Granada Hills Sloppily Routs Van Nuys, 40-0

It was supposed to be a match-up of rivals, Van Nuys against Granada Hills.

A better battle soon developed:

Granada Hills vs. Granada Hills.

That wasn’t close either, as the Highlanders produced enough occasional brilliance to overcome their own mistakes Friday night at home in a 40-0 rout of Van Nuys.

Granada Hills (3-0) did its best to keep Van Nuys (1-2) in the game for a half, losing 72 yards to six penalties to go along with a turnover and a bobbled hold on an attempted field goal.

The Highlander mistakes didn’t allow first-year Coach Daryl Stroh to enjoy a 20-0 first-half lead.

“Just sloppy,” Stroh said. “We played a little better this week, but we made an awful lot of mistakes.

“I’m concerned that we haven’t had more of a test going into next week (the Valley 4-A opener against El Camino Real). There are no easy ones from here.”

There was nothing tough for Granada against Van Nuys. The Wolves managed only 12 yards in total offense and didn’t have a first down against a Highlander defense led by lineman Scott Cravin.

The Highlanders started fast, scoring on their second play from scrimmage when Greg Fowble took a screen pass from quarterback Brent Spurlin and ran 61 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead.

After missing a 35-yard field goal attempt when the hold was bobbled, Fowble scored on a nine-yard pass from Spurlin 10 seconds into the second quarter.

Granada Hills tight end Mark Newman, who dropped one potential touchdown pass and fell down before he could score another, made it 20-0 just before the end of the half with a leaping grab of a 17-yard Spurlin pass.

It didn’t get better for Van Nuys in the second half as Highlander tailback Khalid Ali, who had 108 yards on 18 carries, ran 21 yards for a touchdown on the first series of the third quarter.

The next time Granada got the ball, Fowble and Spurlin hooked up for their third touchdown of the night, this one from 36 yards out, for a 33-0 lead.

Fowble wound up with six receptions for 127 yards and four touchdowns, the final one coming on a five-yard toss from reserve quarterback Carl Yeargain with less than three minutes left in the game.

Spurlin finished with 14 completions in 20 attempts for 243 yards.