Santa Ana Winds, Full Moon and the CIF Playoffs
Ugh. That wasn't exactly fun.
I saw parts of two games, and they both were a little weird, and who would have expected anything else? Not only have the Santa Ana Winds returned with a vengeance, there's also a full moon. No wonder we all felt like jumping out of our skin.
Maybe the kids who are seniors will remember tonight's games as "the playoffs when the wind blew" ...
Anyway: Big wins for Redlands East Valley, Colton and Colony, and that's about it.
Everyone else went down ... and most of them went down hard.
REV apparently played some defense, for the first time in a month, and throttled Norco 30-7 in the Inland Division. That's a good victory, because Norco was a two-time defending division champion, and REV had looked vulnerable the past three weeks -- after impressing everyone the first eight weeks.
REV is 12-0 and gets Corona Santiago in the semis ... a team that comes out of the same league as Norco and top-seeded Corona Centennial. Santiago lost to Norco in the regular season, is 7-4, and ought to be someone REV can beat.
REV is the home team, but it probably won't be able to play at the University of Redlands -- because the school typically has the "festival of lights" going on, the first weekend of December. A year ago Redlands High School was "home" for the semis and played at Colton. REV may end up there, too.
Colton hadn't gotten past the quarterfinals since Don Markham was coaching there, a quarter-century ago, but the Yellowjackets got over the second-round hump thanks to Travell Washington, a cat-quick wingback/cornerback/returner who scored six touchdowns in Colton's 39-22 victory over Rancho Verde -- four by running, one on an 88-yard pass from Nick Vasquez and the sixth on a 95-yard fumble return, perhaps the turning point in the game, considering Rancho Verde was about to go in for a tying score, in the first quarter.
Colton is on the road vs. Canyon Springs, and it ought to be a game the Jackets can win -- considering Ranco Verde annihilated Canyon Springs 68-12. But the Jackets seem a little beaten up. Blue-chip DE Damien Hughes, who is headed to UCLA, had almost no impact, while I was watching in the first half, because he's got a bad foot/ankle. Then, during the game, wingback Nick Reyes appeared to hurt an ankle and fullback D.J. Stallion took a hellacious (scary, actually) hit at the goal line on a two-point conversion, flipping upon impact and landing on his head.
Colony, defending Eastern Division champ, rolled over Arroyo Valley, a team that prefers to pass but had lots of issues there because the wind was blowing like mad on San Bernardino's West Side. I saw the second half of this one.
Arroyo quarterback Robert Fuller had a very rough final game, passing for 76 yards on 9-of-33 accuracy, with four interceptions. He got a TD pass to Darious Hooker with 11 seconds left. Until then, it mostly was errant passes aimed at receivers who perhaps were running the wrong routes ... and it just was a fairly total meltdown by the Hawks.
Tailback Daniel Simmons and quarterback Jeff Ginolfi led Colony on offense. Simmons is pushing 2,000 yards rushing and pretty much carved up the Arroyo Valley defense. Ginolfi is a returning starter from the CIF title team, and is a slick operator. Colony is on the road vs. Moreno Valley.
Colony and Colton face each other, if they win next weekend. That would be interesting.
Then the other folks:
Miller of Fontana went down 34-30 to Chaparral in a tough game in Riverside County; Chaparral plays Corona Centennial in the other Inland semi. (The winner to get the REV-Santiago survivor.)
Arroyo Valley, we mentioned. Also in the Central Division, Cajon of San Bernardino was blanked 36-0 by Moreno Valley.
It was a local disaster, in the lower divisions.
In the Central, Kaiser of Fontana gave No. 2 seed Riverside North a game, for which the Cats should be congratulated, but defending champ North moves on, 28-14, and in the semis will get Riverside King, which ousted Hesperia 21-14. And in the biggest surprise of the night, the team I identified as No.1 on my list of "most likely to advance," top-seeded Serrano of Phelan, was routed by Palm Desert, 47-21.
In the East Valley Division, it was a local-team 0-for-4 wipeout: Citrus Hill 10, Big Bear 7; Bishop 33, Aquinas 11; Riverside Notre Dame 31, Twentynine Palms 12; and San Jacinto 23, Ontario Christian 10. This is a division local teams have been dominating in recent years (Aquinas won it two years ago, Big Bear last year), but that dominance certainly has been interrupted, this season.
So, anyway ... we have some prominent schools still playing ... REV, Colton, Colony. But that's it.
Maybe it was the moon, or the wind. Or the other guys were just better.