November 2007 Archives

REV, after closing the first half on Chris Polk's amazing 73-yard kickoff return for a score, could only manage a field goal in the second half and lost 25-10. The Wildcats committed an uncharacteristic five turnovers - three fumbles and two interceptions.

It was the Prep-dog's only look at the Wildcats this season and obviously this was their worst effort. But the Wildcats also won the Citrus Belt League title, went 12-1 and made it farther - the CIF Inland Division semis - than any team in the school's football history.

My boys back at The Sun tell me Colton also lost, 13-0. So that means i went 0-2 on my picks this week, my first sub-.500 effort of the season. Oh well.

They're turning the lights off on me now at the Yucaipa Starbucks, so it's time to wash down the rest of my hot chocolate and hit the road. See you at the Kiwanis basketball tourney.

22-10 after 3 quarters ... santiago ball on their own 30. Probably can't update anymore until after game.

Farquhar 25 FG with 3:54 left in third quarter. Santiago 22, REV 10.

Totally amazing. With just 3 seconds left, Santiago kicks short and the ball is lateraled to Chris Polk who sprints around right, emerges from a sea of santiago tacklers and races 73 yards down left side for a score as time expires. REV gets much needed lift going into halftime.

REV fumbles again ... santiago ball on its own 41 with 16 seconds left. Anthony Dye stuns crowd with tackle-busting 59 yards TD run. Sharks 22, REV 0 with 3 seconds left in half.

REV on santiago 43 with 35 ticks left in first half.

BJ Iverson scores from 29 on run around right end and santiago leads 15-0 with 1:13 left in first half. REV advanced to 10 on previous possession, but lost a fumble.

Anthony Dye goes 9 yards up middle of REV defense with 10:36 left in half. QB Renny Kruse adds conversion run and santiago leads 8-0.

0-0 after one quarter, but Santiago deep in REV territory. Just an annoying amount of announcements pushing CIF sponsors, by the way. The dog has already heard at least three times that Spaulding is the official ball of the CIF. It's enough to make me buy a Wilson.

The most annoying thing about Cali prep football ... "OK everybody, stand up for the kickoff!"

The dog waded through the several inches of water ringing the dirt Yucaipa running track and a thought struck me ... if it wasn't for the Field Turf, this game would be a muddy mess. Which also prompts the thought ... I wonder how many high schools in rainy Oregon and Washington have artificial turf? If they don't already have it, they're probably looking into it.

Of course, the coolest thing about Pacific Northwest football is those stadiums with the covered grandstands, a la Ashland, Or. They could use those covered stands at Yucaipa tonight.

7 o'clockish at Yucaipa and the skies have opened. It's pouring rain and the umbrellas are coming out among the large throng of REV fans and the smattering of Santiago followers across the way.

The dog is safe and dry in the pressbox, sitting on top of some sort of plastic container (chairs are scarce).

New Yucaipa athletic director Mark Anderson told the dog the Thunderbirds' Field Turf is in excellent shape and players will have no trouble cutting on it. I'm sure Chris Polk will muddle by.

Prep-dog may be pulling out the overcoat for tonight's cif football semifinal at Yucaipa ... Santiago vs. Redlands East Valley.

In another semifinal Colton meet Canyon Springs at Moreno Valley.

Who will win these soggy semis?

The dog likes Colton over Canyon Springs 34-20. The Yellowjackets appear to be the better team and the wet weather won't hinder their double- and single-wing attacks.

At Yucaipa, I like REV to punch the Santiago Sharks in the nose, 38-24. The rain could cause some turnovers, but the artificial turf at YHS should limit the bobbles.

Any thoughts?

Silverado athletic director Mike LaBrosse told the Prep-dog on Monday that "three, and maybe more" Hawk athletes will be disciplined by the school after the Hawks' post-game football melee Nov. 16 with Palm Springs.

"We had some kids lose control of their emotions and charge across the field," LaBrosse said. "Our coach (Carl Posey) told our kids not to shake hands (after the game), but a few kids gave chase - a few loose cannons."

CIF-Southern Section assistant commissioner Rob Wigod told the dog last week that nobody from Palm Springs will be disciplined. As for Silverado, the matter is being handled internally by the school, with administrators reviewing film and speaking to people.

LaBrosse was not available for comment on Tuesday.

CIF rules state that if a player is ejected, he must sit out his next sporting event, no matter what sport that might be. But this situation is complicated by the fact the officials immediately left the field, the game was finished and nobody was ejected.

LaBrosse said Monday the school may proceed as if the allegedly guilty Hawk players had been ejected, meaning a one-event suspension. Another option might be a school suspension. As of Monday, no decision had been made.

LaBrosse thinks the CIF will probably be satisfied with whatever Silverado decides.

An interesting sidebar to the situation is that SIlverado has film that seems to show a tackled Hawk player (Kevin Lewis) at the end of the game being provoked prior to the fisticuffs. Other footage from Palm Springs' 20-16 win also seems to show the Indians fumbling a few yards from the Hawk end zone (recovered by SIlverado) on the visitors' winning pass play.

Plays in high school ball of course cannot be reviewed by instant replay, nor can wrong calls be reversed days after the game.

Jeff Imbriani is the new softball coach at San Bernardino, SBHS athletic director Patrick Mills told the Prep-dog today.

The Imbriani name is closely associated with Cajon, where Jeff's brother Rich Imbriani is the athletic director and former football coach and where Jeff's father, Ray Imbriani, is an assistant softball coach. Jeff also coaches at Cajon, guiding the girls golf team. But Jeff is actually a teacher at SBHS, thus the Cardinal City connection.

Jeff replaces Bill Wright, an off-campus coach. The switch was made to give the position to an on-campus person, Mills said.

The Miller girls basketball team is ranked 15th in the nation in the studentsports.com Fab 50 pre-season poll. Long Beach Poly is rated first. Last season, Poly defeated Miller in the CIF title game.

Miller returns its top three scorers in 5-9 sophomore guard Chloe Wells (16.2 points per game), senior guard Lola Wells (10.9 ppg) and senior guard Briana Hall (12.0 ppg).

Does this ranking sound about right for the Rebels, or are they overrrated? Underrated?

The REV football team (12-0) is now ninth (up from 13th) in the calhisports.com West Region Top 20 rankings. De La Salle (11-0) is No. 1, Centennial Corona is No. 3, Birmingham (11-1) is No. 4, Long Beach Poly (11-1) is No. 5, Crespi is No. 13 and St. Bonaventure is No. 14.

Bakersfield (12-1), coached by former Serrano player and Silverado coach Paul Golla, is listed as an "On the Bubble" team.

Prep-dog, perhaps a tad rusty, only went 7-5 on last week's prep football picks. I will look to rebound this week with my semifinal forecasts.

One of the flubs last week was picking Serrano to defeat Palm Desert. Instead, the Aztecs routed the D-backs 47-21. On a more positive note, the post-game coffee at the Wiernerschnitzel in Phelan took the chill off a frigid evenng. Also, Serrano basketball coach Mike Browning tempted the dog to attend his hoops tourney this week with tales of his wife's home-made soup in the hospitality room. Hmmm ... I'll ponder that.

Browning also provided everyone in the press-box with updates of the Fowler Red Cats' football playoff game in Fresno. Unfortunately for Browning, Bakersfield Christian rallied to beat his alma mater 35-34 in overtime.

REV (11-0) is seventh in the most recent calhisports.com overall state football rankings and sixth in SoCal. The Wildcats (11-0) take on Norco (9-2) on Friday night.

Bakersfield (11-1), coached by former Serrano player and Silverado coach Paul Golla, is ranked 19th. Next up for the Drillers is Clovis East, the only team to beat Frank Gifford's old school.

Serrano (11-0) is ranked 10th in the Division II state rankings and 24th overall in SoCal. The Diamondbacks play host to Palm Desert on Friday night.

The dog's prep football picks return. Here they are:

Big Bear 31, Citrus Hill 25
Bear avenge earlier loss

Redlands East Valley 31, Norco 28
Wildcats win another wild one.

North 34, Kaiser 7
A repeat of last year's Cat playoff loss.

Aquinas 21, Bishop 20
Trip to Eastern Sierras a rewarding one.

Colton 28, Rancho Verde 21
Jackets ward off second-round jinx

Serrano 28, Palm Desert 13
Return of Richie Alva bodes well for D-backs

King 24, Hesperia 20
Scorpions' splendid season ends

Notre Dame 33, Twentynine Palms 30
Titans throttle Wildcats again

Arroyo Valley 28, Colony 24
Blowout loss to Serrano exposed Titan weaknesses

Moreno Valley 27, Cajon 14
Vikings snap Cowboy winning streak

San Jacinto 28, Ontario Christian 24
Tigers add another quality win

Miller 31, Chaparral 29
Rebels yelling again after win

Palm Springs football players who engaged in a post-game melee with players from Silverado will not be punished by the CIF-SS, CIF assistant commissioner Rob Wigod told Prep-dog this morning.

Wigod said the CIF has reviewed film of the game and its aftermath and spoken to officials from both sides. Still under review, he indicated, is whether any SIlverado athletes who charged the Indian sideline will be punished.

"We're still working on this thing," Wigod said. "We've reviewed quite a bit of information and watched film and spoken to officials from both sides. But as for the issue on Palm Springs players, that's been addressed."

The CIF rules state that any player who leaves the sideline during a fight will be ejected from the remainder of that game and will be ineligible for his or her next athletic contest, Wigod noted. Since Silverado lost the game and its season is finished, that means if any Hawk athletes are disciplined, they could miss a contest in another sport (if they are multi-sport athletes) or next season's football opener (if they are a single-sport athlete and an underclassman).

Wigod hinted the CIF will not rush to a decision on Silverado athletes, since its football season is finished and an immediate decision isn't necessary.

This lengthy list of athletes who signed college scholarships last week was accidentally and regrettably omitted from the Sun last Thursday.

Here it is:

Baseball: Matt Andriese (Redlands East Valley) UC-Riverside, Tyler Chatwood (REV) UCLA, Aaron Miller (Yucaipa) Brigham Young University, Scott Snodgress (Yucaipa) Stanford.

Men's basketball: Joseph Richard (Arroyo Valley) Tulsa

Women’s basketball: Amani Butler (Colony) Arizona, Rebekah Gardner (Ayala) UCLA, Jasmin Holliday (Ayala) Oregon.

Golf: B.J. Doucett (Granite Hills) UC-Riverside, Joy Trotter (Ayala) UC Irvine.

Softball: Alexa Anderson (Upland) Arizona State, Bryanne Evans (Rialto) Michigan, Evangelina Galindo (Etiwanda) Maryland, Eileen Garcia (Colton) Wisconsin, Jessica Garcia (Etiwanda) New Mexico, Melissa Gregson (Rancho Cucamonga) Northwestern, Lindsey Kent (Cajon) Towson, Jennifer Madigan (Alta Loma) Long Beach State, Anissa Young (Bloomington) Louisiana State, Adrienne Monka (Rancho Cucamonga) Northwestern.

Swimming: Karl Krug (Yucaipa) Auburn.

Volleyball: Caitlin LeDoux (Serrano) Long Beach State.

Water polo: Caitlyn Dement (Ayala) UCLA, Heidi Pettinger (Ayala) Cal State Northridge, Dani Curran (Ayala) San Jose State.

Others who have signed are: Corrine Gilbertson (Cajon golf) Portland State, Alex Mitchell (Cajon softball) Cal State San Bernardino, Ricky Oropeza (Etiwanda baseball) USC.

The Prep-dog has not been at the Shamrock Kennels for the past three weeks. The blog was merely shut down due to technical difficulties. It resumes with this post. Let the woofin' re-commence.

Redlands East Valley's pre-game rituals before Friday's season finale against arch-rival Redlands have drawn some ire from fans in chat rooms and on message boards. Well, we've got video and we will let you decide:

Click To Play

Riding the momentum of recent weeks, Prep-dog steams into Week 10, feeling good about his clairvoyant skills. But it only takes one week of upsets to bring a seer crashing to Earth. So let's see what happens.

The dog ventured to the East Valley on Tuesday night to watch REV play Monrovia in volleyball.

Cover prep football for long enough and you see some unique plays.

The Prep-dog is peaking heading toward the playoffs, going 16-4 on prep football picks over the weekend.

The dog is curious about the new stadium at Rialto High School, but has been assigned to cover a game at one of those other schools in Rialto.

Franklin of Stockton football coach Tom Verner resigned Thursday after the uproar caused by his program's alleged recruitment of athletes from America Samoa and the school's ensuing harsh punishment from CIF. Here is the Associated Press story on the latest development:

The Hesperia at Serrano football game has been switched to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Three huge football showdowns Friday night in high-profile leagues, all between teams that are at least unbeaten in league. They are: