TROY'S FORFEITS

Troy forfeited six of its seven victories for using an ineligible player in those six victories. That left Troy with an overall record of 1-8 and a Freeway League record of 1-3. When the league submitted its playoff representatives to the CIF-Southern Section, it chose to exclude Troy. The CIF-Southern Section cannot overturn the Freeway League's decision, as the CIF-SS is the servant of the Freeway League schools - not the other way around. That is the arrangement created by Freeway League schools and other CIF-SS member schools. It is awful for those Troy players, especially the seniors, that they did not get the playoff berth they earned on the field.

MATER DEI 38, SERVITE 13

One of the great quotes of the year came from Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson, when describing the Diablos' loss to De La Salle of Concord: “We got big-played to death.” That applies, too, to Servite on Friday, when the Friars got big-played to death by Mater Dei. The play that summed up the game was that 97-yard touchdown pass play from the Monarchs' Matt Barkley to Andrew Abbott in the fourth quarter, when Barkley, about to be sacked in the end zone, on one foot heaved the ball downfield to Abbott, who made the over-the-shoulder, running catch of the perfectly placed football. High school quarterbacks are not supposed to be able to do that. That's what I thought, anyway. Barkley is better in his junior year than Kevin Feterik, Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer and Mark Sanchez were when they were juniors.

GOLDEN HAWKS' SOLID-GOLD DEFENSE

El Dorado is allowing only eight points a game playing against some good offensive teams. The Golden Hawks allowed only six points to Canyon, which against its other opponents averaged 41 points a game, and in their only loss gave up 16 to Esperanza, the lowest offensive output for Esperanza except for a 9-7 loss to Edison. Playoff predictions are another day away, but El Dorado's defense is going to be very difficult to beat in the Southwest Division.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com