

It was a also a great weekend for football in the Valley. Off the bat I want to say that the TV game we did this week between Madera and Buchanan, was a real treat. It was Homecoming for the Coyotes and with a huge crowd on hand, the evening certainly put Madera back in the central section limelight as a team with a future in the Tri River AC and beyond. Madera won the hard fought rumble, 35-25 getting outstanding play from QB Nick Bates, RB Chris Jackson, WR Brandon Henderson and defense from Deandre Whitney, Antonio DeLa Garza and our Cocola Broadcasting/Comcast Player of the game, fullback Julio Mora who was all-World on both sides of the ball. The Bears of Buchanan put up a hard fight with great play from the likes of Taylor Smith, Jeremy Hendrick, Justin Cape, AJ Forestierre, Zak Parrish, Jon Fox, Lampford Mark, and our first two time Player of the Game winner this year, Darin Vogt. Vogt was also outstanding on offense and defense. Both these teams will be ready to rock come playoff time as they have responded to the game they have been taught by head coaches Randy Blankenship of Madera and Mike Vogt of Buchanan and their fine staffs.

In other games..Edison beat Hoover 23-8, but it wasn’t that close. The Tigers are back with a roar for the rest of the CMAC to hear......Edison’s defense , which has made a few stellar appearances this season, only to go into hiding every now and then, really got it together against Hoover. Patriot QB Mike Servantes, who is having a wonderful senior year, having led the Pats to a 5 and 0 record, was held to 67 yards of total offense, just 18 of those yards passing. Servantes was sacked four times by Travis Poh of Edison and when he wasn’t being sacked by Poh and friends, he was being chased by Poh and his buddies for most of the night....Charles Amadi ran for 145 yards and scored three touchdowns for the Tigers.

Immanuel beat Exeter 23-19, in something the Eagles are not use to...a close game. Usually there is barely enough room on the scoreboard to tell the story of their offense as they have reeled a 6-0 record to start the season. This time, however, they found themselves trailing to the Monarchs, 19 to 16 with 3 minutes left in the game...A Bobby Hines 16 yd touchdown pass to Tim Cowdrey did the trick for the Eagles, ranked #2 in Division 4 and in 1st place in the East Sequoia League.....

Other notables: Clovis West had to hang on to beat a rejuvenated Central squad, 17-14 in a Tri-River AC opener for both teams. (Remember to NEVER count out a Wayne Koligian coached team)...Turns out that Ben Milan’s 24 yard field goal in the 2nd quarter was the winning margin for the Golden Eagles.....Korey Gerdts did the rushing damage for the Eagles, running for 168 yards on 32 carries. Gerdts also ran for a couple of TD’s. ........Clovis East, behind the play of Andrew Pancotti, Alex Cabatic and DJ Savoy, managed to get by Clovis 24 to 9 after being down by 2 at the half. Tracy Slocum was on the sidelines for the game, nursing a calf injury. A Savoy 32 yd TD run late in the 3rd quarter, put the Timberwolves in the lead that they would not give up in the victory, moving CE to 5-1 and 1-0 in the Tri River....We all know how tough the Tri River AC is, probably one of the best in the whole state or west coast, but no matter how high up on the ladder they are, the CMAC is not far behind.

In the CMAC, besides Edison’ reemergence on the scene, Sanger High remained undefeated with a 28-0 win over Sunnyside at Tom Flores Stadium. The Apaches had their usual dynamic offense clicking, but also had their great defense cookin’ in the shutout. The Wildcats were held to 3 first downs and completed only 3 passes. Sophomore Justin Webber contributed to the Webber family contributions over the last four or five years by donating another 117 yards rushing and some good defense. (Justin’s older brother Brent starred at Sanger and is now playing at Sacramento St.)......Bullard tuned up for their big showdown with Edison this Friday, (at Grizzlies stadium and to be seen on Cocola Broadcasting and Comcast this week) by trouncing Reedley 45 to 12. The Knights broke a school record in the first quarter by scoring 35 points. Alex Huerta was 11 for 14 passing, for 265 yards and five touchdowns, for of which went to Anthony McCoy. (McCoy had 7 receptions on the night for 179 yards.)...

San Joaquin Memorial broke into the win column with a 35 to 14 victory over Fresno High...Willie Wilson, our KJEO Player of the Game vs Central Valley Christian last week, scored three td’s one of which was a pretty 61-yard jaunt, fifty of which belonged to the Pirates....In what some people considered an upset, Washington Union beat Dos Palos 35 to 28 in North Sequoia League action, as Ebhaan Feathers ruffled the Broncos for a couple td runs and 162 yards after missing a couple of Panther games with some pneumonia blues... ..Meanwhile, top ranked Chowchilla of the NSL stayed unbeaten at 6-0 knocking off Kerman , 35-13 thanks in part to Johnny Garza’s 111 rushing yards...Big Caleb Hall also rushed for over 130 yards...Hey, you want to try and tackle that guy?.....Yosemite was also cooking in NSL action playing without QB sensation Chris Rolff who stubbed his toe and it got infected and he couldn’t play. The Badgers still put another 50 points on the scoreboard to 13 for Selma, behind some good play of backup QB Steve Daniels....The Badgers are still the number one rated team in Division III ball. Man, that showdown between them and Chowchilla is really going to be something. Maybe they should play that game in South Bend,Indiana or at the Coliseum in Los Angeles....

Thursday we covered the McLane 42-7 victory over Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. McLane is looking pretty good for a shot at the NYL title. QB Brian Prieto is a good all round player and is in on almost every play of the game. Our Players of the Game were Adrian Gonzalez of McLane, and Dexter Jones of Roosevelt . Head coaches Dave Barton (McLane), and Jo Jo Reyes (Roosevelt) have both these teams rebuilding to contend in the North Yosemite League.

Also, props out to this young Liberty-Madera Rancho team, which beat a good Tranquility team 17-10 to move to a 5-2 record on the year. This is still a relatively new school.

And how about this Emmanuel Lewis guy of Tulare? Another 400 yards this week (379 passing and 21 rushing) and this guy has more yards than a 747 landing strip...Lewis has led the Redskins to their 6-0 record and Emmanuel Lewis is AVERAGING over 375 yards a game! Here’s another matchup that is going to be great...Templeton and Central Valley Christian’s battle for the East Sequoia League itle...Templeton beat McFarland 62-7, CVC beat Farmersville 63-8....going to be fun fun..... Also: Fowler is now 5-1 after beating Coast 29-7 (Coast is now 4-2) in the Southwest Sierra League.... Good games this week...our Bullard vs Edison game probably the best, but then again we got, Hoover at Sanger, those games in the CMAC; then there’s TRI River fun with Clovis East at Central, Clovis West a Buchanan, and Madera at Clovis’(Lamonica)....Also, Wash U at Yosemite, and Porterville at Tulare should be good....

Here’s hoping you have a good week. Be sure to enter our KJEO Sports I-POD giveaway. Just log on to KJEO TV.com and register. While your are there your comments and suggestions are welcomed. Any suggestions for a game you think we should do?

Chris Terrence