Pacific League football preview: Crescenta Valley High poised to take crown?

As the start of Pacific League play gets underway Thursday evening, only one football team enters unbeaten and only one squad is winless, while the rest of the league’s six entrants are somewhere in between.

Varying degrees of difficulty with nonleague schedules mixed with injuries, breakout players and surprise returners have some squads entering from a position of strength and others looking to push a reset button.

Since the current configuration of the Pacific League began in 2006, Burroughs and Muir highs have won or shared the most championships with four, while Arcadia has two crowns and Burbank took home one banner.

Yet, perhaps it isn’t a league champ that’s the frontrunner this season, but a consistent silver medalist.

Crescenta Valley has finished runner-up in league four times since 2006, the most of any league squad, including last season when the Falcons tied for second with Burbank and Burroughs, but lost a playoff spot due to a tie-breaker and were snubbed for an at-large berth postseason.

No team has looked better throughout the nonleague season than have the pass-happy Falcons, who are 3-0 and have walloped Verdugo Hills, Golden Valley and La Cañada by a combined score of 138-39.

Crescenta Valley received a big boost in the late summer when quarterback Brian Gadsby returned for his senior season rather than protect his pitching arm and scholarship awaiting him from UCLA.

Gadsby has already thrown for 1,004 yards and 11 touchdowns in three games for the Falcons, who nearly pass more than they run by a two-to-one ratio (106 passes versus 63 rushes).

If there’s an Achilles’ heel for the offense, it’s been turnovers, as the Falcons already have six interceptions and four fumbles this season versus a somewhat light trio of nonleague foes who have combined for a 5-6 record.

Yet, while a big focus for Crescenta Valley has been the offense, the defense has quietly been stout in forcing seven turnovers, with two interceptions and a fumble recovery turned in by senior defensive back Jordan Lobianco. The Falcons are also coming off a 35-0 blanking of La Cañada on Friday, which marked the team’s first shutout since 2011.

Whether Crescenta Valley is ready to take the next step and take home the program’s first Pacific League title since 2001 will be certain relatively quickly as the Falcons open league play with a home tilt versus Burroughs (2-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. before facing Burbank (2-1) the following week.

“It’s funny because the first league game is so big for us,” Crescenta Valley Coach Paul Schilling said. “It’s not just that Burroughs is good, but it’s also because they’ve beaten us five straight years. We’ve always played them tough, even when they had Zander Anding, but we haven’t been able to beat them.

“We’re very excited about this season and about our chances of winning our first league title in 10 years, but we know we have to start with Burroughs first.”

Burroughs may have put together its best two quarters of football last year versus Crescenta Valley on Oct. 4, when the home team picked off Gadsby twice in the second half and scored 17 unanswered points in a come-from-behind 24-17 win at Memorial Field.

Like Crescenta Valley, Burroughs doesn’t have a breather, as the Media City squad follows up the Crescenta Valley contest with a clash at defending league champion Muir (0-3).

“We start off with CV and then play Muir, so we know what we are facing coming right out of the gate,” Burroughs Coach Keith Knoop said. “We feel good about where we are going into league and I think league will be very interesting.”

Burroughs has had to deal with key injuries, including the loss of senior running back Michael Ospina, along with the death of an ex-teammate in a car crash two weeks back.

Yet, the team didn’t fold, instead responding with consecutive wins over Rosemead (45-17) and Santa Fe (33-21). Knoop also may have found a star and workhorse in sophomore Chance Bell, who entered in the season-opener after Ospina went down versus Calabasas.

Bell has rushed for 337 yards and three touchdowns in three games and has game-breaking potential as does senior Aidan Anding, who has scored three rushing touchdowns this season and is also a talented pass-catcher.

To beat Burroughs, though, an opponent is likely going to have to make a dent against one of the area’s biggest offensive lines, led by 6-foot-1, 300-pound left tackle Andrew Mills.

Up until a few days ago, perhaps it would have been fair to say the area’s favorite for the Pacific League crown was Burbank.

The Bulldogs last claimed the title in 2009, but welcomed standout running back James Williams for what both hoped would be a storybook senior season.

Unfortunately for Williams and the Bulldogs, the Washington State-bound back only touched the ball 19 times this season before tearing both his medial collateral ligament (MCL) and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on the first play of the game versus Bell Gardens on Sept. 5, which ended his season.

“I think now that we don’t have James, everyone in our league is licking their chops looking at us,” Burbank first-year Coach Richard Broussard said. “They look at us as if we’re down and that we’re not going to recover. But our guys have a lot of resolve and our tight-knit group is hopefully going to carry us through this. Hopefully, we’ll evolve every week.”

Burbank has gone 1-1 without Williams in scratching out a 15-14 win at Bell Gardens before succumbing to Canyon Country Canyon High, 35-21, last Friday.

In a battle of Bulldogs, Burbank continues a strange road odyssey, which includes four straight games away from Memorial Field to commence the season, with a game at Pasadena (1-2) on Friday to open league.

After Pasadena, Burbank welcomes Crescenta Valley before facing host Muir.

Despite the injury to Williams, the cupboard isn’t exactly bare for Broussard, who has a solid running back in Tony Toledo, who’s averaging four yards per rush. Quarterback Ryan Meredith is also back after suffering an ankle injury in the team’s season-opener.

The Bulldogs also boast a budding star in sophomore linebacker Andy Reyes, who leads the team in tackles (34) and tackles for losses (six).

Hope was high for Glendale after the Nitros opened their season with an impressive 35-0 road shutout of San Gabriel on Sept. 5.

Since then, though, the Nitros have sustained defeats of 20-0 and 23-7 versus La Cañada (3-1) and South Pasadena (2-1), respectively, the last two weeks.

If there’s been a couple of pieces of good news in those defeats, the first is that the Nitros defense has played well. Glendale forced a takeaway and held the Spartans to 13 points on offense Sept. 12 before mostly containing South Pasadena and holding the Tigers to 17 points on offense.

Also, the Nitros (1-2) appear to be developing the offense and becoming more comfortable with senior quarterback Julian Rovira.

Versus La Cañada, Rovira primarily threw to wide receiver Ricky Loudermill (nine catches for 102 yards), but developed a new target in Mateo Morris (seven catches for 126 yards) against South Pasadena.

Glendale gets a chance to make some waves this Thursday as the Nitros host Muir at 7 p.m.

Down the street at Hoover (1-2), the Tornadoes are making a debut of sorts as they have a whole different look thanks to the return of senior Rayvin Tanhueco, who will see his first action Friday at Arcadia (1-2) at 7 p.m.

The running back, team captain, and arguably his team’s biggest offensive weapon has healed from a hairline fracture of his collarbone suffered in a scrimmage versus Alhambra in mid-August.

Cornerback/wide receiver Ryan Williams also returns from a bruised scapula for head coach Matt Andersen.

“Our biggest concern now as it’s been all season has been depth,” Andersen said. “We can’t afford injuries. If we can stay healthy, then we can compete, which has been our goal since day one.”

Hoover bounced back from a 35-7 loss to Hollywood (3-1), with a 26-12 victory over Sotomayor (0-4) followed by a 39-0 setback versus South Pasadena on Sept. 12.

Hoover joins Pasadena as the league’s two teams coming into the league opener off a bye.

Perhaps the biggest question mark heading into the season is Muir, the league’s lone winless squad.

Certainly, the Mustangs have been down this road before, including two years ago, when Muir was slammed in the preseason, but rallied to go undefeated in Pacific League play.

Yet, that 2012 Mustangs squad played a true gauntlet of Upland, Alemany and Rancho Cucamonga, all Division I or Division II semifinalists.

This year, Muir’s nonleague slate of Salesian, Cathedral and Hart, while formidable, likely isn’t quite as daunting, though it does feature two CIF champions from a season ago.

While the Mustangs may have the league’s most-talented player in USC-bound wide receiver Taeon Mason, quarterback Chase Keough has been hampered by nagging ankle injuries. His health is paramount to any success.

At crosstown Pasadena, the Bulldogs have their best quarterback since Brandon Cox (Utah) in senior transfer Jorge Reyna, who began with a bang in leading the Bulldogs to a 50-7 rout of South El Monte in the season opener.

Since then, Pasadena has been competitive, albeit in losses to La Salle (28-21) and Artesia (35-24).

At Arcadia, former Hoover Coach Andrew Policky appears to be in rebuilding mode.

The Apaches slammed Alhambra, 40-0, on Aug. 29, but followed up that performance with a 47-14 defeat to Foothill Freeway rival Monrovia and a narrow 20-12 loss versus host Azusa.

A proud Apaches program, which has two league titles under its belt since the reconfiguration, is trying to make it back to the postseason after a one-year hiatus.