This is like challenging somebody’s manhood, but here it goes: There are 11-man football programs in Orange County that would be better off playing 8-man football.
Los Amigos does not have a junior varsity team because there are not enough players in the football program to form a JV squad. Bolsa Grande’s offense produced 100 yards on 48 plays, an average of 2.08 yards a play, in a 42-0 loss to Savanna. La Quinta did beat Bosco Tech of Rosemead, but that Bosco Tech was 0-10 last year, is 0-3 this year and the week before La Quinta lost to Saddleback, 41-0. Orange beat Santiago, but two weeks ago gave up 75 points in a loss to Buena Park and was 0-10 last year.
The 8-man game, in which St. Michael’s Prep is the only O.C. participant, is fun and manageable at schools that have socio-demographic difficulties when it comes to competing in 11-man football. Those schools are not going to experience a change in their socio-demographic direction. Plus, 8-man games often are entertaining, high-scoring games.
Creating a public-school league that would include two or three Garden Grove League teams, with perhaps an Orange Coast or Golden West team or two, would require large-scale changes in league affiliations. And there would be some long trips for nonleague games – but limit those by playing only seven or eight regular-season games. There are too many nonleague games on every team’s schedule, anyways.
But let’s not wait until teams are forfeiting games in 2016 or ’17 to start thinking about it.
HOW GOOD?
Edison lost to Tesoro in Week 0, by 19 points than rolled to 38-0 and 35-0 wins over two teams that will be in the playoffs this year, Buena Park and Canyon, respectively. So, either Tesoro is excellent or it took a short while for Edison to get it together. Servite pounded Fountain Valley by 38 points then lost to big to a couple of state-ranked teams, Bishop Amat of La Puente and De La Salle of Concord. Those results make it difficult to figure out Servite. Servite plays Edison on Friday at Orange Coast College. We will find out if Servite (1-2) should stay in the county top 10 or if the Friars should be replaced by Edison (2-1).
NO. 9 SERVITE
Yes, the Friars are in the top 10 despite back-to-back losses. Here is what the reply is going to be to your emails: Which team ranked below Servite could beat Servite? The only way to know is for teams ranked below Servite to play Servite. Only Edison accepts that challenge, and does so year after year. There are undefeated county teams that Servite would like to play instead of going up to De La Salle for a game. There are coaches of undefeated county teams who know what would happen if they did play Servite.
IT’S ACADEMIC
Two of the top three scoring teams are in the Academy League. Brethren Christian (3-0) is averaging an Orange County-leading 55.6 points a game. St. Margaret’s is third in county scoring, at 48.5 (Los Alamitos of the Sunset League is second, at 51 points a game). They play each other on Oct. 24 at Ocean View.
HOT TIP
The great mystery of the 2015 football season, so far, has been solved: Who tipped the pass that Colin School returned for a Mission Viejo game-clinching touchdown in the Diablos’ 24-14 win over La Habra? During the postgame on-field and typically-crazy celebration that happens moments after any big game, Mission Viejo coaches we could find were uncertain who tipped the ball. Some players said it had to be Carter Hartmann, since he had such a great game. No, Hartmann said, it probably was Ryan Dove, who also was a very active player Friday and who was in the vicinity. A different player said, well, come to think of it, maybe it was me. The answer was d.) none of the above. It was Cade Covarrubias. Credit where credit is due.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
