West Ranch Eagle hunt or the Foothill five

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Let’s be honest, you don’t see West Ranch in the win column too much. So when I saw that they walloped Lancaster 35-18 last night, I was like, “what in the name of high school football?” Since when is Lancaster playing second-fiddle to teams still getting used to playing at the varsity level?

Then I saw what some guy named Ross Bacon did. The West Ranch junior ran for 118 yards and two TDs as the Wildcats took an early 14-0 lead and never looked back. Coach Mike Kane and all the guys over in Stevenson Ranch oughta give themselves a pat on the back, but what’s up with Lancaster?

First-year coach Chad Shrout has big shoes to fill in replacing three-time CIF-SS championship-winning coach Jeff Cortez (all three at Paraclete; he’s now at Village Christian) and everybody knew it was going to be tough for the Eagles to get back into the postseason. But I have to think Quartz Hill is looking pretty darn good for a postseason berth.

Interestingly, all the Foothill League teams won last night except for defending Division I state champs Canyon. It marked the first time ever that five Santa Clarita-based teams won games on the same night. Of course, we have to put it in perspective: Canyon was the only Foothill team playing a squad ranked by The Times – Notre Dame.

- Austin Knoblauch