Fryer breaks down Week 1's results
John and Brian Barnes used ugly language to describe their teams’ outcomes Friday night.
“Sometimes it doesn’t have to be pretty, it’s the plays you make,” John Barnes said. He’s the football coach at Los Alamitos, and also the county’s all-time leader in football coaching victories.
“Again, sometimes it ain’t pretty but we’ll take it,” said Brian Barnes, coach at Tesoro. “A win is a win.”
Los Alamitos beat Paramount, 29-26. Paramount had a 20-15 lead in the fourth quarter. In the final minute, Paramount had a fourth-and-1 at the Los Alamitos 30-yard line but the Pirates fumbled the ball in their backfield, securing the victory for Los Al’s Griffins.
Tesoro trailed Hart of Newhall, the No. 1 team in the CIF-Southern Section’s Northern Division rankings, 7-3 from the first quarter and deep into the fourth. The Titans put together a 13-play, 80-yard scoring drive with Parker Wells finishing it with a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:33 remaining.
The Barnes clan knows how difficult winning can be, especially early in the season when teams are still searching for consistency and working on reducing turnovers and penalties.
Week 1 of the season produced some terrific games.
The Foothill-Tustin rivalry has given us some great matchups, including last year’s CIF-SS Southwest Division semifinals in which Tustin beat Foothill, 21-20. On Friday, Foothill led through most of the game until Tustin rallied for a 35-28 victory. Those two teams are two of the better ones in the Southwest Division, so a playoffs rematch just might happen.
The upset of the night? Probably this one: El Modena 11, Cypress 9. El Modena needed to dip into its depth chart at running back, and second-stringer Austin Victer came through with 184 yards and a touchdown.
Mater Dei made its season debut and rolled to a 35-10 victory at St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs. That traditionally is not a fun destination for visiting teams, especially long-established Catholic schools like Mater Dei.
Orange Lutheran beat Damien of La Verne, 31-14, its second road victory in as many weeks under first-year coach Chuck Petersen. Lutheran threw only one pass, in the third quarter. It will be interesting to see if that kind of run-oriented, option style will be equally successful in the Trinity League in a few weeks.
Mission Viejo is 2-0 after beating Mission Hills of San Marcos, 35-21. It was a transfers-led victory. Quarterback Ian Fieber, from Orange Lutheran, was 15 for 24, for 280 yards and one touchdown to Sean Modster from Santa Margarita. Alex Suchesk, also from Santa Margarita, ran for three touchdowns.
Mission Viejo is contributing to the South Coast League’s hot nonleague start. The South Coast League’s five teams are a collective 9-0. The league will be 10-0 in nonleague play if El Toro tonight beats Clovis at Mission Viejo High.
A bunch of teams are 2-0, a few are 0-2 and many are 1-1. Yes, it’s difficult to win --- ugly or otherwise.
