Chain Gang Played Rope-a-Dope With Broken Yard Markers

It was a case of missing yard markers.

The Montclair Prep football staff arrived two hours before kickoff to prepare for Saturday night’s game with Van Nuys at College of the Canyons.

They brought videotape. They brought cameras. They brought a sophisticated communications system to allow coaches to communicate from the press box to the sideline.

But they forgot the official yard markers.

A party was sent back to Montclair Prep to retrieve the chains.

In the meantime, a pair of broken sticks were found in a storage room adjacent to the College of the Canyons football field. Along with a piece of rope donated by Van Nuys, they were made into temporary yardsticks, approved by the officials and put into action while the real sticks were on the way.

The yard markers finally arrived at the end of the first quarter.

But, as it turned out, they were broken, too.

No programs were printed for the game, either.

That posed considerable problems for announcer Howard Abrams, boys basketball coach at Montclair. Abrams eventually managed to run down the only rosters in the stadium.

A visitor said to Abrams: “Why don’t you get on the mike and ask if anyone brought a football?”

In last week’s game against El Camino Real, Taft (2-0) held the Conquistadores to minus-4 yards rushing.

Said Taft Coach Tom Stevenson: “I’ve never had a defense that could play defense like these guys.” It helped, Stevenson pointed out, that El Camino’s running game was “non-existent.”

Added El Camino Real Coach Skip Giancanelli, whose team has dropped its first two games: “This is the poorest start we’ve had at this school. We don’t have the quickness we need. You have to concern yourself when the defense is in on the quarterback before your running backs even move.”

Alemany has given up 17 points in three games. To say the Indians’ defense has been tough is to say Totie Fields was fat.

Sandwiched between Alemany tackles Hugo Carrea (6-1, 240) and John Haymond (6-2, 210) is 5-6, 175-pound nose guard Dave Montes. “And he’s probably the best one of the three,” says Coach Enrique Lopez. “Nobody’s been able to stop him. They’ve double- and triple-teamed him.”

Montes, a senior who last year saw little action as a third-string fullback, switched to defense in the spring. “He was amazing at nose guard,” Lopez says. “None of our centers could stop him. He’s quick and he’s got big legs. That’s where he gets his power from.

“Besides,” Lopez adds, “he’s all we’ve got.”

Lopez, though, will have to get by without Montes tonight against Pius X. Montes is out with a sprained ankle, but the coach said his pint-sized nose guard should miss only one game.

Montes has recorded eight sacks this season.

More Alemany ailments: Alemany has lost running back Alex Torres to a knee injury. Torres, who suffered stretched knee ligaments, could be out for three weeks. Lopez is not optimistic. “I don’t know, it could be the whole season. The doctors will decide in three weeks.”

Add defense: Before the season, the Indians found a new defensive coordinator, Pat Blackburn. Last year, Blackburn was coaching linebackers at Utah State. Many, including Lopez, credit the new assistant for Alemany’s strong defensive showing.

Darrell White, a Granada Hills defensive tackle who injured his neck in last week’s game with Chatsworth, is “fine,” according to Highlanders Coach Darryl Stroh.

Stroh said White felt well enough, in fact, to show up at Bob’s Big Boy after the game.

At the time of the injury, Granada Hills coaches said White had been knocked unconscious for several minutes and that he later complained of neck pain. Ater lying on the field for 25 minutes, White was taken away by ambulance.

Stroh said White had a strained neck and would miss Granada Hills’ game tonight against Van Nuys.

Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer was hardly pleased following his team’s 14-7 loss to Monroe.

The Regents out-gained Monroe, 379 yards to 138, but missed several scoring opportunities. The game slipped off the hook when, after a punt by Reseda, Monroe’s Barry Thomas took the ball on a reverse and scampered 68 yards for a touchdown.

Said Schaeffer: “I think we were a better football team. They beat us on that one play. We broke down on one play.

“I yelled and yelled at those kids, telling them that Monroe might run that reverse, but sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you tell them.

“I’m not taking anything away from Monroe,” he said, “but I think the statistics will show that we played a better football game.”

When Canyon plays Notre Dame tonight, the Cowboys will line up against the last team to beat them. In 1983, the Knights beat Canyon, 7-0. The Cowboys have since won 27 straight.

Crespi’s 3-0 start has caused so much interest in Encino that its game against No. 1-ranked Canyon next week had to be moved away from the Celts’ home field (capacity 2,800) to Birmingham High (capacity 11,000). Game time is still 7:30 p.m.

Starting next year, Harvard will leave the Pioneer League to compete in the Sante Fe League. Harvard made the move to cut travel time and costs. The Saracens will join Bell-Jeff, Cathedral, Chaminade, La Salle, Pater Noster, St. Genevieve and Salesian in the league.