When Kennedy High Coach Bob Francola walked...

When Kennedy High Coach Bob Francola walked out of the City Section football seeding meeting last week, perhaps he had more to grin about than his team’s No. 2 seeding in the 4-A Division.

In each of the four years that Kennedy has advanced to the 4-A playoffs in Francola’s tenure, the Golden Cougars have lost to a team from the South Bay in the second round, usually in decisive fashion.

In 1986, Kennedy lost to Banning, 29-0. In 1988, Kennedy lost to Carson, 53-0. In 1989, Kennedy lost to Carson, 31-0. In 1990, Kennedy lost to Banning, 20-10.

Looking at this season’s 4-A pairings, Kennedy cannot face a South Bay team until the semifinals. The Golden Cougars (9-1) will open the first round at home against Belmont on Friday at 7:30.

There is one potentially disturbing side effect for Kennedy, however. The Golden Cougars could face Granada Hills in the second round and they have beaten the Highlanders just once in the past nine meetings. Kennedy won, 14-12, earlier this year.

Passing: Ryan Connors of Hart moved past Aaron Flowers of Artesia to finish No. 1 in the state for passing for the regular season. Connors passed for 480 yards and five touchdowns in Hart’s 41-20 triumph over Burroughs last week. According to Cal-Hi Sports, that is the best single-game outing in the state this year and it pushed the season total for Connors to a state-best 3,200 yards. He also has 34 touchdown passes to lead state quarterbacks.

According to Cal-Hi, sophomore quarterback Keith Smith of Newbury Park finished the regular season with 2,409 passing yards to rank sixth in the state and Simi Valley’s Eric Bennett finished seventh at 2,303 yards.

Ryan Fien of Royal has thrown 51 touchdown passes, one short of the Ventura County record of 52, set by Santa Clara’s Tim Gutierrez (1987-89). Fien’s streak of consecutive passes without an interception ended at 149 on Friday against Simi Valley. . . . Of the 183 passes Poly has thrown in the past two seasons, senior quarterback Lance Garcia has thrown all but two--and those were intercepted.

Receiving: Not surprisingly, Connors’ favorite receiver at Hart, Deriek Charles, is tied for the state lead with 69 receptions and leads state receivers with 18 scoring catches. Shawn Tippet of Artesia also has caught 69 passes. Sophomore Leodes Van Buren of Newbury Park is tied for third in the state with 65 receptions and Westlake’ Erik Holcomb is eighth with 62. . . . Simi Valley senior Dave Romines needs one reception to tie Brian Balleweg’s school single-season record of 41 set last season. . . .

Rushing: Thousand Oaks senior tailback Cory Bowen rushed for a school-record 262 yards Friday, increasing his season total to 1,515, 150 shy of Mark Monestime’s 1987 single-season school record of 1,665. Bowen also scored three touchdowns for 34 this season, breaking Monestime’s record of 31.

Bowen had 12 carries for 10 or more yards in Friday’s 41-26 win over Westlake and has maintained a 10.2 per rush average in 149 carries. Thousand Oaks has rushed for an area-high 3,038 yards, including 962 in 130 carries by junior fullback Quincy Jacobs. . . .

Oak Park junior tailback Tarik Smith has scored a school-record 18 rushing touchdowns this season, breaking the mark of 15 set by Kent Richter in 1989. Smith has rushed for 1,501 yards in 164 carries. . . .

Buena sophomore George Keiaho surpassed Paul Sample’s 1970 school single-season record of 1,274 yards Saturday. Keiaho has rushed for 1,338 yards.

Montclair Prep’s Eliel Swinton finished his junior year with 1,773 yards in nine games. Swinton rushed for 1,719 yards as a sophomore for a two-year total of 3,492. . . .

Canyon sophomore Ed Williams heads into the playoffs with 1,253 yards after 10 games to rank fourth on Canyon’s single-season rushing list. Chris Peery leads with 1,459 yards in 1988, followed by Lance Cross (1,390) in 1985 and Peery (1,273) in 1987. . . . Jeremiah Aguolu of Harvard-Westlake set school single-season records with 22 touchdowns, 140 points and three kickoff returns for touchdowns.

Streaks: Buena won a share of its first Channel League title since 1973. The Bulldogs are the only Channel League team to qualify for the Southern Section playoffs in each of the past four seasons. . . .

Montclair Prep has not lost an Alpha League game since 1988, and the only team to beat Montclair Prep in Alpha League play in the past six years is Village Christian, which won in 1987.

Defense: Glendale has recorded a school-record 40 sacks this season. Junior defensive end Brian Flette leads the Dynamiters (9-1) with 14. Yoshi Yamawaki has nine and Jayson Spangler has eight. . . . Linebacker Jon Liebe leads Oak Park with 92 tackles and nine sacks. . . .

Cross-country: Fillmore junior Maribella Aparicio timed 17 minutes 41.8 seconds in the Southern Section Division IV preliminaries Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. Not only was it the fastest time of the day, the mark ranks sixth on the all-time junior list and 19th on the overall all-time list for the three-mile course.

Regional Football Top 10

Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Lst. Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Royal Marmonte 10-0 2 4 Kennedy West Valley 9-1 3 3 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 8-2 4 5 San Fernando West Valley 9-1 5 6 Glendale Pacific 9-1 6 2 Ventura Channel 8-2 7 9 Buena Channel 8-2 8 10 Sylmar East Valley 8-1 9 NR Quartz Hill Golden 7-3 10 8 Crespi Mission 7-3

NR--Not ranked