HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Canyon Streak Is Second to Only One

Canyon’s 29-game win streak is the second longest in the state. Sweetwater High of National City won its 30th consecutive game Friday night, 42-21, over Fullerton.

Just how good is Canyon, The Times’ No. 1-ranked team in the Valley?

Said Crespi Coach Bill Redell, whose team lost, 35-0, to the Cowboys on Friday night: “Against us, they looked like the No. 1 team in the world. We’re much better than we looked. We have a good high school football team and we didn’t look like we belonged on the same field. Canyon has a way of doing that to teams.”

Add Canyon-Crespi:

In the first three games of the season, Crespi gave up 137 yards rushing. Canyon had 112 Friday night.

Bill Redell, the son of Crespi High Coach Bill Redell, suffered two broken ribs and a lacerated kidney on a kickoff play during Crespi’s game against Canyon Friday night at Birmingham High.

Redell was taken by ambulance to Rancho Encino Hospital where he was listed in critical condition until Saturday afternoon.

Redell said that his son should be released from the hospital today, but will probably be out of action for the rest of the season.

Another sticky subject:

A few weeks ago we reported that Poly wide receivers were rubbing their hands with orange peels to make them sticky.

Brent Spurlin, Granada Hills’ quarterback, was pouring soda pop over his hands for the same reason before Friday night’s game against Gardena.

High school football players have used Stickem on their hands in the past, but use of that substance is now prohibited.

First downs were progressively easier to come by in Friday afternoon’s game between Grant and North Hollywood.

The yardage chain broke twice during the game and officials repaired it each time by taping the chain to one of the sticks, thereby reducing its length.

The extra help failed help run the final score, however. Grant won, 8-7.

Coach knows best:

During the first half of the Grant-North Hollywood game, North Hollywood quarterback Cedric Nelson ran the wrong way on a bootleg play and lost 10 yards.

As Nelson left the field and the punt team came on, North Hollywood Coach Fred Neilson scolded him saying, “That was a bootleg left, not right.”

Nelson’s response: “I know that.”

On North Hollywood’s next possession, Neilson called the same play and Nelson obeyed orders. The result: a 41-yard gain.

Apparently, no lesson was learned, though.

Trailing, 8-7, North Hollywood had the ball on the Grant 12 with less than a minute left in the game. Neilson called a dive play on third down, hoping to keep the ball in front of the goal post for the field goal attempt.

Instead, Nelson kept the ball and dashed around left end for a short gain. The ball was placed at the left hash mark instead of the middle of the field, giving Pablo Gonzalez a difficult angle from which to try his first-ever field goal. The kick sailed wide right and Grant held the lead.

Best dressed award:

Football coaches at Canoga Park were clad in matching Hawaiian shirts and khaki shorts and slacks during Friday night’s game against Hamilton.

Lyle Alzado award for congeniality:

Tony Terrazas of Van Nuys was thrown out of Friday night’s game against Palisades after only a minute and 30 seconds.

The reason, according to one of the game’s officials, was that Terrazas “wound up so the whole crowd could see him and punched a guy right in the stomach.”

Brendon Idolor of Van Nuys and Mike Purcell of Palisades were also thrown out of the game in the first half.

Newbury Park started the week with the Valley area’s top rated defense, but the Panthers got beat at their own game Friday night against Simi Valley.

Newbury Park was able to gain only 14 yards rushing on 23 carries and turned the ball over four times in the first half.

There must be a lot of Dodger fans in Thousand Oaks.

Only 200 fans, approximately, showed up to watch Thousand Oaks improve its record to 3-2 with a 35-14 nonleague win over Rolling Hills.

The Dodgers were playing host to the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of the National League championship series, the same night on national television.

Those Lancer fans who did show up were treated to another spectacular performance from tailback Marc Monestime, who rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries.

Monestime has rushed for 419 yards on 68 carries in the last two weeks.

Thousand Oaks totaled 317 yards rushing against Rolling Hills.

Get used to seeing those kind of rushing numbers for Thousand Oaks. Monestime is a sophomore and the majority of the Lancer line are juniors.

Down in the Valley:

Last week, we experimented with a list of the Valley area’s worst high school football teams. Since the trend in the previous two weeks had been for our top 10 teams to lose, we thought a little reverse psychology might help downtrodden teams win.

The results:

Five of the teams listed in the Top 10--No. 4 Crespi, No. 5 Kennedy, No. 6 San Fernando, No. 7 Newbury Park, and No. 10 Calabasas--lost.

Three of the teams listed in the Down in the Valley Poll won. Of course, that didn’t include victories from the No. 2-ranked Alpha League, whose teams were fortunate enough to play each other.

Hart, ranked sixth, picked up its first win of the season, 33-0, over Quartz Hill. Agoura, ranked fifth, defeated Moorpark, 28-7.

The week’s big winner, however, was previously No. 1-ranked Grant, which beat still-winless North Hollywood, 8-7, despite being out-gained, 207-100.

This week’s Down in the Valley Poll:

1) L.A. Baptist (0-4). 2) The rest of the Alpha League--Western Christian, Montclair Prep, Village Christian, Marshall Fundamental and L.A. Lutheran (10-16 overall). 3) El Camino Real (0-4). 4) Oak Park (0-5). 5) North Hollywood (0-4). 6) Notre Lame (1-4). 7) Royal (0-5). 8) Grant (1-3). 9) Saugus (0-3-2). 10) Hart (1-3-1)--the Indians were still ranked in the Coastal Conference two weeks ago, even though their record was 0-2-1. We’ll let them stay in this poll awhile too.

The Saugus defense, led by defensive end Eric Newberry and nose tackle Richie Stanford, wasted another fine effort in losing to Monrovia, 7-0, Friday night.

Newberry recorded two quarterback sacks, and Stanford had two sacks and a fumble recovery, but it all went for naught as the offense was again shutout.

In its last four games, Saugus has allowed an average of only five points, but hasn’t won because the offense has scored a total of only nine points.