Matt Bechtel can recall the date without hesitation, yet another thing that hasn’t changed since the beginning of high school football season.
Oct. 28, the Colony High School football coach said, is when he expects the Mt. Baldy League race to be decided. That happens to be when defending league champion Chino pays a visit to Colony.
Chino and Colony entered the season as the league favorites. As league play begins tonight, nothing has changed.
“Chino is the defending league champion so they’ve got to be the team to beat,” Bechtel said. “We’re pleased with where we are and honestly I think we’ll play Chino for the league championship.”
Chino (3-1) and Colony (3-1) can’t even escape each other in the CIF-SS Central Division rankings where the Cowboys are ranked fifth and Colony sixth.
Chino’s lone loss this season was an unexpected one, a 28-24 defeat Sept. 9 at the hands of a Pomona team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2003. Neither team has defeated an opponent with a winning record on the young season, though Colony’s nonleague slate appears more difficult and the Titans were missing eight starters in a 24-17 loss to Glendora Sept. 16.
A couple members of the Chino offense that racked up 49 points in a runaway win over Colony last season are playing college football but running back Xavier Browne is thriving as the focal point evidenced by 13 total touchdowns and 808 rushing yards in four games, third-most in the 569-school CIF-SS. Second-year starting quarterback Sean Molles isn’t on the 2,300-yard pace of last year but the senior has 551 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions.
A Chino defense that was allowing 30 points per game prior to last week’s shutout of winless Covina Northview may be cause for concern after the Cowboys fielded the league’s stingiest unit in 2010.
Colony is happy with its rotating quarterback system that allows the more athletic Bryan Harper, who will play defensive back at Washington next season, to split time with the pocket-passing Matt Simko, who threw for 290 yards against Glendora.
“Both guys understand their role and they’re supportive of each other,” Bechtel said. “They compete with each other but it’s all positive.”
Colony’s defense, led by the two best linebackers in the league, Robert Wagner and Eddie Martinez, have already provided one signature win when it held Ayala to nine points despite seven Titan turnovers in Week 1.
Don Lugo (3-1) was bitten by the injury bug last season but hopes to provide the top two a healthy challenge this season. The Conquistadores’ schedule will take a significant step up this week when Chino pays them a visit.
“I think Don Lugo is in the top three of the league,” Chaffey coach Chris Brown said. “The rest of us are young and I think that last playoff spot will come down to who can develop the fastest.”
Chaffey (1-3) is hoping to bounce back from a last-place finish in 2010, an oddity for the perennial playoff team, but the Tigers are starting four sophomores on the offensive line and can’t seem to keep a quarterback healthy. Of the pair of talented receivers that transferred to Chaffey, Jamaal Logan is progressing slowly and Felix Edwards is yet to recover from injury in order to make his season debut.
Montclair (1-3) and Ontario (0-4) have struggled in nonleague play as each adjusts to new coaching staffs. Montclair broke an eight-year postseason drought last season and if last year is any indication — every team in the league had a chance to make the playoffs entering the final week of the 2010 season — Ontario and Montclair could easily be in the mix. Garey (0-3), which snapped a 10-year playoff drought in 2010, has lost its first three games by an average of 30 points but is hoping for the parity of last year in order to crack the playoff field again.
