October 2008 Archives

Colony defensive tackle/offensive lineman Josh Andrews, who committed to San Diego State Oct. 23, said he'll probably rescind his verbal pledge this week after receiving offers from Oregon State and Colorado State.

"(San Diego State) was my first offer and I probably didn't check out other options enough before I committed," said the 6-foot-2, 260-pound Andrews. "I'm having second thoughts. I'll probably end up at Oregon State."

Andrews is being recruited as an offensive lineman, though he plays both ways at Colony. In the next month he'll take official visits to Oregon State, Colorado State and Washington State, who is interested but hasn't offered.

Beginning with the game-winning 86-yard drive he led off the bench as a sophomore, Los Osos quarterback Richard Brehaut has shown an affinity for delivering in the clutch.

Friday night was no different. Brehaut completed his final seven pass attempts for 113 yards and two touchdowns in Los Osos' 41-28 win over then No. 1 Upland.

Diamond Ranch offensive lineman Graham Vickers verbally committed to Navy on Monday, according to Diamond Ranch coach Roddy Layton.

The 6-foot-2, 262-pound senior also had scholarship offers from from Air Force, Army, Portland State and New Hampshire.

Vickers projects at any of the interior line positions in college. He also plays defensive line for Diamond Ranch and has collected 15 tackles and four sacks thus far.

1. Los Osos (6-1)
Previous ranking: 4 Last week: def. Upland, 41-28
2. Miller (7-0)
Previous ranking: 2 Last week: def. Redlands, 31-7
3. Rancho Cucamonga (6-0-1)
Previous ranking: 3 Last week: def. Claremont, 45-9
4. Chino Hills (7-0)
Previous ranking: 5 Last week: def. Chino, 31-3
5. Upland (6-1)
Previous ranking: 1 Last week: lost to Los Osos, 41-28
6. Ayala (6-1)
Previous ranking: 7 Last week: def. Diamond Bar, 40-0
7. San Dimas (7-0)
Previous ranking: 8 Last week: def. Pomona 34-8
8. Roosevelt (4-3)
Previous ranking: NR Last week: def. Norco 21-13
9. Etiwanda (4-3)
Previous ranking: NR Last week: def. Alta Loma, 35-10
10. Norco (4-3)
Previous ranking: 6 Last week: lost to Roosevelt, 21-13
Just missed the cut: Bonita (5-2), Colony (4-3)
Dropped out: No. 9 Pomona (5-2), No. 10 Summit (6-1).

Last week
Clay: 6-8
Lingo: 5-9
Overton: 4-10

Season standings
Clay: 54-46-3
Lingo: 50-50-3
Overton: 40-60-3

Colony High School defensive tackles Quayshawne Buckley and Josh Andrews verbally committed to Washington State and San DIego State, respectively, on Thursday, according to Colony coach Anthony Rice.

Andrews, however, may change his mind after receiving offers from Oregon State and Washington State hours after issuing his commitment.

Los Osos High School running back Arby Fields has pocketed seven scholarship offers so far - Nevada, Northwestern, UNLV, Duke, Washington State, Colorado State and Idaho State - but the charismatic senior isn't in a rush to end the recruiting process.

He's hoping to have a decision in the next two to three weeks, but not before he takes official visits to Arizona State (who is interested but hasn't made an offer) Northwestern and Washington State.

"Most people say the process is so stressful," Fields said. "But I think it's fun. I just want to see what more is out there."

Stress clearly isn't an overwhelming presence in Fields' life, no better demonstrated than when the back broke the offensive huddle at the end of Thursday's practice by leading the group in a little Montell Jordan 'This is how we do it.'

Los Osos High School quarterback Richard Brehaut won't get the chance to come down with senior-itis.

UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel asked the senior to cut short his final year of high school in order to enroll early at UCLA and participate in spring football practice, something Brehaut wasn't about to refuse, particularly considering UCLA's uncertain quarterback situation. Brehaut, the 11th-ranked QB in the nation on scout.com, verbally committed to the Bruins this summer.

So, is it preemptive to consider Brehaut a contender to start at quarterback for UCLA next season?

"I think he's got a good chance, to be honest," Los Osos coach Tom Martinez said.

After weighing circa 20 scholarship offers, Diamond Ranch cornerback Brandon Sermons verbally committed to UCLA Tuesday, Diamond Ranch coach Roddy Layton said.

Sermons, a 6-foot-1, 188-pound senior ranked the 27th best cornerback in the country by rivals.com, had recently narrowed his list to schools including UCLA, Oregon, Colorado, Oregon State and Arizona. USC, where Sermons' his older brother and Layton both played, expressed interest but hasn't offered.

"USC is USC and they think they can swoop in late and get some kids," Layton said. "It might be a possibility they could get him to switch but I think (Sermons) is pretty comfortable with UCLA. We've had some pretty serious conversations, so by now he's probably 99 percent sure. I don't think he's waiting on USC."

Last week
Clay: 9-5
Lingo: 6-8
Overton: 5-9

Season standings
Clay: 48-38-3
Lingo: 45-41-3
Overton: 36-50-3

Four Diamond Ranch High School football players have received scholarship offers.

Cornerback Brandon Sermons from most of the Pac-10 including UCLA, Oregon, Arizona State, Arizona and Oregon State. USC has expressed interest but is yet to offer. Sermons, a 6-foot-1, 188-pound senior, is beginning to narrow his list to schools that include UCLA, Colorado, Arizona and Utah.

"Pete Carroll asked for film on him (Monday)," Diamond Ranch coach Roddy Layton said. "Rick Neuheisel calls every week and (Sermons) likes what they're doing with the
defense at Arizona, but now that USC has entered the mix that could change things."

Someone from this league is going to win the CIF title.

The flip side of that coin? A CIF-champion caliber squad will MISS the playoffs. There are esentially five playoff teams in the Baseline League vying for three spots.

Don't take my word for it, voters have five Baseline League teams ranked in the CIF-SS Central Division top 10. That's ONE league occupying half the rankings.

Each year we eagerly await a slip-up from Colony so we can declare the two-time defending CIF-SS Central Division champs' run over.

Three straight losses to begin this season was finally it... or not.

After a co-championship last year, I think this is the year San Dimas will emerge as the clear class of this league... and with the Saints' move to the Mid-Valley Division, maybe as the class of that too.

San Dimas' nonleague schedule isn't particularly revealing. The Saints rolled over inferior opponents with the possible exception of a good Bonita team than only lost by 17. But then, there are plenty of good teams capable of being blown out by San Dimas; it didn't schedule giants, but it handled inferior teams the way it should have.

While this league is more competitive than most, it has a fairly clear top tier to me: Chino Hills (5-0), Ayala (4-1) and defending champ Glendora (3-2).

As for the lower tier... Damien (1-4), a playoff team last year and the champ two years ago, isn't exactly easy to get a handle on. The Spartans' four losses are to teams who have lost ONE game between them. But Damien wasn't competitive in any of those, averaging a 24.7-point margin of defeat.

Chino (2-3) appears headed in the right direction under new coach Greg Setlich, but the Cowboys aren't easy to figure having played one game closer than 31 points.

And Diamond Bar (3-2) has the same nonleague record it did last year before going winless in league. Although this is the Brahmas' second season under coach John Martin, thus progress is very possible.

It's too bad my top two teams in this league will settle their score in seemingly anticlimactic fashion. Charter Oak and Diamond Ranch meet in their Miramonte League openers Friday night in what many perceive as a lopsided matchup.

Diamond Ranch won all of one game on its nonleague schedule while Charter Oak went undefeated. No contest right?

Wrong.

Last week
Overton: 8-6-1
Lingo: 8-6-1
Clay: 7-7-1

Season standings
Clay: 39-33-3
Lingo: 39-33-3
Overton: 31-41-3

Friday night's meeting between Diamond Ranch and Bishop Amat is Fox Sports West's high school football game of the week.

It'll be televised at 7 p.m. Check out the Fox broadcast team.

Diamond Ranch is 1-3 but don't let that fool you. The combined record of the three teams to which it has lost is 12-1. The team it beat 21-0 is Colony, a two-time defending CIF champ. Head coach Roddy Layton has put together a brutal nonleague schedule each of his three seasons at the helm.

After missing the playoffs the last three seasons, Bishop Amat (3-1) seems to have the program headed back in the right direction.

There have been two notable quarterback changes since the beginning of the high school season.

Two-time defending CIF-SS Central Division champ Colony inserted sophomore Kori Grant into the lineup after an 0-3 start. Coach Anthony Rice didn't have to wait long for results. The Titans (2-3) have won their last two.

Claremont made a change for an entirely different reason. After their sophomore starter, 6-foot-4, rocket-armed Daniel Kessler, completed 20 of 22 passes in his debut - Claremont's first win in 12 games - he broke his arm in the first quarter of the second game of the season.

Daily dealings with coaches on any level, in any sport will inevitably produce plenty of coach speak. You know, "Take it one game at a time, give 110 percent," etc.

So, when virtually every Big VIII coach filled my notebook with references to their new league as the most physical around, I sounded like classic coach speak.

After watching Norco's Big VIII opener against Riverside Poly on Friday night, I don't think the coaches could have put it any more eloquently.

Last week
Clay: 7-6
Lingo: 6-7
Overton: 5-8

Season standings
Clay: 32-26-2
Lingo: 31-27-2
Overton: 23-35-2

Todd Gerhart is an expert on Saturday morning red-eye flights. But the Norco High School head football coach he decided the 11:43 a.m. (PDT) kickoff for Saturday's Stanford-Notre Dame football game was too early to risk.

He'll leave the Cougars in the hands of the rest of the coaching staff Friday night when they open Big VIII League play against Riverside Poly. Gerhart is leaving Friday afternoon for South Bend, Ind., to see his son Toby's Stanford Cardinal take on the Fighting Irish Saturday morning.

Granted, I've only seen Ayala play once during its resurgence from 0-10 in 2006 to a 7-4 playoff team in 2007. (It's 3-1 in 2008)

Granted, that time was two weeks ago. So, take this for what it's worth: I'm ready to label them the Virginia Tech of the Inland Empire.

I'm sure the Ayala offense of last season was much different with QB Matt Baca - widely regarded as a D-I caliber player before settling on DI-AA Northern Colorado - than with junior Dylan Lada quarterbacking the variation of the wing-T. In Ayala's 26-21 win over Alta Loma Friday, there wasn't much varation - it looked like a plain ole' wing-T (Lada completed 2 passes, the one for positive yardage was an 84-yard swing pass for a TD).

But the Bulldogs rode to victory something reminicent of the Beamer ball that has developed a reputation in Blacksburg, Va. They blocked two kicks, returning one for a score Alta Loma coach John Kuleika termed the difference in the game.