Kaiser football’s opponent’s decision: tie or win?

Last week, Kaiser settled for a 15-15 tie with Downey Warren, but not by its own choice.
Here’s the situation as told to me from Kaiser coach Phil Zelaya:
Warren scored the game’s first touchdown and went for 2 to go up 8-0. Kaiser answered and also went for 2 to tie the score, 8-8.
Then Kaiser scored again, this time kicked the extra point to go up 15-8. Warren answered right back and quickly went down the field to score a touchdown with about 25 seconds left.
“It looked like they were going to go for 2,” Zelaya said.
It was big Warren crowd, a “White Out” night for the fans and coach Raul Lara, the former coach at Long Beach Poly decided to kick the extra point. It was successful and the game finished in the tie although Kaiser nearly had a chance to win in the final seconds.
Some preseason games have overtime, by mutual agreement from coaches, but most do not. Coaches want to play 48 minutes, but don’t see the need to play extra time, risking injury, in a game that likely has no bearing on whether or not they make the playoffs.
So what would Zelaya have done?
“I would’ve gone for 2,” he said.
Yes, a tie is better than a loss. But don’t you want your team to see you’re willing to go for it? I would’ve gone for the win, too.

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Kaiser-Edison: a look at common opponents

Kaiser's Dylan Harris, left, is fouled by Villa Park's Evan Battey during the first half of Kaiser's 60-54 win during the MLK Tourney at Los Osos High School on Monday. (Photo by Will Lester/Staff)
Kaiser’s Dylan Harris shoots against Villa Park on Jan. 18.

I found two common opponents between the Huntington Beach Edison and Kaiser boys basketball teams in advance of Friday’s CIF-SS Division 2AA semifinal game at Edison, and the results don’t do a lot to help settle the idea of who should win this game.

The two common opponents were Rancho Cucamonga and Villa Park
Edison played the two of them on back-to-back days on a neutral court in the Palm Springs area as part of the MaxPreps Holiday Classic in the Palm Springs area:
Dec. 28 Edison def. Rancho Cucamonga, 69-58
Dec. 29 Edison lost to Villa Park, 72-52

Later, Kaiser played both of those teams and had different results
Jan. 8, Kaiser lost at Rancho Cucamonga in a nonleague game, 66-61
Jan. 18, Kaiser defeated Villa Park, 60-54 in an MLK Day game played at Los Osos High

I’m no expert on this matchup, but one thing I know is that Myles Franklin, a junior guard who was Villa Park’s second-leading scorer, had 19 points against Edison, but did not play against Kaiser.

For the record, Rancho Cucamongz and Villa Park also played each other, Jan. 2 at Long Beach Jordan, with Rancho Cucamonga eking out a 62-61 win.

What does this say? That perhaps on any given day, either team can win. And in the semifinals, they both have a chance.

I got a text from Rancho Cucamonga coach Bill Burke, who said Edison “is patient and physical. If they can get to the Kaiser bench, they will win, if not, Kaiser will.”

Kaiser’s bench isn’t terrible, but its strength is in the leadership of the starting 5. Armani Dodson can’t get into early foul trouble. If Edison is physical, it will be interesting to see how the game is called.

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Final thoughts on Kaiser/Colony

Sometimes, I cover a game, and it’s so entertaining a game that there’s more I want to get to than I can possibly mention in a story. Such was the Kaiser/Colony football game on Friday, won by Colony 23-19.

Some thoughts:

  • Each team scored 3 touchdowns and there were no other scores. Kaiser had its first PAT blocked, went for 2 on the second and failed, then kicked the third. Colony kicked the first, then went for 2 and made it on the second and third touchdowns.
  • The math wouldn’t indicate it, but Colony made the right move going for 2 on its final touchdown. Usually, you go for 2 late in a game when a TD puts you up 1, 4 or 5, but in this case, it put the Titans up 21-19. Going for 2 had more to do with Kaiser. Kaiser had attempted just one FG all year, and missed it. So going up 3 would’ve meant little in this game. But going up 4 would’ve been helpful because if Kaiser came back to score a TD and kicked an XP, Colony could’ve tied with a FG.
  • Kaiser’s drives ended with: Downs, lost fumble, TD, TD, halftime, punt, TD, downs/INT. Just one punt for the Cats. Kaiser ran more plays on its first drive 19 than Colony had in the first half (12). Colony had 3 drives end after just 1 play: 2 TDs, and one lost a fumble. Kaiser had six drives end in Colony territory.
  • On Kaiser’s opening drive, they appeared to be getting a first-and-goal at the Colony 9 as Colony was being called for pass interference on fourth-and-15 at the 19. But Kaiser also got a penalty for illegal man downfield. The down was replayed on the offsetting fouls and Kaiser failed to convert the 4th-and-15  the second time.

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Prep Football Roundup for Sept. 24

KAISER 48, APPLE VALLEY 42>> If anybody left Malloy Stadium on the Kaiser High School campus early, they missed a furious fourth quarter that saw the host Cats hold on and score a 48-42 win over Apple Valley after building a 21-point margin in the fourth quarter. The Cats (3-1) also had a 48-27 advantage in the fourth before Apple Valley (2-3) got back in the game on the strength of a pair of 33-yard runs by Tristian Mcnatt. One set up a fourth-down score by T.J. Lewis and Mcnatt scored his fourth TD of the night after the Sun Devils recovered an onsides kick.Mcnatt, who finished with 147 yards in nine carries, also caught a two-point conversion pass from Mossy Bell to make it exciting with 2:42 left. But the Cats killed the clock, thanks to a 11-yard carry by Tyler Allgeier for a first down with 131 left. He and Joshua Johnson were the big offensive keys for Kaiser as Johnson scored three times and rushed for 194 on 25 carries on the night late in the third quarter.

Continue reading “Prep Football Roundup for Sept. 24” »

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VIDEOS: Alyssa Burk strikes out 17 , Fontana downs Chaffey 2-0

Below, highlights of Fontana’s 2-0 win over Chaffey in the wild-card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs.

Below, Alyssa Burk talks after striking out 17

Click below for some more information on game
Continue reading “VIDEOS: Alyssa Burk strikes out 17 , Fontana downs Chaffey 2-0” »

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VIDEOS: Grand Terrace baseball beats Kaiser 3-2 on Tuesday


Above: video highlights of Grand Terrace-Kaiser baseball


Above: Grand Terrace pitcher Maxx Zeman, who pitched a complete game, talks about the game


A longer look of 1 highlight: was this Grand Terrace baserunner safe or out at the plate? Looked safe to me.

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Kaiser baseball’s 42-game league win streak was impressive

Kaiser logo
The end of an epic league win streak was a little easier for Kaiser players to handle because of the current standings.
The Kaiser baseball team’s 42-game Sunkist League win streak ended on Tuesday with a loss to Colton.
“There’s no way I thought we’d win 42 straight league games,” Kaiser coach Mike Spinuzzi said. “I’m very proud of that. That’s hard to do.”
In some ways, it’s a relief that the streak is over, Spinuzzi said, but the players took the end of the streak hard.
“One thing this team has learned is that we don’t like losing,” Spinuzzi said. “There were players who wouldn’t leave the dugout. I had to tell them to go.”
Despite the loss, Kaiser is still in the driver’s seat to win the league. But that loss Tuesday was coupled with another loss Thursday and the Cats (13-9, 9-2) are now two games up in league with four to play. Two are against Summit (13-8, 6-5) next week and two are against Grand Terrace (13-9, 7-4) the week after.
According to the CIF-SS record book, updated last summer, the 42-game baseball league win streak would rank fifth all-time in the CIF-SS, and 16 behind the record held by Temecula Linfield Christian from 1990-96.

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VIDEO: Kaiser Basketball/football player Tre Norman talks after beating Summit

Part of the video that I didn’t have showed that Norman (and likely the Cats) felt a little disrespected in rankings, such as mine, that had Summit ranked and Kaiser unranked even after Kaiser won the 1st matchup between the teams. You can also tell what a big deal it is to beat Summit.

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