Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club: Crescenta Valley High’s Jordan Lobianco shows off versatility

GLENDALE — The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club, in its 72nd year, meets Tuesdays at the Elk’s Lodge. The following are odds and ends from the ninth meeting of the year.

AMAZING LOBIANCO CONTINUES STRONG RUN

Crescenta Valley High football coach Paul Schilling couldn’t help but boast about the success of senior Jordan Lobianco.

The utility player has spent time all over the field as a wide receiver, defensive back and kick and punter returner.

Such diversity has produced some incredible stats, including Lobianco’s 10 touchdowns, as was highlighted by Schilling.

“Three interceptions he’s returned for touchdowns, three punt returns for touchdowns, three receiving touchdowns and he has one actual rushing touchdown this year,” Schilling said. “The guy has really been an amazing player.”

While Lobianco’s play has been consistent, Schilling also noted the unexpectedly stout performance of offensive lineman Riley Center in Friday’s 49-24 victory for Crescenta Valley over Pasadena.

The freshman lived up to his namesake and received the start at center due to an injury to Crescenta Valley’s usual starter, Nizar Abou-Chakra.

“That was the first in Crescenta Valley history,” said Schilling of starting a freshman at center. “He played every snap of that game and his name is Riley Center — no pun intended.

“He had a great game and it was great to see Davo Hakobyan and some of the other seniors take him under their wing and show him the way.”

Center is expected to make his second start Friday at Arcadia, but Abou-Chakra should be back in time for the postseason.

WINNING THE POOCH

St. Francis Coach Jim Bonds expressed his frustration in how opponents have been able to take advantage of the spotty Golden Knights’ kickoff coverage this season.

“All year we’ve been trying to kick it in the end zone for the touchback to make the other team have to go 80 yards,” Bonds said. “It’s great when it works, but when the ball doesn’t get into the end zone, they seem to get some good returns and I was tired of starting at the 50.”

So Bonds changed up strategy in Friday’s 60-0 blowout win over La Salle and instructed kicker Kareem Zeenni to pooch his kick to the 25 on the opening kickoff.

That’s when Bonds started to notice something.

“So we lined up to kick and I usually stand where the ball is going to be dropped and [La Salle’s] receivers are at the goal line and everyone else is at the 45, 40-yard line, not really close to where the ball is going to drop,” Bonds said. “I said over the headset that we might recover this because they just weren’t ready for that type of kick.”

St. Francis did recover the kick on the first of many plays that went the right way for the Golden Knights.

“It wasn’t meant to be an onside, but sure enough it dropped at about the 25-yard line and there was a mad scramble for the ball, we recover it [and] on the first play we score a touchdown on a Jeremiah Martin quarterback run and that was about it,” Bonds said.

MEN OF FEW WORDS

While the duration of speeches by local football coaches can range from the brief to the very long, not much was said in the build-up to Friday’s city showdown between Glendale and Hoover.

Glendale Coach John Tuttle spent 31 seconds talking about the prospects of his team, while Hoover’s Matt Andersen was a little longer in speaking for 50 seconds. That combined time of 1:21 was, for instance, more than three minutes less taken by Bonds and Schilling in referencing less-hyped games.

Nonetheless, Andersen believes his squad has a tall task in facing Glendale, which despite its 2-7 record has played tough.

“We’ve watched a lot of film on Glendale and we still have our work cut out for us,” said Andersen, whose team is trying to snap a four-game crosstown losing streak. “They’re a good team and coach Tuttle has done a good job. Some of those losses, like the Pasadena loss (21-20 in overtime), were games they could have won.”

If there’s good news for Andersen, he’s getting back a few healthy seniors, including running back Rayvin Tanhueco, who’s missed large portions of the season with a variety of injuries.

As for Tuttle, success begins before the players even touch the field.

“Hopefully the kids stayed focused, we can stick to just talking about what we need to do and we don’t get that distracted with other stuff,” Tuttle said. “We’ll see you on Friday night at 7 o’clock.”