Three up and three down in the Baseline League

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The Baseline League continued its postseason ineptitude Friday night. The three teams that qualified for the Inland Division playoffs were ousted in the first round.

Upland lost to Glendora, 29-28, in overtime. The Highlanders scored a touchdown on the first play of the extra period, but Glendora one-upped them by scoring a touchdown of its own and then tacking on the game-winning two-point conversion.

Etiwanda rolled up 327 yards of offense against the division’s lone wild-card team, Corona Santiago, but didn’t play a lick of defense and lost, 52-35.

Probably the hardest pill to swallow was Los Osos’ 10-7 loss to Chaparral. The Grizzlies had two long touchdown runs called back because of holding penalties, then had a first-down run to the Chaparral nine-yard line nullified because of a motion penatly. On the next play, Los Osos quarterback Richard Brehaut was intercepted for the fourth time, leading to the game-winning field goal with 1:08 remaining in the game.

The Baseline League has won only four playoff games in the last five years. Good thing the Southern Section doesn’t follow the same format as professional soccer in England. Otherwise, the league would probably be relegated to the East Valley Division.

On another positive note, the quarterbacks for all three Baseline League playoff teams are only juniors, meaning the excuse, ‘Just wait til next year,’ might actually apply here.

-- Dan Arritt

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