"He's fine," Baiz said. "He's good to go."

Watson suffered a leg injury when he was dragged down from behind with eight minutes left in Rancho Cucamonga's eventual 27-24 overtime loss to Etiwanda last Thursday, after which he didn't return to the game. I saw the play in question and it was clear that Watson's legs buckled awkwardly as he was horse-collared. He limped off the field and spent a good portion of the rest of the game on the trainers table before watching the rest of the game from the sidelines.

Baiz preferred not to elaborate beyond calling it a leg injury. "Let's just leave it at that," he said. "I'd tell you but I don't want to tell 1,000 people."

Watson has passed for 2,002 yards and the Cougars have rushed for 2,069 this season. Running back Michael Boyd is responsible for 1,240 of those yards on the ground while Watson has just 562, a number that may not jolt you out of your seat. But in Rancho's zone-read running scheme, the threat of Watson running is half of his value to the ground game.

If defenses aren't concerned he'll pull the ball out of Boyd's grasp and take it the other direction, the entire running game will suffer. Though Boyd commands the majority of the carries, defenses are afraid to key on him too much for fear of Watson's breakaway speed.

Relying on Watson to pass them to a win is far from a bad circumstance for the Cougars. The guy did throw for 2,600 yards last season and is on a similar pace this year. In the two games I've seen Rancho play this year - the first and last games of the season - Watson hasn't thrown the ball as well as he did last year. Of course, he doesn't have the track stars of last season lining up at receiver. I think Rancho has preferred to run it this year (it has called 338 running plays to 208 passing plays) but not because Watson isn't capable or airing it out.

On Friday, we may find out friday whether Rancho was running it out of necessity or not.

After a 13-0-1 season last year during which it ran through the Baseline League undefeated and beat Upland in the CIF-SS Central Division final, Rancho Cucamonga lost to each of the league's co-champions this season, Los Osos 31-28 and Etiwanda in overtime.

"We're six points from being undefeated," said Baiz, who believes the Cougars would have been one of the top four seeds in the playoffs had it beaten Etiwanda on Thursday. "I think the (Central Division) is similar to how it was last year. I think it's pretty even all the way across."

If Rancho Cucamonga gets past Glendora, a Sierra League tri-champion, it could have No. 1 seed Colton waiting in the quarterfinals.

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QUARTERFINALS
Temecula Chaparral over No. 1 Redlands East Valley
No. 4 Moreno Valley Rancho Verde over Corona Centennial
No. 3 Norco over Murrieta Valley
No. 2 Vista Murrieta over Redlands

SEMIFINALS
Temecula Chaparral over No. 4 Moreno Valley Rancho Verde
No. 2 Vista Murrieta over No. 3 Norco

FINALS
No. 2 Vista Murrieta over Temecula Chaparral

Coming tomorrow: Central Division prediction

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The 6-foot, 179-pound senior is the 63rd ranked cornerback in the country by rivals.com and the 99th-ranked player in the state of California. Bell was drawing interest from Colorado State, among others, but Colorado was his only scholarship offer.

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Since head-to-head results didn't break the three-way tie, a coin flip to determine the playoff seeds conducted prior to Friday night's game awarded the league's No. 1 seed to Damien, the No. 2 seed to Glendora and the No. 3 to Chino Hills. When Glendora, Ayala and Chino Hills were tri-league champions last season, Ayala won the coin flip and Chino Hills was the No. 2 seed.

In other news Friday night... San Dimas won the Valle Vista League with a 35-16 win over Baldwin Park.

Upland won the Baseline League fourth-place game with Claremont, 30-20, and will certainly get the lone at-large playoff bid in the CIF-SS Central Division when the playoff brackets are released Sunday.

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If Los Osos beats Alta Loma, it will share a league title with the winner of Thursday's Rancho Cucamonga-Etiwanda winner but Los Osos will be the No. 1 playoff seed thanks to wins over both Rancho and Etiwanda. Under this circumstance, the three automatic playoff berths will go to Los Osos, Rancho and Etiwanda, leaving Upland and Claremont to play the fourth-place game on Friday.

Despite being for fourth place, the Claremont-Upland game is vital because the winner could get the CIF-SS Central Division's lone at-large playoff berth.

Now, if Alta Loma happens to upset Los Osos, the league will be thrown into chaos. If Upland wins and Los Osos loses the two will have an identical 3-2 league record. The winner of the Rancho-Etiwanda game will be the outright league champion and the loser will fall into a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots that can't be settled by the head-to-head tiebreaker because... Los Osos defeated both Rancho and Etiwanda, who both defeated Upland, who defeated Los Osos. I believe a coin flip would determine which two would get the automatic playoff berths.

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There seems to be a perception that the better team hasn't won the game the last two years. I don't believe that but I think I finally figured out why a lot of other people do on Friday.

Ayala plays ugly (like it did Friday). It wins on the strength of its defense and special teams (it blocked a field goal Friday; Ayala won this game two years when it blocked a field goal late in the game that would have given Chino Hills the lead).

We all get caught up in offensive firepower and gaudy statistics, creating the perception that because Ayala isn't flashy, it isn't good.

Guess who led the league in scoring defense last season? You guessed it... Ayala, with an allowance of 15.5 per game. It allowed Chino Hills a little over that number in an 18-17 win last season, but you get the point.

Chino Hills is the better team this season, but not by much. Though Ayala's offense was painful to watch for three quarters and Orange Lutheran transfer QB Ryan Orozco looked like he was running in molasses, the Bulldogs had numerous chances to score a second touchdown in the games waning minutes. (And you can guess what they were going to do after that. Hint: it wouldn't have involved a kicker.)

But it was the Chino Hills defense that won this game, evidenced no better than by the play of Expre-Olomu at safety - he batted away the final pass into the end zone as the game clock expired - even though it is his nine catches for 110 yards that stand out in the box score.

Now Ayala can only hope to help out its bitter rival. If the Bulldogs beat Glendora on Thursday, they'll secure a spot in the playoffs, handing Chino Hills the Sierra League's No. 1 seed in the process. If Ayala loses, Glendora, Damien and Chino Hills will tie for the league championship, requiring a coin flip to determine the seedings.

A loss wouldn't necessarily eliminate Ayala from the playoffs but the Bulldogs' only hope would be to claim the Central Division's lone at-large playoff berth. The winner of the Upland-Claremont game on Friday will be the biggest challenger for the at-large berth, which was awarded to the Baseline League's fourth-place team last season. If it is an 8-2 Upland team that finishes fourth in the Baseline League, a 6-4 Ayala team won't have a chance. If Claremont beats Upland, Claremont will be 6-4 too, giving Ayala a fightin' chance.

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