Like last week, given all the "Team A beat Team B, which beat Team C, which beat Team A" situations, I ranked the county top 10 as if I was seeding teams for a tournament. As all these teams are Pac-5 Division teams, it made sense to do that. My vote: 1. Mater Dei; 2. Tesoro; 3. Servite; 4. Mission Viejo; 5. Edison; 6. Orange Lutheran; 7. Los Alamitos; 8. San Clemente; 9. Fountain Valley; 10. Newport Harbor. Why not La Habra? Because Los Alamitos beat La Habra, and Fountain Valley beat Los Alamitos, and Newport Harbor beat Esperanza which beat Fountain Valley.

Whether the Barons make the playoffs or not - and the scenarios in the Sunset League are numerous (a five-way tie is possible) - this has been a successful year for Fountain Valley. The Barons have one of the county's better running backs, Kyle Middlebrooks, but not too many other All-County candidates. Quarterback Dominic Ragland was the team's backup at that position before the season began, but he had to move into the No. 1 spot and has improved markedly week by week. The Barons' linemen are not as big as most in the Sunset League. They lost only to Tesoro, Edison and Esperanza, which are a combined 22-5, and at 6-3 will have their first above-.500 regular-season finish since 2003.

As we go into the final week of the regular season, my current short list of top candidates, a list that could change before we have our All-County meeting in a couple of weeks (in alphabetical order): Frank Mazzotta of La Habra; Myron Miller of Tustin; Aaron Sharestani of Santiago; John Shipp of Fountain Valley; and Dave White of Edison. Although he has done another great job, Ray Fenton of Cypress is not on the list because he was our coach of the year last year, and we have this old rule about not selecting the same coach two years in a row.

We have an offensive and defensive player of the year. Top players who currently are on the short list of players I likely will push for in the All-County meeting (alphabetical order): Allan Bridgford of Mission Viejo; Preston King of Tesoro; Alex Mascarenas of Mission Viejo; and Ruben Ortega of Western. No Trinity League guys on that list yet, because I can't single out one obvious prominent guy in that league of so many outstanding players.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Orange Lutheran-Mater Dei, Thursday at Santa Ana Stadium. Mater Dei has a playoff berth and at least a share of the Trinity League championship. Orange Lutheran needs to win to secure its playoff destiny. And then there is Orange Lutheran's 2-0 record against Mater Dei in Trinity games.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com