Notre Dame Plays Win Above Fold

News was made last week at Notre Dame High, and not merely because the Knights beat Crespi for the first time since 1984.

As a prelude to the game--the schools are storied rivals--Notre Dame players were asked by coaches to prepare bogus news accounts predicting the game’s outcome. Of course, Notre Dame players boldly predicted victory, despite the fact that Crespi entered the game 7-2, with a six-game win streak. Note Dame was 3-5-1 before the game.

“We asked them to write articles based on what they’d like to read in the papers,” Notre Dame Coach Kevin Rooney said. “We wanted them to visualize what it would be like to win.”

Players read their versions Friday afternoon. One headline read, “Notre Dame Melts Celts.” Later that night, fact and fiction became somewhat blurred.

The Knights were no paper tigers once the game started. Notre Dame (4-5-1) jumped to a big lead and held off the Celts for a wild, 41-37 victory.

Several players’ versions came pretty close to real life, Rooney said. A few even accurately predicted that reserve running back Damon Germanides would have a big game. Germanides, a senior, carried five times for 73 yards and a touchdown. He had only 175 yards entering the game.

Here’s one quote that no player dared even dream to write: “They kicked our butts,” Crespi Coach Tim Lins said. “They flat beat us.”

FLIPPING OUT

Chatsworth High Coach Myron Gibford tried for five days to give Van Nuys a chance to play at home Friday in the first round of the City Section 3-A Division playoffs.

There were no takers.

Last Wednesday, one day after the playoff seedings had been finalized, Gibford met with Van Nuys Coach Kenji Mochizuki to exchange game film and offered to conduct a coin flip to determine which team would host the first-round game. The flip was necessary because the teams had identical records in league play.

Mochizuki declined, stating that he had not been given the “authorization” to flip by his administration, Gibford said. An agreement was made to flip the following day at Chatsworth, Gibford said.

Yet no Van Nuys representative showed up Thursday, according to Gibford. Frustrated, Gibford instructed a Chatsworth administrator to phone Van Nuys on Friday and request that the game be played at Van Nuys. Gibford had taken a team poll in the interim and learned that all but one Chancellor player wanted to play on the road. Chatsworth (6-4) is 4-1 in away games.

Van Nuys declined Gibford’s request, however, and insisted that the coin toss be conducted, he said. Monday afternoon, Chatsworth assistant principal Donna Wyatt tossed a coin at a meeting of administrative personnel at a City Section office in downtown L.A.

Wyatt won the toss, and, in keeping with Gibford’s wishes, elected to play at Van Nuys.

“The whole thing was weird,” Gibford said.

NEW KIDS IN TOWN

Quartz Hill opened in 1965, determined to prove to old-time Antelope Valley residents that a new athletic force had been born in the area. And for 18 consecutive years, Antelope Valley’s football team beat the Rebels into submission.

Antelope Valley, which opened in 1912, established dominance over the new kids from west of the 14 Freeway until 1983, when a Quartz Hill team led by future USC tailback Aaron Emanuel recorded Quartz Hill’s first win over the Antelopes.

But it didn’t start a trend. Antelope Valley bounced back with wins in the next five games to take a 23-1 lead in the series. Rebel Coach John Albee had suffered through 20 of those 23 losses as coach since 1968.

But good things come to those who wait.

Since 1989, Quartz Hill has beaten Antelope Valley three consecutive times, including Friday night.

“The last three years have been good to us,” Albee said. “I think it was the concept that in the past we were a smaller school than they were. But now we’ve sort of caught up with them in enrollment. And if you’ve got a lot of kids to choose from, you can do a lot more things.”

Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb, who still holds a 10-4 edge in his 14 years as coach, has trouble accepting a three-game losing streak.

“We kinda had a bad taste in our mouth,” Newcomb said. “There were a lot of long faces around here (Monday), but today is a new season and it starts in a few hours.”

Antelope Valley (6-4) travels to play Bishop Amat (9-1) in La Puente, and Quartz Hill (7-3) will play host to Mater Dei (9-1) in Southern Section Division I first-round playoff games Friday night.

BORN TO PASS

When it comes to running, Hart passes.

Sure, the Indians’ run-and-shoot offense is geared toward the pass. And, sure as shootin’, quarterback Ryan Connors, the Southern Section’s leading passer with 3,200 yards, is going to throw.

But in Friday night’s 41-20 victory over Burroughs, Hart did nothing but pass. Not a single running play was called.

Connors, who completed 30 of 41 passes for a school-record 480 yards, scrambled out of the pocket three times for six yards to account for the team’s only yards on the ground.

A week earlier, Hart did not call a running play until the second string took over in a 48-0 rout of San Gabriel.

Excluding Connors, Hart backs have combined for only 97 rushing attempts in 10 games. Connors has put the ball in the air 351 times.

TOWNSEND RECHARGED

San Fernando running back LaKarlos Townsend is expected to be back in full gallop when the Tigers (9-1) open the City 4-A playoffs Friday against Birmingham.

Townsend was kicked in the knee trying to block a point-after kick against Chatsworth on Oct. 25 and did not play until Friday’s 42-7 victory over Reseda. Townsend carried five times for 18 yards and scored on a three-yard run.

“We wanted to get him in so he didn’t get too rusty,” Coach Tom Hernandez said. “He was about 95% on Friday, but we didn’t want to get him even more banged up with the playoffs coming up this week.”

Townsend, a senior, has rushed for 765 yards and 15 touchdowns in 88 carries.

MAKING THE GRADE

Van Nuys senior running back-linebacker Harold Boudreaux was determined to make a name for himself after being forced to sit out last season because of academic ineligibility.

Coaches and players in the Valley Pac-8 Conference have had as much trouble pronouncing his name (Boo-DROH) as they have had devising defenses to stop him.

Boudreaux (6-1, 190 pounds) is the second-leading rusher among area City players with 1,351 yards in 173 carries (7.8 average). He has scored 13 of the team’s 15 rushing touchdowns.

“My goal was 1,500 (yards), but I don’t think I’m gonna get it,” Boudreaux said.

A year ago, Boudreaux worked hard to gain eligibility for postseason play. He succeeded, but the Wolves missed the playoffs by one game.

“I let my parents down mostly and that’s what I regret,” Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux has promised himself that he would stay focused on academics but concedes that the effort is a strain at times.

“It’s been a struggle,” he said. “You try to be the student-athlete everyone wants you to be, but it’s hard to keep your priorities straight.”

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Kennedy running back Elijah Raphael leads area City rushers with 1,545 yards in 227 carries (6.8 average). Sometimes statistics can be misleading, but not in this case, according to Boudreaux.

Boudreaux who trails Raphael by 194 yards, is in awe of the Kennedy back. “I saw a tape of him (against Chatsworth), and I give him all the credit,” Boudreaux said. “He’s legit from what I could see, and he has some moves. “

INJURIES

Poly running back Jermaine Pledger (1,314 yards, 166 carries, 15 touchdowns) sustained a right ankle injury last week against Birmingham but is expected to be in the lineup Friday against Banning. . . .

Vince Lampkin, Birmingham’s quarterback, reinjured his left ankle early in the third quarter of the Braves’ 28-21 loss to Poly last week but he is expected to play Friday against San Fernando. Lampkin first injured the ankle two weeks ago against Sylmar. . . . Highland quarterback Travis Sabadin reinjured his left hand in the Bulldogs’ 30-14 victory over Littlerock on Saturday. Originally, Sabadin had suffered two broken fingers on his non-throwing hand two weeks ago against West Valley. He reinjured that hand on the first drive of second half. Sabadin will take snaps at practice this week even though he will wear a cast.

CHANGE OF COURSE

A year ago, Lisa Frederico was a key contributor as a middle blocker and outside hitter on a Nordhoff volleyball team that won the Frontier League championship and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 2-A Division playoffs.

But this year, Frederico decided to skip volleyball and instead compete for a Ranger cross-country team that won the state girls’ Division IV championship last season.

Frederico has made a quick and successful transition. She placed seventh two weeks ago and earned all-league honors at the Frontier League finals in Paramount Ranch with a 20:32 time on the three-mile course. Nordhoff finished second to Fillmore.

One of the reasons Frederico switched sports was that the workout demands of cross-country fit better with her budding modeling career. Among other assignments, Frederico has made a commercial for Pepsi-Cola that appeared on European television.

EVENING OF TRIBUTE

Saugus will stage its annual alumni basketball game Nov. 27, but the evening also serve as an opportunity to pay tribute to former Saugus player Jackson Clark, who died Oct. 25 of intestinal cancer.

Clark was the son of Saugus Coach John Clark.

Proceeds from the event will go toward establishing a memorial scholarship fund in Clark’s name. Also, Clark’s No. 24 jersey will be retired.

Two games will be played. Saugus’ junior varsity will play an alumni team at 6 p.m. followed by a game between Saugus’ varsity and an alumni team composed of members of the Centurions’ 1986-87 Southern Section 3-A championship team, of which Jackson Clark was a member.

David Coulson, Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.