September 2010 Archives

You want reality, Monrovia's 28-25 victory over South Hills means the Huskies could finish 1-9, maybe 2-8 or 3-7 at best. They would have trouble with the best in the Hacienda, so imagine what awaits in the Sierra, not to mention another non-leaguer against Los Osos. Truth is, they're not the bad, they're still better than most teams in the Valley, but clearly not among the area's elite. They can score, but they give up a lot of points too, a trend that could continue with a youthful defense and unforgiving schedule. Also, Monrovia is pretty darn good, it won't surprise me at all if they go unbeaten the rest of the way and win the Mid-Valley title. They took a 28-17 lead into the fourth quarter after blowing a 21-point fourth-quarter lead last week to San Dimas. That means gut-check time, and they showed their guts. After South Hills scored and made the conversion to cut it to 28-25 with four minutes left, the Cat's faced a fourth-and-inches at their own 29 with just over two minutes left. They didn't punt, they let their offense win it, getting a game-clinching first down. That was a way of saying, what happened last week won't happen again. M-Town, this is what you needed, watch how it paves the way for better things to come.

The Inland Insider providing postgame highlights and video interviews.

With the Valle Vista, Hacienda and Montview league's beginning this week, here are my new predictions on how it will unfold.

Hacienda League: Have grown to love the new league because the parity is great across the board with the exception of Los Altos, who in future years will be right there too. But we're talking about the present, and no way am I not going with West Covina (3-1), fresh off three straight wins over Venice, South Hills and Glendora, all upper-divisional foes. I'm going with Rowland (3-1) and Michael Ball to edge out Bonita (4-1) for second and third respectively. That leaves a fourth-place guaranteed spot, which I'm giving to Diamond Bar (4-0), who will edge out Diamond Ranch and Walnut for that final spot. There is one at-large berth in the Division, and given the fact five teams are ranked in this week's top ten poll, it's not a stretch that five teams could make it to the playoff party.

Valle Vista: The only guarantee thus far is that San Dimas (2-2) will do enough to win the league title, though going undefeated will be difficult. Covina (3-1), with its win over West Covina still fresh in the memory banks and with perhaps the best offense, will finish second, thus earning a precious playoff berth, (only two playoff spots are guaranteed in each league in the Mid-Valley Division with four at-large berths overall). Baldwin Park, because it started 0-4, could be in playoff trouble. The Braves need to finish second to guarantee a spot, but absolutely have to finish no worse than third to have any kind of a chance at a playoff spot, which won't be easy with Wilson (2-1) and Pomona (3-1) much improved. But I still like the Braves to finish third, then I can't wait for the playoff pairings. Lets say the Braves go 4-2 in the VVL and finish 4-6 overall. Do they get in over a fourth or fifth place Pomona or Wilson, who potentially could have a better overall record? I can't wait to watch how CIF handles this, because regardless of who finishes third, the VVL should garner at least one of the at-large berths. But the reality is, scheduling easy pays off more than scheduling up.

Montview League: Azusa (3-0) should build on their back-to-back titles and bring a 12-game league winning streak into the Montview, which could very well stretch to 18 come November. Yes, the Aztecs will finish first with La Puente (3-1) a close second over Sierra Vista (3-0). But here's the real story: Will the Montview get an at-large berth? Assuming Sierra Vista loses to Azusa, La Puente and beats everyone else, they would finish 8-2, and maybe 7-3 at the very worst. Is that good enough for an at-large? Or look at it this way, who does CIF take first, an 8-2 Sierra Vista or a 4-6 Baldwin Park, assuming both finish third in league. Interesting thought, isn't it? As of now, the Dons are No. 7 and the Braves aren't anywhere to be found in the Mid-Valley polls.

Here's the deal, I wanted to send Mike "The Cousin" Robledo to Bishop Amat at Cathedral, but I was told by the Athletic Director there is no press box, and that the stadium only holds 2,500, which means just 1,250 on the visiting side, so Amat fans better arrive early. The AD was concerned with the overflow crowd, he said when he made the deal with Bishop Amat, he was told the Lancers only had 1,500 to 2,000 traveling fans. The game will be shown on tape delay on IBN sports on Saturday morning and Mike will provide Amat updates when available, but please, if you're at the game with a workable cell phone, join Mike and send your updates. But hey, Diamond Ranch and Diamond Bar is something special regardless, so follow all the action along with updates from other games with Mike.

Mid-Valley Division
1. Whittier Christian (Olympic) 4-0, 2. Azusa (Montview) 3-0, 3. Arroyo (Mission Valley) 3-1, 4. San Dimas (Valle Vista) 2-2, 5. Monrovia (Rio Hondo) 1-2, 6. Village Christian (Olympic) 3-1, 7. Sierra Vista (Montview) 3-0, 8. San Marino (Rio Hondo) 2-1, 9. Covina (Valle Vista) 3-1, 10. South Pasadena (Rio Hondo) 3-0
Robledo's thoughts: Assuming that Whittier Christian and Azusa go undefeated, and probably will, they will finish No. 1 and 2. When I look at the top five, I'm looking at teams that could run the table in league, meaning there might not be much change for several weeks. The problem here is that strength of schedule means squat, obviously going unbeaten, regardless of who you face, matters most.
SOUTHEAST DIVISION
1. West Covina (Hacienda) 3-1, 2. Burbank (Pacific) 2-1, 3. Bonita (Hacienda) 4-0, 4. Rowland (Hacienda) 3-1, 5. Norwalk (Suburban) 2-2, 6. La Serna (Del Rio) 3-1, 7. Muir (Pacific) 1-2 , 8. Diamond Bar (Hacienda) 4-0, 9. Diamond Ranch (Hacienda) 1-3, 10. Santa Fe (Del Rio) 1-2
Robledo's thoughts: The pollsters are listening to us, the Bulldogs exactly where they belong. Bonita should be No. 2, but give it up to the Hacienda, five teams in the top ten, including 1-3 Diamond Ranch, the biggest surprise of all. Here's what I don't get, strength of schedule obviously matters here, but not in the Mid-Valley? What gives.
PAC-5 DIVISION
1. Mission Viejo (South Coast) 4-0, 2. Servite (Trinity) 4-0 , 3. Lakewood (Moore) 4-0, 4. Bishop Amat (Serra) 4-0, 5. Newport Harbor (Sunset) 3-0, 6. Alemany (Serra) 4-0 , 7. Edison (Sunset) 3-1, 8. Los Alamitos (Sunset) 3-1, 9. Santa Margarita (Trinity) 3-1, 10. Long Beach Poly (Moore) 2-2
Robledo's thoughts: I don't know if Bishop Amat is this good, or should be ranked this high, but I do know they're getting better, and when you add Brock Booth and Wallace Gonzalez to the arsenal, I wouldn't be surprised with Cathedral and Venice next, they don't get to No. 2 or 3 after what should be a 6-0 start.
INLAND DIVISION
1. Vista Murrieta (Southwestern) 3-0, 2. Centennial/Corona (Big VIII) 3-0, 3. Norco (Big VIII) 3-0, 4. Redlands East Valley (Citrus Belt) 3-0, 5. Chino Hills (Sierra) 3-1, 6. Rancho Cucamonga (Baseline) 4-0, 7. Upland (Baseline) 3-1, 8. Redlands (Citrus Belt) 3-0-1, 9. Roosevelt (Big VIII) 3-0. 10. Ayala (Sierra) 4-0
Robledo's thoughts: The Sierra League or Baseline hasn't started, yet there is no Charter Oak, Glendora, South Hills or Damien. Again, strength of schedule no consideration, look at Ayala, who has beaten four nobody's compared to Glendora, who has a 3-1 schedule and has played nothing but solid competition. I blame myself, because I had Ayala No. 5 with Glendora No. 6 in our poll, which in hindsight, I should have reserved. I'll take one for the team on this.

Since I was playing golf on the hottest day in history Monday, I sat these drills out; listen to Miguel Melendez and Aram break down South Hills-Monrovia on Thursday, and Andrew Campa and Aram talk Charter Oak and Santa Fe on Friday.

Girls Volleyball Top 10
1. St. Lucy's (9-5) -- The Regents took on some of the best teams in the country and after going 4-4 during last weekend, broke even in Las Vegas. Who can do the same?
2. Chino Hills (10-1) -- The Huskies have three victories over teams who have been ranked in our Top 10 this season. They get St. Lucy's next week.
3. Bonita (10-2) -- The Bearcats showed heart in beat Los Altos in four games on Tuesday. The tandem of Katie Kirby and Ashley Maxfeldt might be one of the best in the area.
4. Los Altos (7-2) -- The Conquerors rebounded from a poor start by winning six of seven at the Mayfair Tournament.
5. South Hills (6-2) -- The Huskies are expected to challenge St. Lucy's and Chino Hills in a rugged Sierra League. St. Lucy's is up first, next Tuesday.
6. Glendora (3-0) -- The Tartans took the week off, but got back to work with a nonleague match against Ayala before facing Baseline League power Los Osos next week.
7. San Dimas (9-4) -- The Saints are expected to roll in the Valle Vista.
8. Diamond Bar (11-6) -- The Brahmas, who lost in four to Bonita last week, rebounded with a solid showing at the Whittier Tournament.
9. Ayala (5-2) -- Most view the Bulldogs as the No. 4 team in the Sierra. That only demonstrates how rugged that league is.
10. La Puente (3-3) -- The Warriors, ranked No. 6 in Division 4-A, opened Montview League play on a winning note.

Rankings: Check out this link, ranks top boys and girls cross country runners in the San Gabriel Valley

For more SGV cross country news and updates, visit SGVtrackandfield.net. It's a tremendous site for local cross country and track news. Today there is a nice feature on Rowland High School's Nick Rivera

2010 Cross Country Calendar

Chino Hills Tom reports from Tuesday's Sierra League opening cross country meet at Bonelli Park, where Ayala and Claremont are the top contenders, check it out.

Top Ten Boys Marks
1. Paul Ross, Claremont, 14:36, Woodbridge
2. Henry Falotico, Claremont, 14:51, Woodbridge
3. Anthony Castro, Glendora, 14:52, Woodbridge
4. Colin Domonoske, Claremont, 15:04, Woodbridge
5. Alfredo Metoyer, Claremont, 15:05, Woodbridge
6. Timmy Reed, Ayala, 15:15, Woodbridge
7. Kenny Tanner, Ayala, 15:33, Woodbridge
8. Kunal Sampat, Ayala, 15:36, Woodbridge
9. Alfredo Contreras, Ayala, 15:39, Woodbridge
10. Austin Mendoza, Glendora, 15:43, Tartan Top Ten

Top Ten Girls Marks
1. Lauren Justus, Glendora, 17:04, Woodbridge
2. Taylor Khan, Ayala, 17:27, Woodbridge
3. Marissa Scott, Bonita, 17:59, Woodbridge
4. Lexie Jackson, Bonita, 18:17, Woodbridge
5. Jaclyn Gonzalez, Ayala, 18:18, Woodbridge
6. Mikayla Flores, Bonita, 18:21, Woodbridge
7. Chandler Colquitt, Ayala, 18:30, Woodbridge
8. Victoria Chen, Ayala, 18:45, Woodbridge
9. Arecly Rojas-Garcia, Chino Hills, 18:46, Woodbridge
10. Merin Arft, Claremont, 18:52, Woodbridge

The Northview baseball and softball teams, its alumni, and any past players that played for coach Fred Fraijo are welcome to participate in Thursday's softball game at Irwindale Park in honor of Fred. The game will start at 5 p.m., with friends joining the field at 6 p.m. All donations and snackbar proceeds will benefit to the Fraijo family.

Hundreds gathered at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Irwindale on Tuesday to say goodbye to Fred Fraijo, who died last week in a motorcycle crash. Fraijo, 49, was beloved as a devoted family man and dedicated assistant softball coach at Northview High School who often provided one-on-one training in his backyard. Northview players attended the funeral wearing team jerseys, while co-workers at Sierra Aluminum Co. in Fontana - where Fraijo worked 23 years as a plant manager - arrived on motorcycles with black T-shirts that read "Fred Fraijo rode hard to the end."

Bonita High School quarterback Garrett Pendleton is expected to return when the Bearcats open Hacienda League play at Diamond Bar on Oct. 8. Bonita has a bye this week.

Glendora's Gretchen Jaques, arguably the best girls swimmer in the history of the San Gabriel Valley, has been selected to represent the United States on the 2010-2011 National Youth Team. The National Youth Team is a stepping stone to the USA National team where many athletes go on to represent the country in international competitions.

The USA Swimming 2010-2011 National Youth Team was selected from the top six times in Olympic events for 18 & U athletes at the 2010 Conoco Phillips National Championships and 2010 Speedo Junior National Championships. Gretchen qualified with her time of 26.22 in the 50 meter freestyle.

After visiting the University of Texas, Jaques verbally committed to attend there next fall and will be signing her letter of intent during the early signing period in November.

Bonita High School needed four games to win its second Hacienda League match of the season Tuesday.
But for the Bearcats, there was more at stake than an advantage in the Hacieida League standings.
There was a little case of some sweet revenge, which Bonita believes it got after a 29-27, 25-23, 24-26, 25-20 victory over Los Altos.
The Bearcats (11-2, 2-0), getting 22 kills from senior outside hitter Katie Kirby and 42 assists from senior setter Ashley Maxfelt, vied it as payback for the Conquerors' five-game victory to win their first CIF-Southern Section girls volleyball title last fall.
Los Altos, getting 11 kills and eight aces from Jazmen Russell and 15 kills from Amanda Brown, slipped to 7-3 and 1-1.
Bonita outside hitter Katie Kirby: "It's revenge. We wanted it bad. We wanted to prove a point."
Bonita coach Adriana Contreras: "Los Altos is a great team, both offensively and defensively, and they obvisiously brought their A game in games 1 and 2. But we've been preparing for this match since the beginning of the season. My girls did well."

Bishop Amat athletic director Michael Manzo confirmed today that South Hills transfer Brock Booth won his appeal to the CIF-Southern Section and is eligible to play football for the Lancers on Friday against Cathedral. Booth, a tight end who has been practicing all season, was denied eligibility after South Hills challenged his transfer to Amat, citing it was for "athletically motivated," reasons. The Booth family appealed the decision to a CIF hearing panel, which reversed the decision on Tuesday. Not only will undefeated Bishop Amat welcome Booth, but Glendora transfer Wallace Gonzalez (receiver) becomes eligible Friday after sitting out a full year, giving QB Rio Ruiz two new weapons to play with. "The (Booth) family was thankful they were able to present their case in front of the appeals panel at CIF and that the matters were cleared up," Manzo said. "They're (Booth family) looking forward to enjoying Brock's senior year, and Brock is looking forward to contributing to the football team in any way he can."

Question: I am convinced that if Charter Oak and South Hills were in the Hacienda and back in the Southeast Division they would have a tough time this year. But with Bonita 4-0 and West Covina coming off three big wins, could both of them compete in the Sierra?

1. Bishop Amat (4-0) -- Not only the best fans, best tailgating and best place to watch a high school football game. They proved once again, they're better than anything else in the Valley too after racing to 35-0 halftime lead over Damien.
2. Chino Hills (3-1) -- After falling from No. 2 a couple weeks back, the Huskies climb back up after wins over Tesoro and Pomona. After what Tesoro did to South Hills, it makes the Huskies' win look even better.
3. Bonita (4-0) -- Who would have thought at the beginning of the year the Bearcats would climb this high in the rankings.
4. West Covina (3-1) -- Consecutive wins over Venice, South Hills and Glendora have Bulldogs neck-and-neck with Bearcats as co-Hacienda League favorites.
5. Ayala (4-0) -- The record looks great and they get our respect, but the truth is, they have played the easiest nonleague schedule of all Sierra League teams. The truth comes next against St. Paul and league play, which starts next week.
6. Glendora (3-1) -- The Tartans had one the turnover battle to race to a 3-0 record, but it came back to bite them in a losing effort against West Covina.
7. Charter Oak (2-2) -- Losing to Rancho Cucamonga and losing their starting quarterback Travis Santiago stings, but at least they have back-up Josiah Thropay, who would start on most teams in the Valley.
8. Claremont (3-1) -- Pulls out a great win over Rowland after losing to Bonita a couple weeks back. Now the question, are they really Sierra League contenders?
9. Rowland (3-1) -- All that Raiders momentum came to a screeching half against Claremont, but it's just one game. You know they will compete in the Hacienda with Bonita and West Covina.
10. Azusa (3-0) -- Kind of tough to ask La Puente to host Azusa in the first week of Montvliew league action, but it is what it is. The winner will in all likelihood capture the title.
The Rest: 11. Diamond Bar (4-0). 12. San Dimas (2-2), 13. Damien (2-1); 14. South Hills (1-2). 15. Walnut (2-1), 16. Covina (3-1), 17. Arroyo (3-1), 18. Diamond Ranch (1-3), 19. Rosemead (2-1); 20. Wilson (2-1), 21. Pomona (3-1), 22. Sierra Vista (3-0), 23. La Puente (2-1), 24. Baldwin Park (0-4), 25. Nogales (1-3), 26. El Monte (1-2), 27. South El Monte (1-2), 28. Ganesha (1-2), 29. Northview (0-3), 30. Los Altos (0-4), 31. Workman (1-2), 32. Bassett (1-2), 33. Mountain View (1-2), 34. Gladstone (0-3), 35. Duarte (0-2)

It is with deep sadness we report that longtime Wilson girls basketball and softball coach Ed Bruyninckx passed away on Sunday of an apparent heart attack. "The girls and the school is pretty devasted," Wilson football coach Brian Zavala said. "Grief counselors have been called in and everyone is doing their best to cope with it." Bruyninckx, this newspapers girls basketball coach of the year in 2008 when he led the Wildcats to a 23-5 record and their first league title since 1994, was as good as it gets and as well liked and respected as any coach I've dealt with. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. "He was a wonderful guy, one of the nicest guys you ever dealt with," Rowland coach Gordon Hamlow said. "I got to know him for a number of years, he's one of those good guys who got it done, and an excellent coach as well."

Funeral Services: On Thursday, 10 a.m., at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 16750 Colima Rd, on corner of Colima and Dawn Haven in Hacienda Heights. The burial will follow shortly after at Forest Lawn in Covina.

I will post two-minute drills tomorrow of South Hills-Monrovia, Rosemead-San Gabriel and Charter Oak Santa Fe..

By Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer
A lot is still up in the air about the quarterback situation at Charter Oak High School. But one thing that's for certain is senior Josiah Thropay will be under center for the Chargers on Friday night against Santa Fe. That's because normal starter Travis Santiago is sidelined with an ankle injury that nobody quite knows the extent of how bad it is. Santiago suffered the injury on the second-to-last play of Friday's loss to Rancho Cucamonga.

Below: Charter Oak is fortunate. How many teams have a 6-foot-5 back-up as talented as Thropay.

by Aram Tolegian
West Covina quarterback George Johnson has significantly less fanfare than Glendora star Chad Jeffries, but against the Tartans on Friday night, Johnson proved he can play the position pretty well himself. While Jeffries was having arguably his best game of the young season by running and throwing like the standout he's been advertised to be, Johnson was having one of the better games of his long career.

Fred and I will go head-to-head in Tribskin Pick'em throughout the season.
Last Week: Robledo (14-9); Ramirez (14-9).
Season: Robledo (67-23); Ramirez (62-28).

Last week: Fred and I didn't have a great week. We missed nine times, including Claremont over Rowland, Rosemead over San Marino and Rancho Cucamonga over Charter Oak. I was the only won in the group to pick San Dimas over Monrovia, and I got Fred by going with West Covina over Glendora. But I also gave both of those back, losing with Chino over Northview and Montclair over Workman, which Fred predicted correctly.
This week: There are some big games this week, starting with Monrovia vs. South Hills on Thursday at Covina District Field. I'm going with the Huskies to bounce back from last week's debacle at Tesoro. I'm just not sure Monrovia can recover initially from the loss to San Dimas in which it led 28-7 with eight minutes left. The other big games are Azusa vs. La Puente in an early showdown in the Montview League; Diamond Ranch at Diamond Bar and West Covina at Walnut in the Hacienda. My desk says go with Azusa, Diamond Ranch and West Covina.
Note: Fred will update his picks later

This week's games and predictions:
Thursday, Sept. 30
Monrovia vs. South Hills at CDF, 7 p.m.-- Robledo (South Hills); Ramirez (South Hills)
Friday, October 1st
Diamond Ranch vs. Diamond Bar at Ganesha, 7:00 -- Robledo (DBar); Ramirez (DRanch)
Los Altos at Rowland, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Rowland): Ramirez (Rowland)
West Covina at Walnut, 7:00pm -- Robledo (WCovina); Ramirez (WCovina)
Azusa at La Puente, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Azusa); Ramirez (Azusa)
Ganesha at Bassett, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Ganesha); Ramirez (Bassett)
Gladstone vs. Workman at Citrus College, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Workman): Ramirez (Gladstone)
Sierra Vista at Duarte, 7:00pm -- Robledo (SVista); Ramirez (Sierra Vista)
Covina vs. Northview at Covina District, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Covina); Ramirez (Covina)
Pomona at Baldwin Park, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Pomona); Ramirez (Baldwin Park)
San Dimas at Nogales, 7:00pm -- Robledo (SDimas); Ramirez (San Dimas)
Bishop Amat at Cathedral, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Bishop Amat); Ramirez (Bishop Amat)
Chino Hills vs. Redlands East Valley at U. of Redlands, 7:30pm -- Robledo (CHills); Ramirez (Ch. Hills)
El Dorado at Damien, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Damien); Ramirez (Damien)
El Monte at Wilson, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Wilson); Ramirez (Wilson)
Keppel at Mountain View, 7:00pm -- Robledo (MView); Ramirez (Mnt View)
San Gabriel at Rosemead, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Rosemead); Ramirez (Rosemead)
Santa Fe at Charter Oak, 7:00pm -- Robledo (Charter Oak); Ramirez (Charter Oak)
St. Paul at Ayala, 7:00pm -- Robledo (St. Paul); Ramirez (Ayala)
Temple City at South El Monte, 7:00pm - Robledo (TCity); Ramirez (South El Monte)

Anything and anyone you want to talk about. Athlete of the week nominations and looking ahead: Is Diamond Ranch, Diamond Bar still the game of the week? DRanch has been waiting a while for this, but careful what you wish for, nobody expected the purple to be 4-0. La Puente, Azusa would have been a more sexy match-up, but the Warriors falling to Wilson took something away, though it probably still will determine the Montview League title. It's a tough call because Walnut-West Covina became more interesting after the Mustangs' OT win over Covina. Bishop Amat gets Wallace Gonzalez back against Cathedral, and how down will the Monrovia, South Hills loser feel on Thursday after what happened this past weekend? I don't want the interview with that coach.

This weeks pigskin lineup
Thursday, September 30th
Monrovia vs. South Hills at Covina District, 7:00pm
Friday, October 1st
Diamond Ranch vs. Diamond Bar at Ganesha, 7:00pm
Los Altos at Rowland, 7:00pm
West Covina at Walnut, 7:00pm
Azusa at La Puente, 7:00pm
Ganesha at Bassett, 7:00pm
Gladstone vs. Workman at Citrus College, 7:00pm
Sierra Vista at Duarte, 7:00pm
Covina vs. Northview at Covina District, 7:00pm
Pomona at Baldwin Park, 7:00pm
San Dimas at Nogales, 7:00pm
Bishop Amat at Cathedral, 7:00pm
Chino Hills vs. Redlands East Valley at U. of Redlands, 7:30pm
El Dorado at Damien, 7:00pm
El Monte at Wilson, 7:00pm
Keppel at Mountain View, 7:00pm
San Gabriel at Rosemead, 7:00pm
Santa Fe at Charter Oak, 7:00pm
St. Paul at Ayala, 7:00pm
Temple City at South El Monte, 7:00pm

Enjoy this, Chino Hills Tom's raw footage from Bishop Amat, Damien.

Tailgating at Bishop Amat ...

Jesse Cruz services
There will be a viewing and Rosary at the Saint Paul The Apostle Church, 14085 Payton Drive, Chino Hills, tonight (Sunday) at 7 p.m., with funeral services Monday at 10 a.m. The grave site ceremony follows after at Forest Lawn in Covina.

Fred Fraijo services
There will be a memorial service for Fred Fraijo on Monday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (16025 Cypress Ave., Irwindale, CA) from 6 to 9 p.m., with a rosary at 7 p.m. Funeral services are Tuesday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 10 a.m. with the grave site ceremony at Oakdale Cemetary (1401 S. Grand Ave., Glendora, CA) immediately following the service. There will be a reception immediately following the grave site service at the Amvey Post 113 (14910 E. Los Angeles St., Irwindale).

Softball Fundraiser Thursday:
The Northview baseball and softball teams, its alumni, and any past players that played for coach Fred Fraijo are welcome to participate in Thursday's softball game at Irwindale Park in honor of Fred. The game will start at 5 p.m., with friends joining the field at 6 p.m. All donations and snackbar proceeds will go to the Fraijo family.

Saturday injury update: Charter Oak QB Travis Santiago did not break his ankle on Friday. X-Rays were negative, leaving him with a sprained ankle and out for an indefinite period.

Friday's results
Bishop Amat 42, Damien 7 -- The Lancers were dominant throughout, leading 35-0 at halftime. QB Rio Ruiz had a breakthrough game, throwing for 200 plus yards and two TDs.
Rancho Cucamonga 40, Charter Oak 28 -- The Cougars have the Chargers' number, improving to 2-0-1 against them over the last three years. It's a big setback, the Chargers can't seem to win the big marquee encounters. Even worse, word is Chargers QB Travis Santiago suffered a sprained ankle on the last play. Does that mean Josiah Thropay takes over next week?
West Covina 33, Glendora 28 -- Can we forget Covina? In all seriousness, if the Bulldogs aren't the No. 1 ranked team in the Southeast next week, the pollsters aren't paying attention.
Bonita 29, Baldwin Park 0 -- Did I just say West Covina should be No. 1 in the Southeast? Yup, I forgot about the guys in green, who make an equally compelling argument.
Tesoro 59, South Hills 6 -- This wasn't just a loss, this was another humbling defeat for the Huskies, who get Monrovia on Thursday.
Diamond Bar 31, Brea Olinda 28 -- The Brahmas have all the momentum they need going into next week's Hacienda opener against Diamond Ranch.
San Dimas 35, Monrovia 34, OT -- Amazing. The Saints trailed 28-7 heading into the fourth, scored 21 unanswered points and won in overtime. If you're Monrovia, you're only hope is you win the rematch come December.
Walnut 49, Covina 42, OT -- The Colts finally surrender their first loss, which is a huge boost to the Mustangs' confidence.
Hart 44, Arroyo 3 -- With or without QB Steven Rivera, it wouldn't of made a difference.
Wilson 36, La Puente 20 -- The Wildcats beat a good team, it makes you wonder what their Valle Vista league chances really are.
Chino 47, Northview 30 -- Looks like it's going to be another long year for the Vikings.
Chino Hills 48, Pomona 13 -- Even though Pomona was undefeated, you kind of expected this.
Rosemead 21, San Marino 7 -- The Panthers finally get in the win column.
Claremont 24, Rowland 21 -- Didn't see this coming at all, but when two good teams meet, anything can happen.
Sierra Vista 42, Keppel 12 -- Dons offense continues to roll heading into the Montview.
Nogales 40, South El Monte 19 -- Nobles, like Wilson, could be another VVL contender.
Ayala 34, Los Altos 7 -- Could be a long, long season for the Conqs
Workman at Montclair, NA
Garey at Ganesha, NA

Video highlights and Interviews from Bishop Amat - Damien with Chino Hills Tom, the Inland Insider.

Don't miss the thrilling finish to San Dimas, Monrovia either

Thursday's Results
Azusa 34, Gabrielino 0 - Jose Nunez accounted for three scores and the Aztecs (3-0) secured their second shutout in three games with a rout of Gabrielino (2-1). Azusa forced six turnovers and held the Eagles to 124 total yards.
El Monte 32, Gladstone 24 - Mike Jimenez and Frank Lopez had big games for the Lions, who were too much for the Gladiators at San Dimas High School.
Diamond Ranch 21, Chaffey 14 - Cesar Carillo threw for 125 yards, including a 30-yard TD strike to Marquise Cherry for a 21-8 lead near the end of the first half.

Azusa had more reason to celebrate Thursday following a 34-0 win over Gabrielino at Citrus College. The Aztecs forced six turnovers.

Loved ones remember Northview wrestler Jesse Cruz, who was "all about doing the right things." Northview High School is holding a vigil tonight (Thursday) at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium and the memorial service will be held either Monday or Tuesday at St. Paul Church, which is located at 14085 Peyton Drive in Chino Hills.

By Steve Ramirez, Staff Writer
Almost everything fell into place for the Nogales High School boys water polo team last season. The Nobles challenged traditional power Walnut for supremacy in the San Antonio League before finishing second and advancing to their first CIF-Southern Section playoff appearance in more than a decade. They also won their first postseason encounter in recent memory.

The Bishop Amat High School volleyball team was on the cusp of winning key points in Wednesday's nonleague match and wrestling control. But his Gabrielino team found a way to rally and knock off the Lancers in four games. "It's always good when you come from behind to win," the Gabrielino coach said. "They just dug in. I told them that you have to get the pass up there. It is a matter of confidence." Gabrielino scored a 25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 26-24 victory.

Glendora High School has seen some pretty good offenses this season and remains undefeated in spite of it. But Friday, a whole different animal comes to town in the form of West Covina's devastating ground game. The Tartans handled Charter Oak's trio of tall receivers and slowed Monrovia's dynamic quarterback, Nick Bueno. If they stop West Covina, it could be one of the best nonleague performances in school history.

Services Announcement
There will be a memorial service for Fred Fraijo on Monday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (16025 Cypress Ave., Irwindale, CA) from 6 to 9 p.m., with a rosary at 7 p.m. Funeral services are Tuesday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 10 a.m. with the grave site ceremony at Oakdale Cemetary (1401 S. Grand Ave., Glendora, CA) immediately following the service. There will be a reception immediately following the grave site service at the Amvey Post 113 (14910 E. Los Angeles St., Irwindale).

Update: There was a huge turnout at Irwindale Park on Wednesday to mourn the loss of Fred Fraijo. Some of those that knew him shared their memories in today's story. A fundraiser softball game that will include Northview baseball/softball alumni and anyone who played for coach Fraijo at any level is being set up at Irwindale Park next week with proceeds going to the Fraijo family. When I get all the details, I will certainly share it with you.

I am deeply saddened to have to report the following: Fred Fraijo, an assistant softball coach at Northview High School, died on Wednesday when his motorcycle collided with a big rig on the 10 freeway, Northview baseball coach Darren Murphy confirmed. The crash occurred on the eastbound 10 freeway east of Via Verde Street at 5:20 a.m., officer Fransisco Villalobos with the California Highway Patrol said. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, Villalobos said. Fraijo was a well-known fixture in the community and a person I looked forward to seeing each and every trip to a Northview baseball or softball game. He was always huddled around his family, involved, and what you thought a family man should be. It's a huge loss for everyone that knew him. His oldest daughter Crystal starred in Vikings softball, attended Cal State University San Bernardino and is an assistant softball coach at Bishop Amat. His daughter Hannah led the Vikings softball team to the 2008 Valle Vista League championship, was the league MVP, the Tribune athlete of the year and is at Cal State Northridge. His son Shane Fraijo played for Murphy and starred on the Vikings' 2008 championship baseball team. Fred Fraijo is survived by his wife Paula, and five children, which also includes sons Joshua and Jacob. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Rankings: Check out this link, ranks top boys and girls cross country runners in the San Gabriel Valley

For more SGV cross country news and updates, this is your place.

2010 Cross Country Calendar

Bosco Tech Invite results. Above is the start of the race
Other recent race results
Rosemead Invitational
Woodbridge Invitational
Cal Poly Invitational

Top Ten Boys Marks
1. Paul Ross, Claremont, 14:36, Woodbridge
2. Henry Falotico, Claremont, 14:51, Woodbridge
3. Anthony Castro, Glendora, 14:52, Woodbridge
4. Colin Domonoske, Claremont, 15:04, Woodbridge
5. Alfredo Metoyer, Claremont, 15:05, Woodbridge
6. Timmy Reed, Ayala, 15:15, Woodbridge
7. Kenny Tanner, Ayala, 15:33, Woodbridge
8. Kunal Sampat, Ayala, 15:36, Woodbridge
9. Alfredo Contreras, Ayala, 15:39, Woodbridge
10. Austin Mendoza, Glendora, 15:43, Tartan Top Ten

Top Ten Girls Marks
1. Lauren Justus, Glendora, 17:04, Woodbridge
2. Taylor Khan, Ayala, 17:27, Woodbridge
3. Marissa Scott, Bonita, 17:59, Woodbridge
4. Lexie Jackson, Bonita, 18:17, Woodbridge
5. Jaclyn Gonzalez, Ayala, 18:18, Woodbridge
6. Mikayla Flores, Bonita, 18:21, Woodbridge
7. Chandler Colquitt, Ayala, 18:30, Woodbridge
8. Victoria Chen, Ayala, 18:45, Woodbridge
9. Arecly Rojas-Garcia, Chino Hills, 18:46, Woodbridge
10. Merin Arft, Claremont, 18:52, Woodbridge

By Aram Tolegian
Rowland's undefeated record and No. 1 ranking in the Southeast Division say a lot about the Raiders, but Friday's game against Claremont will say a lot more, according to coach Craig Snyder. Rowland has posted wins over Baldwin Park, California and Rosemead so far, but Friday will be its first, true upper-division test.

Damien High School has been the area's elite boys water polo team for much of the past decade. Bonita, a traditional power in its own right, has played second fiddle to its La Verne neighbors. The Bearcats have closed the gap, but the Spartans showed Tuesday they still rule the landscape. Eric Osterberg and Johnny Beal each scored two goals and Damien overcame a sluggish start en route to a 10-6 victory over Bonita at Las Flores Park.

Mike "The Cousin" Robledo and Aram Tolegian will be live from Citrus College for the Coveritlive game of the week between Glendora and West Covina, our front page barnburner. I will provide updates from Damien-Bishop Amat along with Chino Hills Tom, who is making the trip to Kiefer to put together his popular highlights show which we will post later that night....Our SGVN video highlights tech master will produce a highlights recap of the Mid-Valley Division rematch between Monrovia at San Dimas. BTW, Bishop Amat No. 22 in ESPN Rise state rankings.

CIF has a new sponsor, check out the new logo....

Coming tomorrow, two-minute drills on Covina-Walnut, Monrovia-San Dimas.

Tribune Super Rankings:
1. Bishop Amat (3-0) -- You need to step back and realize how impressive this is. They lose Davis Cazares, Daniel Kane, Darien Johnson and now Austin Lacy on defense. They lose Jerry McClanahan and Jay Anderson on offense, yet these guys keep winning and winning. Amat honks better sit back and enjoy.
2. Glendora (3-0) -- If they beat West Covina this week, they're hands down, without a doubt No. 2 in the area until/unless Bishop Amat gets knocked off.
3. Charter Oak (2-1) -- Even when they lost to Glendora I thought their offense had the potential to be better than the back-to-back champs' offense. Come playoff time, the Chargers could be the Valley's best chance for Inland advancement. I didn't say title, I said advancement (in the playoffs).
4. Chino Hills (2-1) -- You measure a team by how they perform in the big games, and beating Tesoro was certainly a big step forward.
5. Rowland (3-0) -- What strikes me so far isn't that Rowland's offense is moving so fluidly behind QB Michael Ball, it's the Raiders' defense. Since the first half of Baldwin Park, the Raiders' defense has been nails.
6. Bonita (3-0) -- The feel good story of the year so far. Tip your hap to coach Eric Podley and the gang. Without their starting QB they beat San Dimas, Claremont and Santa Fe.
7. West Covina (2-1) -- The Bulldogs have the best running game in the Valley and a defense that compliments it. There is only one test left, can they handle a high-flying pass-oriented team? That comes Friday against Glendora.
8. South Hills (1-1) -- Got worked over good by West Covina, but don't count them out by any stretch. Let's see how they react on the road at Tesoro.
9. Damien (2-0) -- After 35-0 win over Chaffey, Spartans back in top ten where they belong. They can really fly up the board with a win at Bishop Amat next.
10. Azusa (3-0) -- The Aztecs are rising so quick in popularity they were on the Fred Roggin show over the weekend during the high school spotlight. They're the true Boise State in these parts.
The rest: 11. Ayala (3-0), 12. Claremont (2-1). 13. Arroyo (3-0), 14. Covina (3-0), 15. Diamond Bar (3-0), 16. San Dimas (1-2), 17. Walnut (1-1), 18. Pomona (3-0), 19. La Puente (2-0), 20. Diamond Ranch (0-3), 21. Baldwin Park (0-3), 22. Rosemead (1-1), 23. Wilson (1-1), 24. Sierra Vista (2-0), 25. South El Monte (1-1), 26. Gladstone (0-2), 27. Northview (0-2), 28. Nogales (0-3), 29. Los Altos (0-3), 30. El Monte (0-2), 31. Ganesha (1-1), 32. Workman (1-1), 33. Bassett (1-2), 34. Mountain View (1-1), 35. Duarte (0-2).

St. Lucy's has done a lot of this lately.

Here's this week's Girls Volleyball Top 10

TOP 10
1. St. Lucy's (4-1) - The Regents showed they are the real deal, sweeping both Los Altos and Bonita. They may not leave this spot all year. Can't wait for the Regent-Chino Hills tilt.
2. Chino Hills (9-1) - Followed up a pair of sweeps by going 6-1 in the Arcadia Tournament.
3. Bonita (7-2) - The Bearcats, despite the sweep to St. Lucy's, look like the team to beat in the Hacienda League. They are No. 2 in CIF-SS 2-A.
4. South Hills (3-1) - Earned a five-game win against Brentwood before beating former league rival Walnut.
5. Los Altos (1-1) - The Conquerors, who are still formidable, looked out of sync in three-game loss to St. Lucy's. But the Regents have a way of doing that to the opposition.
6. Glendora (3-0) - The Tartans beat three teams they should to begin the season. Can they keep it up against Los Osos?
7. San Dimas (4-3) - The Saints, who lost in four to rival Bontia, are the favorite in the Valle Vista League.
8. Diamond Bar (5-4) - The Brahmas are off to a steady start, and may surprise some people in the Hacienda.
9. Bishop Amat (1-1) - The Lancers get an early test against South Hills tonight.
10. Charter Oak (4-2) - It's hard to gauge the Chargers, who beat San Dimas, but then lost to Northview, which lost to Gladstone. This may be a tough slot to fill all season.

"Maybe we can swap, the Chargers for the Clippers. No disrespect to the Clippers. You can have them back. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. I really like the Clippers, but I feel they deserve their own fan base because in L.A. they're overshadowed. The Clippers deserve a shot at having their own identity." -- Lakers forward Ron Artest.

"My philosophy has always been, if you've got a gun, keep shooting until someone stops you. My system requires aggressive kids willing to get their noses dirty." -- Dons offensive coordinator Don Le Gro .

It shouldn't come as a surprise to longtime Valley football fans that Sierra Vista High School junior Giovanni Rivera carried the ball 42 times when he rushed for 318 yards Friday against Mountain View. The Dons (2-0) are averaging more than 400 rushing yards a game. Rivera is averaging 308 yards and running mate Erick Garcia is averaging 119. The return of the Dons rushing game coincides with the return of former coach Don Le Gro as the offensive coordinator.

By Fred J. Robledo
Bishop Amat learned last week that senior linebacker Austin Lacy, also a standout on the basketball team, transferred back to Pasadena High, which he attended in 2008. Lacy, who battled a life-threatening virus in March that affected his heart, is healthy again. But his father, Darryl, said because his son missed so much school due to his illness, he needed to return to a public school to make up his grades.

By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer
Arroyo junior Steven Rivera, one of the area's top high school quarterbacks, sprained an ankle in the first quarter of the Knights' 12-8 victory over Montebello and is questionable for Friday's showdown against perennial power Hart. Back-up Eddie Federico took over for Rivera and led a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback, rallying the Knights from 8-0 down with two touchdown passes in the final four minutes to help them remain undefeated.

Correspondent John Honell is a longtime contributor to the Tribune, and well-known throughout the San Gabriel Valley. He knows the area's history, coaches, and always seems to have insider information. He will share some of it with his "Touching Base" pieces that will run from time to time.

Touching Base with Nut N Honey, Week Three

Aram may be late jumping (Aram and jumping aren't usually found in the same sentence) on the Azusa bandwagon but he isn't the only one. It is hard to estimate crowds in the Citrus College stands but, it appeared there were a couple of thousand fans on hand for the win over Ontario Christian. It looked like a couple of hundred on the other side of the field and half of those were rival Montview League coaches looking nervous. (To continue, click thread)

Above: Rowland's Michael Ball leads No. 1 ranked Raideres.

Inland Division
1. Vista Murrieta (2-0), 2. Corona Centennial (2-0), 3. Upland (3-0), 4. Norco (2-0), 5. Redlands East Valley (2-0), 6. Chino Hills (2-1), 7. Rancho Cucamonga (3-0), 8. Charter Oak (2-1), 9. Redlands (2-0-1), 10. Glendora (3-0). Others: Roosevelt, Ayala, Damien, Chaparral.
Robledo's thoughts: Glendora should be ranked ahead of Charter Oak simply because of its head-to-head win and overall body of work, which is more impressive. Chino Hills is where it should be after last week's win while Ayala and Damien are creeping up.

Mid-Valley Division
1. Arroyo (3-0), 2. Whittier Christian (3-0), 3. Azusa (2-0), 4. Monrovia (1-1), 5. San Marino (2-0), 6. Covina (3-0), 7. San Dimas (1-2), 8. Village Christian (2-1), 9. Pomona (3-0), 10. La Puente (2-0). Others: Sierra Vista.
Robledo's Thoughts: San Dimas is paying the price for scheduling up, and could lose again to Monrovia this week. Covina should be ranked higher simply based on its win over West Covina, which by far is the biggest nonleague win of any teams in the Mid-Valley. Arroyo is No. 1 for now, but no Steven Rivera (ankle sprain) against Hart could cost them this week. One thing is certain, by the end of the year, Azusa will be No. 1. So, do schedules make a difference? Is is smart to schedule up? Ask 0-3 Baldwin Park, nowhere to be found.

Southeast Division
1. Rowland (3-0), 2. West Covina (2-1), 3. Burbank (2-1), 4. Bonita (3-0), 5. Santa Fe (1-1), 6. La Mirada (1-2), 7. Norwalk (1-2), 8. La Serna (2-1), 9. Muir (1-2), 10. Diamond Bar (3-0). Others: Diamond Ranch (0-3).
Robledo's thoughts: The pollsters got it right, Rowland should be No. 1 based on how they're crushing opponents with West Covina No. 2 after back-to-back impressive wins. Bonita should probably be No. 3 instead of Burbank, other than that, hard to argue with it.

Pac-5 Division
1. Mission Viejo (3-0), 2. Servite (3-0), 3. Lakewood (3-0), 4. Los Alamitos (3-0), 5. Edison (3-0), 6. Bishop Amat (3-0), 7. Long Beach Poly (2-1), 8. Newport Harbor (2-0), 9. San Clemente (4-0), 10. Alemany (3-0).
Robledo's thoughts: A more than fair ranking for Bishop Amat, who on paper should continue to win its next three nonleague games against Damien, Cathedral and Venice before taking on the Serra. If they get to 6-0, they could conceivably be ranked as high as four or five once league starts.

Steve Ramirez and I will go head-to-head in Tribskin Pick'em throughout the season.
Last Week: Robledo (20-5); Ramirez (18-7).
Season: Robledo (53-14); Ramirez (48-19).

Last week: Steve and I both missed West Covina over South Hills, La Puente over Northview, South El Monte over Workman and Cantwell Sacred Heart over Baldwin Park. I edged Steve by a couple games taking Charter Oak over Esperanza, Wilson over Los Altos and Bosco Tech over Gladstone. Steve got me taking Ontario over Nogales. We both called Chino Hills' win over Tesoro and Glendora's win at Canyon. Not a bad week at all.

This week: After going back-and-forth I'm taking Glendora over West Covina. If Covina QB Billy Livingston and the Colts' spread offense could have some success against the Bulldogs, I'm banking that Chad Jeffries and Co., can do the same. As impressive as West Covina was last week against South Hills, its secondary was never tested. Damien may be in a good spot to upset Bishop Amat, and I learned later that Wallace Gonzalez isn't back yet, he returns next week against Cathedral. A very intriguing game is Rowland at Claremont. I'm going with Michael Ball, who along with Charter Oak's Travis Santiago and Jeffries are the three QBs having the best season's through week three. Knights QB Steven Rivera was injured in last week's win and won't play against Hart, which all but ends the Knights' chance of winning. And oh yes, Monrovia at San Dimas. This doesn't have the same luster now that the Cats and Saints have scheduled up and paid the price for it, the Wildcats losing to Glendora, and the Saints losing to Bonita and Rancho Cucamonga. The Cats are gonna be hungry, and this is the absolute don't-wanna-lose game on their schedule. Take the Cats, guaranteed.

This weeks games and predictions
Thursday
Azusa vs. Gabrielino at Citrus College, 7 p.m., -- Robledo (Azusa): Ramirez (Azusa)
Diamond Ranch at Chaffey, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (DRanch); Ramirez (Diamond Ranch)
Gladstone vs. El Monte at San Dimas, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (El Monte); Ramirez (El Monte)
Friday
Ayala at Los Altos, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Ayala); Ramiez (Ayala)
Bonita at Baldwin Park, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Bonita); Ramirez (Bonita)
Brea Olinda at Diamond Bar, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (DBar); Ramirez (DBar)
Charter Oak vs. Rancho Cucamonga at Los Osos 7 p.m. - Robledo (Ch. Oak); Ramirez (Ch. Oak)
Covina at Walnut, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Covina); Ramirez (Covina)
Damien at Bishop Amat, 7:30pm -- Robledo (Bishop Amat); Ramirez (Bishop Amat)
Duarte at Littlerock, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Littlerock); Ramirez (Littlerock)
Garey at Ganesha, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Ganesha); Ramirez (Ganesha)
Glendora vs. West Covina at Citrus College, 7 p.m - Robledo (Glendora); Ramirez (West Covina)
Hart at Arroyo, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Hart); Ramirez (Hart)
Hoover at Mountain View, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (MView); Ramirez (MView)
La Puente at Wilson, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Wilson); Ramirez (Wilson)
Monrovia at San Dimas, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Monrovia); Ramirez (San Dimas)
Northview vs. Chino at Covina District, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Chino); Ramirez (Northview)
Pomona at Chino Hills, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Ch. Hills); Ramirez (Ch. Hills)
Rosemead at San Marino, 7 p.m. - Robledo (SMarino); Ramirez (San Marino)
Rowland at Claremont, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Rowland); Ramirez (Rowland)
Sierra Vista at Keppel, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (SVista); Ramirez (SVista)
South El Monte at Nogales, 7 p.m. - Robledo (SEMonte); Ramirez (SEMonte)
South Hills at Tesoro. 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Tesoro); Ramirez (Tesoro)
Workman at Montclair, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Montclair); Ramirez (Workman)

Mascots at Ohio University and Ohio State took their regional rivalry a bit too far over the weekend.
Here's a video showing OU's Bobcat tackling OSU's Brutus as the Buckeyes take the field prior to the team's nonconference game on Saturday.
Jason Corriher, Ohio University athletic director for media relations, apologized for the incident, and the student who was dressed in the Bobcat costume has been banned from any further affiliation with Ohio athletics.

I have some very sad news to report: Jesse Cruz, a two-timo time state qualifier while wrestling for Northview High School, died on Saturday while wrestling for Rio Hondo College in a tournament at Mt. SAC. He was only 20. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Athlete of the week nominations and looking ahead: Those curious about Azusa have their chance on Thursday, our Flip Video's will certainly be there. Game of the week has to be West Covina and Glendora, hottest teams at the moment meeting at Citrus. The most intriguing is Damien at Bishop Amat, after a 2-0 start and 35-0 win over Chaffey, could you imagine Gano's signature victory coming at Kiefer?

LA Times rankings up, Bishop Amat No. 14, Glendora checks in at No. 25

This weeks schedule
Thursday
Azusa vs. Gabrielino at Citrus College, 7:00pm
Diamond Ranch at Chaffey, 7:00pm
Gladstone vs. El Monte at San Dimas, 7:00pm
Friday
Ayala at Los Altos, 7:00pm
Bonita at Baldwin Park, 7:00pm
Brea Olinda at Diamond Bar, 7:00pm
Charter Oak vs. Rancho Cucamonga at Los Osos, 7:00pm
Covina at Walnut, 7:00pm
Damien at Bishop Amat, 7:30pm
Duarte at Littlerock, 7:00pm
Garey at Ganesha, 7:00pm
Glendora vs. West Covina at Citrus College, 7:00pm
Hart at Arroyo, 7:00pm
Hoover at Mountain View, 7:00pm
La Puente at Wilson, 7:00pm
Monrovia at San Dimas, 7:00pm
Northview vs. Chino at Covina District, 7:00pm
Pomona at Chino Hills, 7:00pm
Rosemead at San Marino, 7:00pm
Rowland at Claremont, 7:00pm
Sierra Vista at Keppel, 7:00pm
South El Monte at Nogales, 7:00pm
South Hills at Tesoro, 7:00pm
Workman at Montclair, 7:00pm

Highlights and video interviews from Rowland-Rosemead, which really means, check out Raiders QB Michael Ball..

West Covina-South Hills raw highlights...

For quarter-by-quarter updates of tonight's games, click thread.

Friday's Results
Bishop Amat 34, Muir 14 -- Zach Shay scores three touchdowns and finishes with 107 yards. Jalen Moore rushes for 128 yards and a TD and Rio Ruiz throws for 145 yards and two touchdowns. Nice numbers for sure, but you get the feeling the offense hasn't opened it up and can do so much more. Still, nice to be 3-0.
Rowland 48, Rosemead 14 -- For the second straight week, the Raiders jump to a 28-0 lead and score the first two times they touch the ball. What have we got here?
Wilson 20, Los Altos 7 -- I don't want to pat myself on the back and say I called it. But I called it.
Glendora 28, Canyon 7 -- This sets up an interesting Friday night at Citrus next week when West Covina comes to town.
Rancho Cucamonga 21, San Dimas 10 -- The final score doesn't look that bad really. Should be a good learning experience heading to the Monrovia showdown next week.
Claremont 38, Walnut 13 -- The Wolfpack finally clicked on all cylinders. Why does it seem like teams always peak against the Mustangs.
Charter Oak 35, Esperanza 20 -- I'm starting to get excited about Travis Santiago. He threw five touchdowns and of course, Big Lou proclaimed him the best QB in the Valley. Hard to argue with him after Santiago's first three weeks.
Damien 35, Chaffey 0 -- Take note Amat fans, the Spartans are 2-0 and though it was Chaffey, not many expected a blowout like this.
Diamond Bar 24, Don Lugo 17 -- The fact they're out of the Sierra League has renewed the optimism and passion of the people in purple.
Covina 31, El Monte 0 -- You have to put the Colts right there with the tops in the Mid-Valley. Going by their 3-0 record and whom they have beaten (West Covina), does anyone deserve the Mid-Valley's top-ranking more than they do?
Bosco Tech 35, Gladstone 28 -- Gladiators hang tough for a while, fall just a touchdown short.
Sierra Vista 10, Mountain View 7 -- Don't look now, but the Dons are 2-0.
La Puente 34, Northview 14 -- If there is an early-season contender to topple Azusa in the Montview, the Warriors are it.
South El Monte 28, Workman 7 -- The South scores on three INT returns. The win isn't shocking, but the lopsided score is.
Arroyo 12, Montebello 8 -- Knights fell behind 8-0 then rallied back. They better not fall behind next week against Hart
Cantwell-Sacred Heart 35, Baldwin Park 17 -- The Braves better hope they finish at least second in the VVL because advancing to the playoffs as an at-large is tough after starting 0-3.
Bonita 13, Santa Fe 12 -- Even missing key players the Bearcats still go to 3-0, joining West Covina, Rowland and yes, Diamond Bar as early Hacienda favorites.
Ayala 61, Alta Loma 26 -- The Bulldogs might not be playing the toughest competition yet, but they sure are routing the teams in front of them.
Chino Hills 14, Tesoro 13 -- What a huge win for the Huskies after losing last week. This is how you get your Mojo back.
Pomona 48, Ganesha 7 -- When was the last time Pomona started 3-0?
L.A. Marshall 58, Bassett 20 -- The Olympians just gave up way too many points to have a chance.
Nogales vs. Ontario at Montclair .. Not available at sleep time.

I've had the privilege of covering some pretty amazing teams from around these parts. I was on the field when Los Altos won CIF in 2003. I was on the field when South Hills won CIF in 2005. They were great moments to be a sports writer, who happened to jump on the bandwagon at the right time. But you know what I enjoy even more than that? Getting on the bandwagon of a school that's not tasted success in almost forever. And that's where I am today.

CIF-Southern Section 2010-12 playoff groupings for all sports

Correspondent John Honell is a longtime contributor to the Tribune, and well-known throughout the San Gabriel Valley. He knows the area's history, coaches, and always seems to have insider information. He will share some of it with his "Touching Base" pieces that will run from time to time.

My thoughts on the first two weeks of prep football ...

What is zero week? Zero times anything is still zero. Does that mean the first games of the year don't count? If someone tells me they live in the third house from the corner, do I count zero, one, two, three? Com'n CIF, just say it. We have 11 weeks of football with some teams getting a bye week. More hype sets up a bigger payday for the CIF. (moving for athletic reasons?) - to continue click thread

Thursday's Results
West Covina 42, South Hills 27 -- Would someone send the Covina tape, I'm having a hard time comprehending how they pulled it off after watching West Covina dismantle South Hills every way imaginable. You weren't thinking what happened to South Hills, you were more in awe of the Bulldogs' backfiled and 0-Line. It was the most points scored on South Hills this decade. If this team doesn't turn the ball over, they won't get beat the rest of the way, and that includes Glendora next. Last week it was RB Chris Soloman, this week it was B.J. Lee (125 yards, 3 TDs), and next week it could be someone else. They're that deep, and were better than I thought on the D-Line. What you don't know is how they will handle a quarterback like Glendora's Chad Jeffries. But questions about everything else were answered tonight, a big thumbs up.
Azusa 31, Ontario Christian 10 -- Fine I'll say it: The Aztecs can compete with anyone in the Mid-Valley Division. There is not a game they won't have a chance to win, so yes, a Mid-Valley title is possible. Especially with QB Jose "The Real Deal" Nunez, who scored four touchdowns and threw for 207 yards.
Garey 49, Duarte 0 -- It doesn't show on the scoreboard, but the Falcons go down fighting every week.

Inland Insider Tom Kiss wraps it up with West Covina coach Mike Maggiore, RB B.J. Lee and South Hills coach Steve Bogan.

"Football has always been a hobby and a love. When I got to Bishop, I knew I had to be part of the tradition. I knew I was going to play all four years of football and baseball. So far, it's going as me and my dad planned." -- Bishop Amat QB Rio Ruiz

With the vacation days gone lets get back to business. For the third straight week Mike "The Cousin" Robledo will do Coveritlive from the Bishop Amat-Muir game, another no-brainer whenever you pit two traditional East-West Valley powers. I forget the year, but I can still remember my pop running out of the stands about 15 years ago with his Muir '58 alumni shirt when the Mustangs beat Amat on a last second Hail Mary at Kiefer. That won't happen this year, not even close, but I'm sure the family will be there again. However, would you be surprised if Muir hung with Amat? Not at all, this is a team over the years that tends to play to its level of competition and has the athletes to compete with the big boys. If you don't believe me, ask Charter Oak, who needed a last-second goal line stand to beat Muir in the first-round of the playoffs last year, nearly knocking the Chargers' back-to-back championship bid out before they had a chance to warm up.

The Scouting Guru has been all over the San Gabriel Valley and beyond, and like always, he's offered to share his thoughts, free of charge. Don't hate, enjoy it for what it's worth, which is one man's opinion on the talent in the San Gabriel Valley.

Thursday night at Covina District Field, West Covina and South Hills will lock horns in one of the longest running rivalries in the San Gabriel Valley. And for many football, there are football games and then there is West Covina vs. South Hills. Now some fans might argue that the Smudge Pot is bigger, or that the Charter Oak vs. Glendora game is very important for the talent on the field, and others might argue that Covina vs. Northview deserves to be used in the same breathe. And their could be some validity to it. But, as far as I am concerned, West Covina vs. South Hills ranks right at the top of the list. (To continue, click thread).

"That's always a goal because we've been 9-1 the past two seasons. It would be great to be undefeated before the playoffs. I'm sure it's in the back of the kids' heads. But we have to take it one game at a time." -- Azusa coach Joe Scherf

By Aram Tolegian
Among other great things to come out of Azusa's stunning 48-0 rout of Bell Gardens was it cleared the way for the Aztecs to finish the regular season with a 10-0 record. If it sounds foolish to talk about such a feat just one game into the season, it may not be considering Azusa's loss to Bell Gardens last season was the only thing that prevented the Aztecs from finishing 10-0.

By Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer
History says nobody should be too worried about the Diamond Ranch High School football team's 0-2 start. After all, the Panthers are notorious for slow starts that empty the bandwagon only to see it swell up again with a strong run in November. But things feel a tad different this year after Diamond Ranch was blown out by Santa Margarita 56-0 in Week 0, then saw what most consider to be a very average Damien team go on a 19-0 run in the fourth quarter to post a 26-19 win last Friday.

By Brian Baiotto, Correspondent
The high school sports season has just started, but Bonita already has two significant victories over crosstown rival San Dimas. The Bearcats dominated the CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division champion Saints, 41-20, in the first week of football season, and the Bonita girls volleyball team defeated visiting San Dimas 25-10, 25-10, 25-27, 25-8 in front of a raucous crowd Tuesday.

Here is this week's football Top 10. Fred will update the complete rankings when he gets back on Wednesday.

TOP 10
1. Bishop Amat (2-0) -- Survived scare vs. Dominguez
2. Glendora (2-0) -- Beat another CIF finalist
3. Charter Oak (1-1) -- Returned to form
4. Chino Hills (1-1) -- Took a step back
5. South Hills (1-0) -- Impressive win in opener
6. Rowland (2-0) -- Ball has Raiders rolling
7. Bonita (2-0) -- Doing fine without Pendleton
8. Ayala (2-0) -- Better than some thought
9. Claremont (1-1) -- Drops after loss to Bonita
10. Azusa (1-0) -- Can they run the table?

Here is this week's volleyball top 10, which St. Lucy's showed its the top team after taking down previous No. 2 Los Altos on Monday:

VOLLEYBALL
TOP 10
1. St. Lucy's (1-1) -- Statement win over Los Altos
2. Bonita(0-0) -- Hopes to test No. 1
3. Los Altos (1-1) -- Out of sync vs. St. Lucy's
4. San Dimas (0-0) -- Faced Bonita on Tuesday
5. Chino Hills (2-0) -- Doubled up on Diamond duo
6. South Hills (0-1) -- Swept by St. Joseph's
7. Glendora (1-0) -- Looked good in opener
8. Walnut (2-4) -- Mixed reviews in week one
9. Bishop Amat (0-0) -- First test comes next week
10. La Puente (1-0) -- Gets Azusa in opener

St. Lucy's was all smiles after sweeping Los Altos Monday in a nonleague match featuring the top two teams in the area.

St. Lucy's Priory was without one of its top players, and perhaps its most-important piece Monday night.
No problem.
Senior Kailey Faust, substituting for All-CIF-Southern Section setter Jackie Macy, had 28 assists and the host Regents took down Los Altos, 25-17, 25-15, 25-16, in nonleague girls volleyball match that featured the areas top two teams.
St. Lucy's, also getting 10 kills from senior outside hitter Alissa Young and six from junior opposite Jasmine Warmington, improved to 1-1 after opening the season with with a four-game loss to highly-regarded Los Osos last week.
Los Altos, which won the school's first CIF-SS divisional title last season and began the year ranked No. 1 in Division 2-A and No. 2 in the area, slipped to 1-1.

St. Lucy's coach Sean Douglas: I think we are extremely lucky to have a setter like Kailey. She works hard and sometimes its difficult when you are playing behind an All-CIF setter like Macy, but today she stepped in and you saw the results. We're lucky A lot of teams if they lost their No. 1 setter, would be in trouble. We played great today."

Los Altos coach Jaime Ornelas: "They are a very good team and this wasn't one of our better days. Like I said before, we have a few veterans and a few players who have never played varsity volleyball.
"We're still finding our niche. It was one of those days. It was a good match to give us a reality check."

Other Scores
Nonleague
Baldwin Park def. Bassett 25-7, 25-15, 25-6
Northview def. Charter Oak 25-12, 14-25, 25-23, 25-19
Nogales def. Pioneer 12-25, 25-21, 27-25, 21-25, 15-13.
Diamond Bar def. Rancho Cucamonga 25-15, 26-28, 17-25, 27-25, 16-14.

With Freddie gone, I dragged veteran Tribune sports writer Steve Ramirez in to drill about this week's big games. Here's our takes on West Covina vs. South Hills at CDF on Thursday.

Fred Robledo and I will go head-to-head throughout the season.
Last Week: Robledo (19-6); Ramirez (19-6).
Season: Robledo (33-9); Ramirez (30-12).

Last week: Fred and i both went 19-6, so he still leads by three after two weeks of the season. I was able to outguess him on Ayala's win over Colony and Azusa's romp over Bell Gardens. But he got me back by picking Diamond Bar over Wilson and Walnut over Troy. We have some really good matchups this week, starting with the Battle of Cameron between South Hills and West Covina, which takes center stage on Thursday night. The other intriguing games feature Bishop Amat playing host to Muir, a traditional matchup that returns this season, and Rosemead at Rowland, which should be a tight game.

Thursday's Games
West Covina vs. South Hills at CDF, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (South Hills); Ramirez (South Hills)
Ontario Christian vs. Azusa at Citrus College, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Azusa); Ramirez (Azusa)
Duarte vs. Garey at Ganesha, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Garey); Ramirez (Garey)
Friday's Games
Muir at Bishop Amat, 7:30 p.m. -- Robledo (Bishop Amat); Ramirez (Bishop Amat)
Rosemead at Rowland, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Rowland); Ramirez (Rowland)
Wilson at Los Altos, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Wilson); Ramirez (Los Altos)
Glendora vs. Canyon at El Modena HS, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Glendora); Ramirez (Glendora)
Rancho Cucamonga at San Dimas, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (RC); Ramirez (RC)
Walnut at Claremont, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Claremont); Ramirez (Claremont)
Esperanza at Charter Oak, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Ch. Oak); Ramirez (Esperanza)
Chaffey at Damien, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Damien); Ramirez (Damien)
Don Lugo at Diamond Bar, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Dia. Bar); Ramirez (Dia. Bar)
El Monte vs. Covina at CDF, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Covina); Ramirez (Covina)
Gladstone vs. Bosco Tech at Citrus College, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (B. Tech); Ramirez (Gladstone)
Mountain View at Sierra Vista, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Sierra Vista); Ramirez (Sierra Vista)
Northview at La Puente, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Northview); Ramirez (Northview)
Workman at South El Monte, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Workman); Ramirez (Workman)
Arroyo at Montebello, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Arroyo); Ramirez (Arroyo)
Baldwin Park at Cantwell-Sacred Heart, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (B.Park); Ramirez (B. Park)
Bonita vs. Santa Fe at Pioneer, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Bonita); Ramirez (Bonita)
Alta Loma at Ayala, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Ayala); Ramirez (Ayala)
Nogales vs. Ontario at Montclair, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Nogales); Ramirez (Ontario)
Pomona at Ganesha, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Pomona); Ramirez (Pomona)
Tesoro at Chino Hills, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Chino Hills); Ramirez (Chino Hills)
Saturday's Game
Diamond Ranch vs. Elsinore at Ganesha, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Elsinore); Ramirez (Elsinore)

The anyone and anything thread you want to talk about. We also use this thread each week for your nominations on boys and girls athlete of the week, and a look forward to next week's schedule, where we have a pair of back-to-back thrillers, South Hills-West Covina on Thursday, Muir at Bishop Amat on Friday.

Thursday, September 16
Duarte vs. Garey at Ganesha, 7:00pm
Ontario Christian vs. Azusa at Citrus College, 7:00pm
West Covina vs. South Hills at Covina District Stadium, 7:00pm
Friday, September 17
Alta Loma at Ayala, 7:00pm
Arroyo at Montebello, 7:00pm
Baldwin Park at Cantwell-Sacred Heart, 7:00pm
Bonita vs. Santa Fe at Pioneer, 7:00pm
Don Lugo at Diamond Bar, 7:00pm
El Monte vs. Covina at Covina District Stadium, 7:00pm
Esperanza at Charter Oak, 7:00pm
Gladstone vs. Bosco Tech at Citrus College, 7:00pm
Glendora vs. Canyon at El Modena, 7:00pm
Mountain View at Sierra Vista, 7:00pm
Muir at Bishop Amat, 7:30pm
Nogales vs. Ontario at Montclair, 7:00pm
Northview at La Puente, 7:00pm
Pomona at Ganesha, 7:00pm
Rancho Cucamonga at San Dimas, 7:00pm
Rosemead at Rowland, 7:00pm
Walnut at Claremont, 7:00pm
Wilson at Los Altos, 7:00pm
Workman at South El Monte, 7:00pm
L.A. Marshall at Bassett, 7:00pm

Friday's Results
San Dimas 55, South El Monte 0 -- Those who thought the Saints would struggle after last week's loss to Bonita better think again.
South Hills 38, Baldwin Park 17 -- Huskies rush for 373 yards and Jordan Gutierrez rushes for 186 yards as they pull away in second half.
Walnut 16, Troy 10 -- Mustangs get a nice victory over an O.C. school.
Charter Oak 34, Gardena 7 -- You knew the Chargers would bounce back convincingly didn't you?
West Covina 35, Venice 21 -- After a mind-boggling loss to Covina, the Bulldogs come back with a mind-boggling win over Venice. Now, that's how you bounce back from a tough loss.
Arroyo 42, Temple City 6 -- These are the Knights I expected all along, but nobody expected this kind of blowout.
Azusa 48, Bell Gardens 0 -- Can't believe I just typed it, maybe the Aztecs are the Mid-Valley Division favorites. They beat the same team that put a whipping on them last year.
Bishop Amat 21, Dominguez 15 -- The Dons jumped out to a 7-0 lead on an INT return, then it was all Lancers, slowly and methodically winning again. What will the critics say now?
Rowland 41, California 9 -- Raiders picked up where they left off in the second half against Baldwin Park, racing to a 41-0 halftime lead. And man, Cal is usually legit.
Santiago 24, Chino Hills 12 -- The Trib's No. 2 takes a big hit after looking so good last week.
Bonita 42, Claremont 20 -- These aren't last year's Bearcats at all. I'm starting to think they're the early Hacienda League favorites.
Diamond Bar 48, Wilson 27 -- The Wildcats had an early lead, then the Brahmas came rolling back.
Damien 26, Diamond Ranch 19 -- A big win for Gano and the boys, the schedule only gets tougher after this. What else is new at the Ranch? They start slow, so what, they will see you in December.
Blair 23, Duarte 0 -- Not the way the Falcons wanted to start after getting shutout so much last season.
Garey 42, Nogales 28 -- Nobles scoring points, but giving up way too many.
Sierra Vista 35, Hoover 27 -- The Dons wanted to start off with a win in the worst way and got it.
Workman 34, Keppel 0 -- The Scott Morrison era at Workman off and running.
Glendora 21, Monrovia 7 -- Tied 7-7 at half, Glendora wore the Cats down in the second half to go to 2-0. Give Monrovia credit though, they hung tough.
Rosemead 17, Montebello 13 -- Panthers hang on by their chinny, chin-chin.
Mountain View 19, Bassett 13, OT -- Vikings get a huge win, pulling it out in OT.
Bellflower 20, Los Altos 18 -- Conquerors lose another tough one.

South Hills coach Steve Bogan following victory...

Chino Hills Tom catches up with Chino Hills coach Derek Bub after Friday's loss.

Highlights of Monrovia-Glendora with interviews with Tartans coach Mark Pasquarella and Wildcats coach Ryan Maddox

Friday night quarter-by-quarter updates

Thursday's results and GAME STORIES
Covina 33, Gladstone 0: - If you expected a letdown after WestCo, you got the wrong team, Colts roll up 400 yards total offense and QB Billy Livingston throws for 189 yards and a TD. But the real story here is Colts soph RB Gevontray Ainsworth, he's going to be a special one for sure.
Ayala 25, Colony 0: -- Chino Hills, Claremont, South Hills, Charter Oak and now Ayala. Now if Damien does a number on Diamond Ranch, you're talking six deep in the Sierra..
Pomona 13, Montclair 0: -- RB Demetrius Counts was too good, rushing for 206 yards as Red Devils go to 2-0.
La Puente 35, El Monte 27: - Lions led at half and were up 27-21 in fourth when Warriors rallied.
La Habra 23, La Mirada 17: -- In the battle for No. 1 in Whittier, La Habra survives scare of starting 0-2
Coveritlive: To replay Covina-South El Monte chat, click thread.

Another great postgame Interview from Chino Hills Tom, who was watched Ayala's impressive 25-0 win over Colony. Check it out.

By Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer
You can add South Hills High School football coach Steve Bogan to the list of those who were impressed by Baldwin Park's showing against Rowland last week. Baldwin Park jumped to a 16-0 lead in the first half against the Raiders before falling apart in the second half and losing 35-29. It was a performance good enough to put a scare into Bogan, whose Huskies visit Baldwin Park on Friday night in their season opener. (To continue, click thread).

Upcoming: Steve Ramirez is covering the first huge volleyball game of the season on Monday, September 13, Los Altos at St. Lucy's, 5:30 p.m.. We will have our cameras there, make sure the action is worth it.

By Steve Ramirez
Los Altos and Bonita high schools made history last season. St. Lucy's Priory and South Hills continued with their winning traditions. The powers of the Valley, however, know that means very little for the 2010 girls volleyball season, which begins today. The key for success will be who can best wipe the slate clean. "That was yesterday," said second-year Los Altos coach Jaime Ornelas of last season's run to the Conquerors' first CIF-Southern Section title, when they beat rival Bonita for the Division 3-AA championship. "We are done celebrating. We are focused on this year."

Tribune Top Ten
No. 1 St. Lucy's (27-5)
Armed with a solid nucleus of returners, the Regents are aiming to make another run at a CIF-SS title after advancing to the 2-AA quarterfinals the past two years.
The loaded St. Lucy's lineup features all-area outside hitter Deanna Dalton, who had 221 kills and 14 blocks last season; setter Jackie Macy, who was All-CIF-SS Division 2; hitters Megan Callen and Alyssa Young; and opposite Jasmine Warmington. "I think we are going to have a really strong season," said St. Lucy's coach Sean Douglas, whose Regents begin the season ranked No. 3 in 2-AA. "We're a year older, but we're pretty loaded. The girls are pretty focused. We have big aspirations, but we also look at it one game at a time."

No. 2 Los Altos (30-9)
The Conquerors, who begin the season ranked No. 1 in 2-A, made history last season, and have all the parts in place for a repeat performance. It starts in the hitting zone, where Los Altos is expected to feature two of the better attackers in the area in seniors Jazmen Russell at outside hitter and Amanda Brown at middle blocker. The duo combined for nearly 500 kills last season. Russell was first-team All- CIF-SS Division 3 and all-area. Los Altos also will feature setter Krystal Castellanos and libero Jennifer Filatoff. "We've challenged ourselves to work on this season and not worry about last year," Ornelas said. "We realize this year offers new challenges." Los Altos will battle Bonita in the new Hacienda League.

No. 3 Bonita (18-8)
The Bearcats also made history last season, just not in the way it was expecting to after advancing to the program's first CIF-SS final before dropping the 3-AA title to Los Altos. Area Player of the Year Allie LaPierre is gone, but the Bearcats look forceful with CIF-SS Division 3 co- Player of the Year Ashley Maxfeldt at setter, outside hitter Katie Kirby, middle blocker Victoria Dennis and opposite Danielle Lines. "I have high expectations every year for my athletes, and believe this group of girls has the talent and the drive to make it to the CIF- SS finals again," Bonita coach Adriana Contreras said. "They practice hard every day and are extremely motivated to compete."

No. 4 South Hills (21-8)
Three-time first-team all-area player Melinda Gomez is gone, but the cupboard isn't bare in West Covina. The Huskies will challenge in the Sierra League with Jackie Valle- Acosta, Marisa Gomez (Melinda's younger sister) and setter Breanne Hunter. "We look pretty good," South Hills coach Charm Doyle said. "We had a good summer, so I'm pretty optimistic. I like the potential of this team."

No. 5 Walnut (12-6)
The Mustangs, who begin the season ranked No. 4 in Division 2-A, are led by senior setter Leau Quiocho, who had 633 assists last year.

No. 6 San Dimas (21-5)
The Saints have ruled the Valle Vista League the past two seasons, and that's expected to continue with the return of league co-MVP Nicole Ellis. The senior hitter had 259 kills last season. San Dimas' lineup also features all-league players Kaileen Mejia at middle hitter and Courtney Hine at setter.

No. 7 Glendora (11-6)
The Tartans have been a playoff team the past few seasons, but will be tested in their move to the Baseline League.

No. 8 Bishop Amat (12-9)
The Lancers are led by senior outside hitter Chelsey Martinez and senior opposite Yesenia Ibrahim.

No. 9 La Puente (12-5)
The Warriors, ranked No. 6 in Division 4-A, are led by senior outside hitter Rocio Armendariz, who was the Montview League MVP, and sophomore outside hitter Elisa Valenzuela, who was first-team all- league.

No. 10 Ganesha (22-6)
The Giants, led by Claudia Mosqueda and Maria Muro, will challenge in the Montview League.

Santa Margarita football coach Harry Welch has prostate cancer and will undergo surgery for it during the upcoming football season. Welch, 65, said his doctor, after initial exams, suggested a biopsy was needed and the biopsy revealed the cancer. A meeting with a specialist Tuesday will inform Welch of more details on the surgery and post-surgery treatment.

The Orange County Register's Steve Fryer reported that CIF-SS spokesperson Thom Simmons told him that Crespi was the Southern Section leader in terms of football transfer requests. Simmons said the section received paperwork on 21 football transfers requests from Crespi. And you thought we had transfer issues out here. What I'm curious to know is how many of them were granted.

Mid-Valley Division
1. Monrovia (0-0), 2. Schurr (0-0), 3. Arroyo (1-0), 4. Whittier Christian (1-0), 5. San Dimas (0-1), 6. Azusa (0-0), 7. Village Christian (1-0), 8. Cerritos Valley Christian (0-1), 9. Rosemead (0-0), 10. San Marino. Others -- Bell Gardens (0-0), Covina (1-0)
Robledo's Thoughts: My goodness how is Covina not ranked after arguably the biggest win over an upper-divisional foe in zero week? In fact, West Covina is still No. 9 in the Southeast after the loss, which tells you how highly voters think of West Covina. So why wasn't Covina rewarded? Why schedule up if you're not going to be rewarded while San Dimas stays at No. 5 after a convincing loss to Bonita.

Southeast Division
1. Burbank (1-0), 2. Santa Fe (0-0), 3. Muir (1-0), 4. La Mirada (0-1), 5. Norwalk (0-1), 6. La Serna (1-0), 7. Rowland (1-0), 8. Diamond Ranch (0-1), 9. West Covina (0-1), 10. California (0-0). Others: Mayfair (0-1), El Rancho (1-0), Bonita (1-0).
Robledo's thoughts: Are you as surprised as I am that Bonita beats the Mid-Valley Division defending champion while West Covina falls to Covina and yet, the Bulldogs are still ranked ahead of the Bearcats? The bottom line, just because Charter Oak and South Hills are out of the division does not mean this is a cakewalk for the rest the locals in the Southeast. Look at the board, the highest ranked area team is Rowland at No. 7.

Inland Division
1. Chaparral (0-0), 2. Vista Murrieta (0-0), 3. Corona Centennial (0-0), 4. Chino Hills (1-0), 5. Upland (1-0), 6. Norco (0-0), 7. Redlands East Valley (0-0), 8. Redlands (1-0), 9. Rancho Cucamonga (1-0), 10. Charter Oak (0-1). Others: South Hills (0-0), Los Osos (1-0), Glendora (1-0).
Robledo's thoughts: Are you sensing a trend here. Do these head-to-head games mean anything? Glendora goes from not mentioned to "others" but is still not ranked after beating Charter Oak, who is No. 10, ahead of Glendora.

Pac-5 Division
1. 1. Mission Viejo (1-0), 2. Servite (1-0), 3. Long Beach Poly (1-0), 4. Lakewood (1-0), 5. Los Alamitos (1-0), 6. Edison (1-0), 7. Bishop Amat (1-0), 8. Newport Harbor (0-0), 9. San Clemente (2-0), 10. Mater Dei (0-1). Others: Orange Lutheran (1-0), Crespi (0-1), Dan Hills (1-0), Loyola (1-0), St. John Bosco (1-0), Alemany (1-0), Compton (1-0), Santa Margarita (1-0).
Robledo's thoughts: The pollsters kept Amat in a good spot after its 23-0 win over Garfield. They can solidify it with a win over Dominguez, ranked No. 2 in the Western Division after last week's 14-11 win over Crespi. A loss and Amat likely tumbles off the board.

Steve Ramirez's girls volleyball top ten preview comes out on Thursday. Until then, here is a glimpse at the first CIF-Southern Section polls. I only posted divisions that our area teams compete in.

Division 2-A
1. Los Altos, 2. Bonita, 3. Troy, 4. Walnut, 5. Downey, 6. La Quinta, 7. Warren, 8. Burroughs Burbank, 9. Village Christian, 10. Arcadia. Others: Palm Desert, Oxnard, LA Baptist.
Division 2-AA
1. Elsinore, 2. La Canada, 3. St. Lucy's, 4. Bishop Montgomery, 5. La Reina, 6. South Torrance, 7. South Hills, 8. Oaks Christian, 9. Riverside Poly, 10. Corona Santiago, Others: St. Joseph, Claremont, Oak Park, Chino Hills.
Division 3-A
1. Campbell Hall, 2. Brentwood, 3. Gabrielino, 4. San Dimas, 5. San Gabriel, 6. Windward, 7. Calvary Murrieta, 8. Arrowhead Christian, 9. La Serna, 10. Western.
Division 4-A
1. Hemet, 2. Connely, 3. Bell-Jeff, 4. Upland Christian, 5. Carpinteria, 6. La Puente, 7. Fairmont Prep, 8. Pacifica Christian, 9. Frazier Mountain, 10. Gladstone.

With all sports in action this week, which include girls volleyball, cross country, girls golf, girls tennis and girls water polo, there are two ways to get results/box scores in the Tribune sports section. Either the coach or a person the coach assigns should call our sports desk after 5 p.m., each night to report scores. Call 626-962-8811 and use extention 2233 or 2242 . If you would like to email boxscores, which we strongly encourage, email to scores@sgvn.com, and leave a contact number in case we have any questions. If you're not sure what to include in your boxscore, feel free to call the sports desk and ask.

"We know what went wrong. We had seven offensive possessions. We scored on three, turned it over on three and were stopped on fourth down on the other. We beat them up on the stat sheet, but not on the scoreboard. That usually indicates what turnovers can do for you." -- Charter Oak coach Lou Farrar after 28-21 loss to Glendora.

"I live next door to the Angels' third- base coach, and I was asking him if he experienced anything similar in the season after they won the World Series in 2002. He said to put away the rings. That was their biggest mistake, they didn't do that." -- San Dimas coach Bill Zernickow after 41-20 loss to Bonita.


Story: It's back to the drawing board this week for the only two local teams to win CIF championships last season. When the Charter Oak and San Dimas high school football teams suffered losses in their respective season openers last Friday, it was a good reminder not only to local fans but the players themselves that last season is in the past and the slate has been wiped clean. (To continue, click thread).

Rosemead coach Matt Koffler may have played at USC and still owns the longest pass play in Trojans history, but after playing golf with one of his closest friends this weekend, I learned he grew up a UCLA fan before accepting the scholarship to USC. I knew it, just knew it.

More two-minute drills, South Hills at Baldwin Park, Claremont at Bonita.

Because of a shortage of officials, Ayala's game against Colony and Pomona's game against Montclair have both been moved to Thursday night. If there are any other games moved from Friday to Thursday, let us know...

Steve Ramirez and I will go head-to-head throughout the season.
Last Week: Robledo (14-3); Ramirez (11-6).

Last week: We both missed Covina over West Covina and Ganesha over Montclair, but I did call Glendora, Rowland, El Rancho and Santa Margarita, while Steve got me with Bonita over San Dimas. All in all, a pretty good week.
This week: I was foolish enough to think Amat had a pretty easy schedule, then Dominguez pulled off the upset over Crespi. This is just what Amat needed, a real Pac-5 type game to get ready down the road, and a motivator game to gauge where they're at. Looking forward to seeing Covina in person on Thursday after their mammoth comeback over West Covina. On Friday, watch Glendora roll over Monrovia and South Hills squeak out a win over Baldwin Park. San Dimas should bounce back at South El Monte, West Covina and Diamond Ranch will start 0-2 with losses to Damien and Venice, respectively. Charter Oak better take care of business, and a result I'm especially looking forward to is Diamond Bar-Wilson, giving the Brahmas a slight edge.

Coveritlive: Mike "The Cousin" Robledo did a super job with Amat-Garfield on Friday, we had commenters from several games posting scores, which is what it's all about. No matter which game we decide, when we have participation throughout the Valley, everyone benefits. We hope more of you tech-savvy commenters can do the same as we continue week-to-week. We are sending Mike to Bishop Amat at Dominguez, and I will update him from my game at South Hills-Baldwin Park, as well as get updates from other games. Also, Thursday I will do a special Coveritlive from the District Field for Covina-Gladstone. Chino Hills Tom will send me updates from Ayala-Colony, but this also is a Q&A for those at home who want to ask questions or talk about Friday's games while we're live during the Covina game.

Thursday's game
Covina vs. Gladstone at Covina District, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Covina); Ramirez (Covina)
La Puente at El Monte, 7 p.m. -- Robledo - (La Puente); Ramirez (La Puente)
Colony at Ayala, 7 p.m. -- Robledo -- (Colony); Ramirez (Ayala)
Montclair at Pomona, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Pomona); Ramirez (Pomona)

Friday's games
Arroyo at Temple City, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Arroyo); Ramirez (Arroyo)
Azusa at Bell Gardens, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Bell Gardens); Ramirez (Azusa)
Bishop Amat at Dominguez, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (BAmat); Ramirez (Bishop Amat)
California at Rowland, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Rowland); Ramirez (Rowland)
Chino Hills at Santiago, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (CHills); Ramirez (Chino Hills)
Claremont at Bonita, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Claremont); Ramirez (Claremont)
Diamond Bar at Wilson, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (DBar); Ramirez (Wilson)
Diamond Ranch vs. Damien at Ganesha, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Damien); Ramirez (Damien)
Duarte vs. Blair at Muir, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Blair); Ramirez (Blair)
Garey at Nogales, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Nogales); Ramirez (Nogales)
Hoover at Sierra Vista, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (SVista); Ramirez (Sierra Vista)
Keppel vs. Workman at La Puente, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Workman); Ramirez (Workman)
Los Altos at Bellflower, 7:30 p.m. -- Robledo (Bellflower); Ramirez (Bellflower)
Monrovia vs. Glendora at Citrus College, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Glendora); Ramirez (Glendora)
Montebello at Rosemead, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Rosemead); Ramirez (Rosemead)
Mountain View at Bassett, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Bassett); Ramirez (Bassett)
San Dimas at South El Monte, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (SDimas); Ramirez (San Dimas)
South Hills at Baldwin Park, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (SHills); Ramirez (South Hills)
Troy at Walnut, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Walnut); Ramirez (Troy)
Gardena at Charter Oak, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Charter Oak); Ramirez (Charter Oak)
Venice at West Covina, 7 p.m. -- Robledo (Venice); Ramirez (Venice)

Aram and I have a full-plate of two-minute video's this week. Today I'm posting Bishop Amat vs. Garfield and Diamond vs. Damien Ranch. Drills later in the week include South Hills at Baldwin Park, Claremont at Bonita, Monrovia at Glendora and Arroyo vs. Temple City.

Now that we got a zero week glimpse of half the teams in the Valley, we have a better idea of how the Top 35 shakes out. Something tells me there's going to be lots of shake-ups in the weeks to come. And yes, we did rank five Sierra League teams in the top ten.

Welcome back to the top ten Bonita ...

Super 35 Rankings
1. Bishop Amat (1-0) -- Even with first-game jitters, Lancers still roll to a 23-0 victory. A much bigger test comes Friday at Dominguez, winners over Crespi.
2. Chino Hills (1-0) -- Posted a 28-14 win over Mayfair on the road. Huskies didn't have the easiest time, but certainly will take it.
3. Glendora (1-0) -- While Charter Oak was winning back-to-back Southeast titles, Glendora felt all along it was just as good. They got to prove it with a 28-21 victory.
4. Claremont (1-0) -- We said lets wait and see, well how about a 31-14 victory over Cajon. I'd say that's good enough.
5 . Charter Oak (0-1) -- You didn't expect the Chargers to fall that far did you? In all honesty, their offense under QB Travis Santiago and his receiving crew are going to be lethal. My guess is they don't turn the ball over four times in one game the rest of the season.
6. South Hills (0-0) -- We've seen Charter Oak and West Covina fall, will the same happen to the Huskies at Baldwin Park? We shall see.
7. Rowland (1-0) -- QB Michael Ball rallies them back to a 35-29 victory over usually tough defensive Braves team.
8. Bonita (1-0) -- If this is how good the Bearcats are without QB Garrett Pendleton, imagine how dangerous they're when he's back.
9. Ayala (1-0) -- Bulldogs cruise to a 35-13 victory over Don Lugo, face much tougher test Thursday against Colony.
10. Azusa (1-0) -- Aztecs facing a tougher than normal season opener Friday at Bell Gardens, an Almont League juggernaut.
The rest: 11. Covina (1-0), 12. Damien (0-0), 13. West Covina (0-1), 14. San Dimas (0-1), 15. Walnut (0-0), 16. Arroyo (1-0), 17. Diamond Bar (1-0), 18. Diamond Ranch (0-1), 19. Rosemead (0-0), 20. Baldwin Park (0-1), 21. Wilson (0-0), 22. Northview (0-0), 23. La Puente (0-0), 24. Pomona (1-0), 25. Ganesha (1-0), 26. Los Altos (0-1), 27., Gladstone (0-0), 28. Bassett (1-0), 29. Nogales (0-1), 30. South El Monte (0-0), 31. Sierra Vista (0-0), 32. El Monte (0-0), 33. Workman (0-0), 34. Mountain View (0-0), 35. Duarte (0-0),

Great postgame Interview from Chino Hills Tom, the Inland Insider. He talked with coach Derek Bub, Auston Smith, and Steve Smith, who had three INTs in Friday's win over Mayfair.

The anything and anyone thread you want to talk about, but on Sunday Tribbin we move on to the next week, but not without your nominations for Friday player of the week? Also, Coveritlive will not be limited to Bishop Amat, though the Lancers' game at Dominguez should be interesting after their upset of Crespi, and the so-so returns on the Lancers' 23-0 shutout of Garfield. This is how far Amat has come in two years, fans are concerned after a 23-point victory. Other games of the week type on here are Damien-Diamond Ranch, South Hills-Baldwin Park, Monrovia-Glendora, Claremont-Bonita.

Thursday's game
Covina vs. Gladstone at Covina District, 7 p.m.
La Puente at El Monte, 7 p.m.

Friday's games
Arroyo at Temple City, 7:00pm
Azusa at Bell Gardens, 7:00pm
Bishop Amat at Dominguez, 7:00pm
California at Rowland, 7:00pm
Chino Hills at Santiago, 7:00pm
Claremont at Bonita, 7:00pm
Colony at Ayala, 7:00pm
Diamond Bar at Wilson, 7:00pm
Diamond Ranch vs. Damien at Ganesha, 7:00pm
Duarte at Blair, 7:00pm
Garey at Nogales, 7:00pm
Hoover at Sierra Vista, 7:00pm
Keppel vs. Workman at La Puente, 7:00pm
Los Altos at Bellflower, 7:30pm
Monrovia vs. Glendora at Citrus College, 7:00pm
Montclair at Pomona, 7:00pm
Montebello at Rosemead, 7:00pm
Mountain View at Bassett, 7:00pm
San Dimas at South El Monte, 7:00pm
South Hills at Baldwin Park, 7:00pm
Troy at Walnut, 7:00pm
Gardena at Charter Oak, 7:00pm
Venice at West Covina, 7:00pm

Highlights from Bonita's Smudge Pot victory over San Dimas. This is for you K.C., now will ya cut me some slack.

By Fred J. Robledo, staff writer
There was something strange about Charter Oak High School's No. 5 ranking in this week's CIF-Southern Section Inland Division poll. Not that the back-to-back CIF-Southeast Division champs weren't deserving, even though the Chargers are moving up to a considerably tougher division. (To continue click thread and listen to coach Mark Pasquarella and Chad Jeffries on video).

Tonight's results
Glendora 28, Charter Oak 21 -- The Chargers' four turnovers didn't help their cause, but this was the Tartans' night. Chad Jeffries pass for 94 yards and rushed for 70 while Corey Victoria rushed for 83 yards and two TDs.
Bonita 41, San Dimas 20 -- Not shocking that the Bearcats ended the Saints' three-game Smudge streak, shocking how easily it happened without their starting QB.
Rowland 35, Baldwin Park 29 -- Who would have thought the Raiders would win in a shootout. Though the Braves' defense was stronger.
Bishop Amat 23, Garfield 0 -- Once again, when all else fails the Lancers played solid defense. It's been their M.O. in the Steve Hagerty era. We hear Ruiz had the jitters in the first half, then settled down and did fine in the second.
Covina 27, West Covina 21 - Shocker of the night. The Colts trailed 21-2 at one point, scoring three touchdowns in the final four minutes to shock the Valley, and your favorite Trib reporters.
Diamond Bar 38, Nogales 21 -- The Nobles put up a solid fight, but it looks like the Brahmas offense will be a force to reckon with the rest of the way.
Arroyo 35, Ontario 14 -- On cruise control, the Knights rolled up 35 points and held off the visitors.
Pomona 21, Garey 14 -- The Red Devils usher in the Anthony Rice era with a victory, though closer than expected.
El Rancho 41, Los Altos 0 -- The Jim Arellanes debut for the Conqs couldn't of gone any worse, could it?
Ayala 35, Don Lugo 13 -- The Bulldogs roll to an easy victory, no surprise.
Chino Hills 28, Mayfair 14 -- The Inland's fourth-ranked Huskies get a big win on tthe road.
Santa Margarita 56, Diamond Ranch 0 -- This would even make the normally speakable Roddy Layton unspeakable.
Bassett 34, Keppel 0 -- The Olympians win and win easily, a great way for new coach Aubrey Duncan to start.

Click here for tonight's Quarter-by-Quarter updates and final scores

Tune in at 6:30 p.m for pregame: Mike (The Cousin) Robledo will host tonight's Coveritlive featuring Bishop Amat and Garfield from East L. A. College. You can follow along with Mike by signing on through facebook or twitter when he launches at 6:30 p.m. Even better, you can sign in and post scores from other games if you're technically functional. Mike will provide updates throughout the game, enjoy it. Change of plans: We will not do Bishop Amat games every week. Instead, Mike will move around the Valley, covering games more consistent with the SGV game of the week. You can start by suggesting what game you want him at next week.

SCOREBOARD: Click for quarter-by-quarter updates of tonight's games

As evidenced by the state-record 49-game losing streak it mercifully ended in 2008, the Ganesha High School football team has been on the wrong side of its share of blowouts. Thursday night, however, the Giants were on the right side of a lopsided score in a season-opening, 31-12 victory over Montclair. Quarterback Terry Francis rushed for 243 yards and two touchdowns on just 18 carries. The explosive senior broke off 54- and 59-yard scoring runs in the second quarter to give Ganesha a 21-0 lead.

There is a great new feature on the San Gabriel Valley Tribune preps home page. There is a link called Find Your School's team page, in which you click and drag the school of your choice, which takes you straight to your team page, which will keep an archive of stories about your school throughout the year, as well as other daily stories. Every story in TribXtra, including the team stories, in online today, so if you click on your team page, you will see the team preview that ran in the magazine. For example, click Bonita's home page, and take a look. The team pages also has widgets of this blog and Aram's, as well as the MaxPreps widget to make it easier for you to search through MaxPreps.

Chino Hills Tom, AKA .. The Inland Insider, is a longtime friend who keeps me posted and reports back on events happening in the I.E., particularly at Chino Hills and Ayala. Today he shares a Q&A with Ayala coach Tom Inglima.

It's been just about a year since the heavily favored West Covina High School football team sleepwalked into its season opener against El Rancho and left with a stunning double-digit loss. Bulldogs coach Mike Maggiore is doing everything he can this week to make sure history doesn't repeat itself when his team opens the season with Covina on Friday night. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at West Covina High School.

Ontario High School's football team didn't just struggle last season. The Jaguars finished 1-9, their lone victory a 28-21 decision over La Verne Lutheran, a school that forfeited the remainder of its season after three games because it had only 14 healthy players in uniform. Is this a team that should concern defending Mission Valley League champion Arroyo going into Friday's 7 p.m. season opener at B.L. Bergstrom Stadium?

At the end of the day, the only polls that matter are the CIF-Southern Section polls, which are used to determine seeds come playoff time. In the case of the Mid-Valley Division, rankings mean even more. All six leagues are only guaranteed two playoff teams, meaning four at-large will be selected to form the 16-team playoff pool. With that said, here is your CIF-SS Preseason poll.

Mid-Valley Division
1. San Dimas, 2. Monrovia, 3. Cerritos Valley Christian, 4. Schurr, 5. Arroyo, 6. Whittier Christian, 7. Azusa, 8. Village Christian, 9. Rosemead, 10. San Marino. Others: San Gabriel, Baldwin Park, Bell Gardens, La Puente, Alhambra, Covina.
Robledo's thoughts: No love for Baldwin Park, and opening with Rowland and facing South Hills could hurt the Braves' playoff chances if they don't finish at least second in the VVL. Rosemead was finally given some respect by starting in the top ten, other than that, looks pretty solid.

Southeast Division
1. La Mirada, 2. Norwalk, 3. Burbank, 4. Diamond Ranch, 5. West Covina, 6. Santa Fe, 7, Muir, 8. La Serna, 9. Mayfair, 10. Rowland. Others: California, El Rancho, Bonita, Burroughs, Arcadia, Bellflower.
Robledo's thoughts: Either we're homers for thinking this is West Covina and Diamond Ranch's division to lose, or the section knows way more than we do. You can't argue with La Mirada, they're legit, and Norwalk is top four, but Burbank at No. 3? In all honesty, this is a tough division to pick because the Suburban is just as tough if not better than the Hacienda, so we shall see.

Inland Division
1. Chaparral, 2. Vista Murrieta, 3. Corona Centennial, 4. Chino Hills, 5. Charter Oak, 6. Upland, 7. Norco, 8. Redlands East Valley, 9. Redlands, 10. Rancho Cucamonga: Others: Roosevelt, Murrieta Valley, South Hills, Los Osos, A.B. Miller and Corona Santiago.
Robledo's thoughts: Look at the teams in the others, they're pretty scary too. We knew with the area's top teams not named Bishop Amat going to the Inland that this would be a tough division to handicap, but no Glendora (unbelievable) and no Damien (understood). That just boggles my mind. And honestly, how can you argue the rankings with the teams in this pool. The division is that sick. Having said that, if we get at least one area team into the semifinals among these giants, we're doing pretty darn good. BTW, to the blogger who calls himself Norco, you must be rolling over ranked behind Chino Hills and Charter Oak after all that talk.

Pac-5 Division
1. Mission Viejo, 2. Mater Dei, 3. Servite, 4. Long Beach Poly, 5. Lakewood, 6. Los Alamitos, 7. Edison, 8. Bishop Amat, 9. Newport Harbor, 10. San Clemente. Others: Orange Lutheran, Crespi, Dana Hills, Loyola, St. John Bosco, Long Beach Wilson.
Robledo's thoughts: Here's all you need to know, Bishop Amat is in the conversation, now it's on them to climb the ladder.

PREPXTRA UPDATE: Have already fielded calls and emails saying newsracks are sold out in some areas. Not to worry, we're selling them at the Tribune at 1210 N. Azusa Canyon Rd., in West Covina for $1, so you can purchase as many as you want. We don't have an unlimited supply, so get down here today to get your copy.

Also: If any of you got the wrong copy (I.E. Star-News copy) in your home subscription or news rack, email mario.ale@sgvn.com. I'm told he can mail you a copy. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I will post Aram's entertaining preview column and quarterbacks preview later, as well as the top ten. But for now, go get your copy of PrepXtra today

Quarter-by-Quarter updates and final scores.
With Friday around the corner, time to let you know what's coming. For those with the internet on your cell phone or for those just sitting at home, you can click the link above for quarter-by-quarter updates of the games listed, with final scores posted soon after games are finalized. Because of Bishop Amat's huge following, we're going to cater to it more than ever on Coveritlive, an interactive Q&A with bloggers that will provide live updates throughout the game hosted by my cousin Mike, a tech nut. We used Coveritlive for several Amat games last year, and also for San Dimas' and Charter Oak's championship games, and got a huge response. The plan for now is to cover every Amat game on Coveritlive, and why not, the blog numbers tell us it's a no brainer. For the games Aram, Steve and I cover, we will provide post-game video interviews, and finally, we're bringing back the always popular "Saturday Morning Quarterback," which is a thread that provides all the updated scores on Friday nights less than an hour after the games are played, which is also the thread for all of you to dissect the games throughout the weekend. On late Friday's, Aram and I will post a video giving our thoughts of Friday night outcomes as well. Like we promised a few months ago, starting with Wednesday's first-ever Football Preview Magazine PrepXtra, we plan on providing you with as much football coverage as you can absorb.

1. BISHOP AMAT
Strengths: A well-rounded coaching staff starting with head coach Steve Hagerty, who led the Lancers to the Serra League co-title and a quarterfinal appearance in the 2009 Pac-5 playoffs. Junior quarterback Rio Ruiz is an upgrade over last year, and the Lancers add Glendora transfer Wallace Gonzalez, a highly regarded 6-foot-5 wideout. With a solid running-back corp and depth galore, all signs are go for the boys in blue.
Obstacles: Must overcome the loss of Davis Cazares, Daniel Kane and Darien Johnson on a bend-but-don't-break defense that allowed 19 points a game last season.
Outlook: With a winnable preseason that includes Garfield, Dominguez, Muir, Damien, Cathedral and Venice, the Lancers could be 6-0 when the Serra begins. Getting it done in the Serra and Pac-5, however, will be difficult again, even for a team as talented as this.

2. CHARTER OAK
Strengths: Another great coaching staff and key returners back after securing its second consecutive CIF-Southern Section Southeast Division title. Senior wide receiver Dennis Rufus is a big-time college recruit, along with sturdy junior quarterback Travis Santiago. With linemen Andy Orozco and Charlie Avila, the Chargers should pick up where they left off.
Obstacles: After dominating the Miramonte League, the Chargers step up to the uncertainty of the Sierra League and the Central Division, where there's more depth and playmakers to deal with.
Outlook: Many felt last year's team could have competed for a Central Division title, but this isn't last year's team. The Chargers are still solid, but they're not automatic favorites anymore.

3. CHINO HILLS
Strengths: The defending Sierra League champions return player of the year Ifo Ekpre-Olomu in the secondary and running back Nate Harris, and finished a summer that included winning the 30-team Bonita Air Assault passing tournament and winning the Santa Fe lineman tournament of champions.
Obstacles: A tough preseason that includes Tesoro and Redlands East Valley, and a tougher-than-usual Sierra League with Charter Oak and South Hills joining. Even the race for a playoff spot is no guarantee.
Outlook: Scary, considering how well they did in the summer. When you factor in their playmakers, size on offense and defense, and the fact they're the defending league champions, there's no reason to believe they won't be in the hunt for a second consecutive league title.

4. GLENDORA
Strengths: Owns the area's best quarterback in years, and maybe the best of the decade, in senior Chad Jeffries. The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder gave a verbal commitment to San Diego State after weighing several offers. He's a run and pass threat who threw for 1,692 yards and rushed for 657. With a usually reliable defense and depth, this should be an explosive team and fun to watch.
Obstacles: No doubt moving back to the Baseline League with Los Osos, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland and Etiwanda provides challenges and long road trips. Plus, competing in the Inland Division is a step up for a school that struggled in the Central.
Outlook: A brutal preseason and league schedule will make it tough to win seven or more, and there's no playoff guarantee despite the Tartans' success under coach Mark Pasquarella in recent years.

5. SOUTH HILLS
Strengths: The Huskies don't have the depth of the top four, but they have solid impact players in junior running back Jamel Hart, junior quarterback Vincent Hernandez and key linemen like Peter Nonu and Sioasi Aiono. Hernandez is the key; if he's able to give the Huskies a consistent run and pass threat, they're going to be formidable because their defense is as solid as always.
Obstacles: Not as dominant as they were earlier this decade and have flamed out in back-to-back years in the Southeast Division semifinals, losing each time to Diamond Ranch. Now the Huskies get bumped up to the Sierra, where fighting for a playoff spot will be as difficult as fighting for a league title in the San Antonio.
Outlook: Figuring Charter Oak and Chino Hills are the league favorites, the Huskies will be fighting for the third playoff spot with Ayala, Damien and Claremont -- no easy task.

6. WEST COVINA
Strengths: Quarterback George Johnson isn't flashy, but he will be a third-year starter for coach Mike Maggiore to go with an explosive running game led by junior Chris Solomon and versatile senior Maurice Dupleasis. Add to that another running back/defensive back in BJ Lee, who became one of the top sprinters in the Southland, and there's no reason to believe West Covina won't be favored in the new Hacienda League.
Obstacles: Always plays a tough nonleague schedule and this year is no different, with games against L.A. City power Venice to go with contests against Glendora and crosstown rival South Hills. At least they dropped the likes of Mater Dei and Bishop Amat.
Outlook: With the departure of two-time Southeast Division champion Charter Oak, many believe that West Covina is the division front-runner and Hacienda League favorite. We agree.

7. SAN DIMAS
Strengths: The two-time Valle Vista League champ and reigning Mid-Valley Division title holder returns a solid core that includes quarterback Shawn Kennedy to go with backs Jordan Taylor and Dillon Corona and durable linemen in Allen Brown and Alec Zenner. And with the wizard of the Wing T in coach Bill Zernickow, the monsters of the Mid-Valley continue to grow.
Obstacles: Taking on its toughest nonleague schedule in years by scheduling Rancho Cucamonga and last year's finalist Monrovia. Even the Valle Vista will be no guarantee with surging Baldwin Park and newcomer Wilson.
Outlook: The favorites to win back-to-back Mid-Valley titles, but they must go through several challengers including Monrovia, Rosemead, Arroyo, Baldwin Park and Azusa.

8. DIAMOND RANCH
Strengths: The Panthers always have impact players and this year is no different, with Aaron Almond (DB/RB), Jacoby Carter (CB/RB), Chase Price (RB/LB) and quarterback Cesar Carillo, who will take over for Gus Viramontes, who led the Panthers to back-to-back Southeast Division title games.
Obstacles: Not as strong on the offensive and defensive lines, and a tough Week 1 opponent in Pac-5 powerhouse Santa Margarita, which is not a good sign for a traditionally slow-starting team that always plays a tough nonleague schedule, though it's not as tough as in years past.
Outlook: Won't have to face two-time Southeast champion Charter Oak now that the Chargers are in the Sierra and the Panthers are in the newly formed Hacienda League. That doesn't mean the Panthers will finally win their first CIF title, but it sure does make it easier.

9. ROWLAND
Strengths: When last healthy, quarterback Michael Ball was leading the Raiders to the Southeast Division semifinals before losing to eventual champion Charter Oak. That was his sophomore year, and now the prolific run/pass threat is a senior after breaking his collarbone midway through his junior season. Safe to assume that as Ball goes, so go the Raiders.
Obstacles: Not as much size or depth as the teams above, and will find it hard competing in a league that includes West Covina, Diamond Ranch and Diamond Bar. Even without Ball, the Raiders averaged 34 points last season, but must do better defensively after allowing an average of 21 points a game.
Outlook: Will be no surprise if the Raiders win the Hacienda League or compete for a Southeast Division title. Ball is that good and coach Craig Snyder is that competitive. Whether they have enough horses remains to be seen.

10. AZUSA
Strengths: It starts at the top with head coach Joe Scherf, who in two years has led a school revival, going 21-4 which includes with back-to-back Montview League titles and a quarterfinal and semifinal appearance in the Mid-Valley Division playoffs. Plus, the Aztecs return several key players from last year's team and have added much-needed depth.
Obstacles: Playing its toughest nonleague schedule during Scherf's tenure, and will have the bull's-eye on its back more than ever. Plus, the Montview League continues to improve, with La Puente, Gladstone, Workman and Sierra Vista looking stronger.
Outlook: With running back Steven Blount, quarterback Jose Nunez and all-everything lineman Edwin Garcia, a third consecutive Montview League title is almost a certainty.

Above: Glendora's Chad Jeffries

2010 Tribune Preseason All-Area Team
Offense
QB: Chad Jeffries, Glendora, Sr.
RB: Taj Teague, Claremont Sr.
RB: Jamel Hart, South Hills, Jr.
WR: Dennis Rufus, Charter Oak, Sr.
WR: Aubrey Coleman, Walnut, Sr.
OL: Edwin Garcia, Azusa, Sr.
OL: Allen Brown, San Dimas, Sr.
OL: Christian Orduno, Bishop Amat, Sr.
OL: Andy Orozco, Charter Oak, Sr.
OL: Siaosi Aiono, South Hills, Sr.
PK: Dillon Corona, San Dimas, Jr.

Above: Charter Oak's Charlie Avila

Defense
DL: Peter Nonu, South Hills, Sr.
DL: Austin Johnson, Chino Hills, Sr.
DL: Charlie Avila, Charter Oak, Sr.
LB: Mo Dupleasis, West Covina, Sr.
LB: Wardell Crutchfield III, Baldwin Park, Sr.
LB: Joseph Herrera, Gladstone, Sr.
LB: Mike Juarez, Bishop Amat, Sr.
DB: Ifo Ekpre-Olumu, Chino Hills, Sr.
DB: Demetrius Jackson, Baldwin Park, Sr.
DB: Aaron Almond, Diamond Ranch, Sr.
SS: Chris Solomon, West Covina, Jr.
P: Hector Dominguez, Wilson, Sr.

For Postional Rankings, click thread...

By Aram Tolegian Staff Writer
There's only one way to find out.
That's the truth, isn't it? And the truth is what football's all about, right? You train hard, you study hard and then you take it all out to the field where the truth is discovered under the lights in front of everyone.
The truth can hurt. It can be downright brutal. Finding out that your hard work -- from January to August -- didn't pay off hurts. (To continue, click thread).

By Aram Tolegian
Staff Writer
Welcome to the year of the quarterback in the San Gabriel Valley.
It seems no matter what part of the Valley you're in, from El Monte to Diamond Bar and La Verne, there's a high school with championship aspirations directly tied to its gunslinger leading the show.
Think about it. Has there been a season in recent memory where so many teams had a talented signal-caller capable of leading them to the promised land, a Christmas gift come early in the form of a CIF title?
At Glendora, the spotlight is on San Diego State-bound senior Chad Jeffries, who can help his team pile up the points with his arm or legs. (to continue click thread)

Today's notebooks..

Bishop Amat football won't be taking Garfield for granted

Baldwin Park High defense has tall order against Rowland

Aram and I will discuss the two-minute drills on video this season, today we talk about Rowland-Baldwin Park and Covina-West Covina. For a two-minute drill on El Rancho-Los Altos with Whittier's Andrew J Campa and Aram, click the thread.