Big Times Up Around the Bend - Week Eight

As it turned out, the game that many people had , in the preseason of the
2005 Central Section football schedule, figured that this would be the game of the year, wasn’t. Many figured the two preseason favorites, Clovis East and Clovis West...would be the BIG game of the regular season. Just goes to show you that it just shows to go you! You never know. Not that it was that bad a game, especially if you come from the east side of that game. Andrew Pancotti had a tremendous game for the Timberwolves, scoring on two long touchdown runs of 57 and 68 yards PLUS two more long touchdowns on passes from Eric Roberts, one of 48 yards and the other of 71 yards. Pancotti, our Cocola/Comcast player of the game gained 150 yards on 7 carries plus the 119 yards on the two passes. Meanwhile, Kyle Duffy, after sitting out three Golden Eagle games for undisclosed reasons, returned to the Clovis West lineup in excellent fashion, putting life back into Coach Jim Hartigan’s running game with 165 yards on 31 carries, and a touchdown. The game was scoreless into the second quarter at Golden Eagle Field (BEC) and as the quarter started, the Eagles had the ball inside the Timberwolves 10 yard line, but that’s where the lights went out for them. A fumble on a double reverse, recovered by the T-Wolves Mick Walligorsky, led to Pancotti’s first electrifying TD, this one good for 57 yards, and the Second Quarter Massacre was on for Clovis East. At the end of the half, CE (or should I say Andrew Pancotti ) had racked up 28 points (4 of which were Philip Torres PAT’s) and for all intents and purposes, the game was history. The final score was 34-7. It almost had the flavor of a preseason game because you had to believe that these two teams could very possibly meet again down the road just a piece in the CIF playoffs, and that game would be a lot closer.

This game was one where both teams could experiment with some players and plays with the future in mind. The reason was that both teams were missing some key players for this game. The injury list looked like the Manhattan phone book. Missing was Clovis East’s all-star and MVP Tracy Slocum (He’ll be back for the playoff run), Tony Ferguson, who is out for the season with a broken leg, a huge loss of a key player and leadership for the T-Wolves, and even coach Tim Murphy was under the weather with a change of season flu, although Coach Murphy did make it to the sidelines just before kick off all bundled up in sweat suits, parkas, and 3 pairs of pajamas, to guide his T-Wolves. On the other side of the field, the Golden Eagles had to go without all-stars, Chris Lewis at running back and defensive end, Korey Gerdts at DB and wide receiver (he also runs back kicks on special teams), and Jordan Ribera, a huge loss for the Eagles defense. All of these players hope to be back for the playoffs, some as soon as next week.

Bullard High School’s victory over previously undefeated Sanger was a huge win for the Knights. Huge. Coach Donnie Arax’s young men had it all going on at Tom Flores Stadium in Sanger. Alex Huerta followed up his amazing game last week vs Edison where he threw for 468 yards and SEVEN touchdowns, this time with 15 for 19 passing accuracy enroute to 240 yards and three touchdowns (all to the Big Fella, Anthony McCoy). Remember folks, last year at this time, young Mr. Huerta was a member of the Knights defensive team. Talking with him before the season this year, he told me how excited he was about the challenge of taking over at QB. Fred Clark and I and lots of other valley football fans in the Valley, have been having a great time watching him play and lead the Knights explosive team.

The playoffs are going to be great this year, that’s all there is to it. I really shouldn’t be getting ahead of myself here because there are still some terrific match ups just ahead of us in the final few weeks of leagues action. This week we got a great game between Sanger and Edison on Cocola/Comcast. Sanger and Edison are always locked up in great games and this year will be no exception. Emmanuel Ochoa has led the Apaches to great heights this year. Charles Smith is already over 1000 yards rushing and Justin Webber is following up a sensational freshman year with a sensational sophomore year. Two things you can always count on in the Central Section: You can’t quite put your finger on where Summer ends and the Fall begins (weather wise anyway), and Chuck Shidan and his staff are going to field a tough Apache football team. A great crowd is expected at Grizzlies Stadium for this game. Edison also has been getting stronger as we go along and watch out for Jerry Davis. It’s been fun watching him grow every game. The sophomore quarterback has been improving game in and game out in his throwing and decisions. Davis is surrounded by great talents like Charles Amadi, Kejon Murphy, Pat Dixon on offense and the Tiger lines are getting tougher each game behind tough guys like Travis Poh, Sonny McCree and Tyler Ferreria. You also have to look out for TJ Anderson and Terrence Green who can break off a huge play at any time.

So many good teams this year. I’m trying not to write a book here but it’s true. There is some great coaching going on in this Valley and there are plenty of star players who are having banner years. How about this Emmanuel Lewis kid from Tulare? He is getting headlines like the great Olympic champion and football star at Stanford, Bob Mathias, used to get when he was in high school there. Lewis has rewritten the record books in the Central Section. The young man has been keeping football historian Bob Barnett busy this year as (so far) he has already passed Ricky Manning, Jr. of Edison (now of the Carolina Panthers) for most yards passing all time, with over 7000 YARDS, with games still left in the regular season. Emmanuel threw for five touchdowns against Delano Friday night to give him 72 passing touchdowns vaulting him past Manning,Jr. and former Tulare QB Paul Ferreira, and into first place, all-time again, with games to go. Tulare teammate, receiver Barry Wilson, had three of those TD passes from Lewis, making Wilson the all-time TD pass catcher in section history. Man, I ‘d like to be the agent for that combination in the future............Chowchilla’s loss to the rapidly improving Washington Union Panther squad took a little of the shine off of the big showdown in the North Sequoia League, but not that much as the Badgers of Yosemite host the Redskins of Chow on Friday night in Oakhurst for the fireworks game of the NYL season. Look for a huge crowd up there as this is small town American football at it’s best.....Speaking of great rivalry games, how about the Clovis High comeback win over Buchanan, 24-23. What a game. The Cougars were down 21 to 7 and were led into the light by Brett Behlan’s passing (21 for 30) and excellent defense in the second half. Never underestimate Larry Kellom’s Cougars. (Nothing profound there, everybody knows that).

Interesting game on Thursday night as San Joaquin Memorial beat McLane in NYL action. Fred and I were at the game and we witnessed an absolutely perfect special teams play. McLane kickoff and SJM received it on about the 15 yard line and the receiver (forgive me I can’t remember who that was) started on his journey, going across the field where Anthony Soto was heading in his direction. The reverse handoff was perfect and from where Fred and I were standing we could see clearly how the four or five blockers for the Panthers were starting to construct the wall should Soto come down the left side lane. It was beautiful. It looked like a wave. Everybody was exactly were they were supposed to be and Soto came around the corner and he had such a clear path to the end zone that I could have run that 85 yard touchdown carrying Fred! Running backwards! The perfect play. Good job by the Panthers. Eleven guys should have been listed in the paper on that play in the box score. .......Upsets this week? Have to go with Fresno High beating Sunnyside 13-2 as Josh Lewis and Johnny Fields led the Warriors......Dos Palos eeked out a win over a tough Kerman team 10 to 7, bringing the Broncos to 6-2 on the year and looking ahead to the playoffs.......Hoover also to 6-2 with a 48-14 victory over Roosevelt.

Roosevelt has Memorial next week and Fresno High the week after in the Pig Bowl.....Down in Madera, Coach Randy Blankenship has the Coyotes howling and looking forward to the finish line of the Tri-River and the CIF playoffs. Nick Bates had another great game for Madera as they beat a tough Central team 42-32 after Central had taken a 12 point lead in that game. The senior QB came back in the fourth quarter with a 40 yard TD pass to Nate Garcia and then an 11 yard interception return TD by Deandre Whitney sealed it for the Coyotes...Big, big, big, Madera/Clovis West game this week at Golden Eagle Field (BEC) this Friday. Coach Blankenship returns to Clovis West, searching for a piece of the Tri-River pie..........Another big week ahead in the Central Section... All things considered, all things normal. Full speed ahead, Scotty.

Chris Terrence