 CELEBRATION: Edison's Alema Atoafa celebrates a tackle against Mater Dei. CHRISTINA HOUSE, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Fryer tackles wild Week 4
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Check out the impact some big games will have on the new rankings.
La Habra lost a game, but won respect.
The Highlanders might have grabbed a place in the Orange County Top 10, too.
La Habra lost to Los Alamitos, 28-21. Los Alamitos was No. 4 in the county going into this week’s games. La Habra was not a Top 10 team in the poll of 11 media members, but was No. 11 in the Fryer 11-25 rankings.
It’s not like the Highlanders were given no respect. When you are No. 11 among 75 11-man football teams in the county, you have plenty of respect.
When next week’s polling is done Monday, this ballot will have La Habra somewhere in the top 10.
As weeks go by and more teams are seen and more results are available to compare and contrast, the picture of county football becomes much clearer.
On Thursday, the feeling after watching Tesoro beat El Dorado, 26-7, was that Tesoro is positioned just about right at No. 7.
On Friday, the feeling after watching La Habra was that La Habra (3-1) might be better than Tesoro (5-0).
What I liked about La Habra: that offensive line is very good; Ronnie Hillman is just as fast but stronger than he was last year, when he was a CIF player of the year; Josh Quezada is among the three best running backs I have seen this year (Servite's Greg Portis and Fullerton's Michael Allain are the other two; I have not seen Mission Viejo's Jake Marshall this season); Highlanders quarterback Randall Nygren has a strong, accurate arm and he is a good runner, too; and the La Habra defense is very Pac-5ish -- fast and physical.
Los Alamitos (4-0) was missing two starting linebackers, because of injuries. But La Habra still looked like a top 10 team.
An early prediction: a La Habra-Fullerton rematch in a CIF championship game. La Habra beat Fullerton in the Southeast final last year. The Freeway League, of which La Habra and Fullerton are members, is in the Southwest Division this year.
Top-ranked Mission Viejo (5-0) is gathering momentum. The Diablos beat Murrieta Valley, 48-21, a game that could have been much more one-sided if their starters played more than just a few minutes of the second half. Mission Viejo plays Tesoro on Oct. 17, and both teams have byes next week.
Question of the night: Could this be the year? That is: Will Servite beat Mater Dei for the first time since 1988?
Servite (3-1) beat Edison (4-1) last week, 29-17.
On Friday, Edison beat Mater Dei, 24-14.
Things are amiss at Mater Dei (3-2). Edison sacked quarterback Matt Barkley three times and forced him to throw two interceptions. Barkley now has 11 interceptions, the top figure in the county and one more than he threw in 11 games last year.
Edison looks like the best team in the Sunset League.
Is Servite the best team in the Trinity League? The Friars still have to slay the Mater Dei dragon. Orange Lutheran (3-1, idle this week) will be involved in the league race, don’t worry, and it looks like St. John Bosco of Bellflower (5-0) might have its best team in a few years.
Which is the best team in the Century League? El Dorado (1-3) remains the favorite at the moment, although the condition of quarterback Kane Wilson’s throwing shoulder is in question. He left the game in the second half against Tesoro, and remained on the sideline with an ice pack on that right shoulder.
But a Century team to watch out for now is Tustin (2-3). The Tillers got tailback Anthony Wilkerson back from injury last week, and on Friday he rushed for 107 yards and touchdown in a 21-16 victory over Western (2-2), a team that traditionally does not allow much rushing production.
St. Margaret’s (4-0) continued to prove it can win any place, any day and at any time. The Tartans played a 3:30 p.m. game Friday at Valley Village against Campbell Hall. They won their first road game of the season, 37-0, for their third shutout.
But what’s wrong with that St. Margaret’s offense? The Tartans were averaging 51 points a game. And all they can come up with is a lousy 37?
There was nothing lousy about La Habra, even in a loss. So far, the Top 10 has been occupied solely by Pac-5 Division teams from the South Coast, Sunset and Trinity Leagues. Perhaps, when the Top 10 polling is complete and the results are released at ocvarsity.com Monday mid-afternoon, there will be a Southwest team from the Freeway League that crashed the Pac-5 party. (The list is up. Click here to see the Top 25 teams).
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
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