Tribune Player of the Year …

For those of you arguing about who it should go to, you should know a few things:

1. I put the most weight on performance in the playoffs.

2. I poll the other guys who have covered games for us and whose opinions I trust.

3. All-league voting is NEVER considered.

4. Coach’s opinion or nomination is NEVER considered.

5. It’s an impossible award to decide BEFORE the playoffs are COMPLETELY over.

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POSTGAME: Talk your smack or cry me a river ….

Friday’s scores
Charter Oak 35, South Hills 0 (Complete domination by CO. Very sad day for the Huskies as Coach Steve Bogan’s mother passed away early Friday morning.)
Duarte 41, Santa Clara 38, OT (Duarte’s a football school again!)
Covina 47, St. Joseph 32 (Onward and upward)
Los Altos 37, Foothill 21 (The OC teams rarely do well against Gano, why would that be?)
Temescal Canyon 42, Damien 16 (ouch!)
Trabuco Hills 14, West Covina 6 (Trouble scoring at home can’t happen in late November)

Aram’s thoughts on CO’s win over South Hills: First of all, if you say you expected that and you weren’t surprised, then you’re a flat out liar. If anybody in the entire Valley should sit here and say they thought CO could play like that, it should be me. Forget about who I picked in the game, just remember that I had CO No. 1 in the area for the entire off-season and started them No. 2 in Valley. Do you see how stupid all of this sounds? What anybody thought four months ago or an hour before last night’s game doesn’t really matter. All that matters is what took place after kickoff. Charter Oak played like a team on a mission. I think that’s probably the best the Chargers will ever look this season, but I am hope I’m wrong because that will mean a CIF title if I am. It’s funny, but when you reach the playoffs, it all comes down to the very best players making the biggest plays. You saw that out of Michael Johnson last night. He was the difference in the game in the first half. His first TD was an amazing catch that gave you the impression he was playing against boys. His pick return made him look like a USC defensive back playing in a Pop Warner game. The guy is just an awesome player who got to show it to everybody last night. Also, I think CO’s offensive line really controlled things. South Hills just wasn’t making stops and it’s because CO was able to run the ball. The Chargers’ offensive line had taken some heat this year for being big and looking good in uniform, but not dominating up to their appearance. That wasn’t the case at all last night. My whole reason for hyping CO at the beginning of the season was because they had all of the elements to have a huge year – mammoth O-line, D-1 receiver/dback, veteran QB, great coaching and a psycho middle linebacker. They simply passed the look test. It’s great to see that the Chargers never quit when things were going bad early on and are now playing their best football.
About South Hills – the Huskies have nothing to be ashamed of. It was a hard week. Coach Bogan’s mom went into the hospital early in the week and as we all know, she passed on Friday. Now, isn’t that typical of the kind of coaches we have here in the SGV? He loses his mom in the morning and yet he’s out coaching his team later that night. There wasn’t a person in the world who would’ve blamed him for missing last night’s game, but Coach Bogan wasn’t going to do that to his team. The Huskies just didn’t have it. Charter Oak was simply better and it showed. But it should be remember that SH lost a ton from last year’s team and struggled badly earlier this season. Yet, at the end of the day, SH wins a share of the SAL and upsets a seeded team on the road in the playoffs. Like Bogan said, they’ll be back. Not quite so sure we’ll be able to say that CO coach Lou Farrar who could hang it up if his team sends him out the right way. It could be the storybook ending to a storybook career.

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Charter Oak vs. South Hills (’nuff said)


South Hills coach Steve Bogan will have his usual great game plan for Charter Oak

Aram’s take: Spurrier vs. Bowden? That’s what it feels like to me. I’ve got to tell you that I’m as anxious for this game as I would be a CIF championship. It’s my vibe that Coach Farrar and Coach Bogan respect each other. I think they’re both class acts and I don’t want to set the stage for people to think there’s going to be a Chaney v. Calipari showdown at midfield after the game. Lets get this right out of the way, both staffs are class acts. Intense, and classy. But I’d be lying if I glossed over the fact that it’s my perception that these two coaching staffs really want to win this game. I know, all my devil’s advocates out there will say “Aram, of course they want the win, it’s the playoffs.” Nope, sorry. There’s more to it than that. And for whatever reason, even though the players involved weren’t around during the rifts of the late 90s and early 00s, I think they all understand what’s at stake. OK, I just wanted to say that. Please feel free to comment on whether you think the tension will be thick or if the heat is overblown.

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