J.J. Flannigan Carries Load for Red Devils

The Notebook:

One of the most impressive things about J.J. Flannigan’s 1,212 yards and 16 touchdowns through six games is that he is doing it behind an inexperienced line at Pomona. Last season, when he had 1,965 yards and 18 touchdowns, the Red Devils sent three lineman to the University of Arizona on scholarships: Reggie Gaddis, Keith May and tight end Aaron Prisock.

If not for his legs, Flannigan’s best quality would have to be his attitude. As he said a couple weeks ago after a 244-yard, 3-touchdown game against Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe: “Sure, there’s a lot of pressure. They (the defense) knew who they wanted to come get, and they did a good job. But I was always taught that a great back does what he wants to do on the field.”

This week’s game will be a big test for the Pomona defense, too. The Red Devils play Claremont, featuring quarterback Dan McGwire and receiver Travis Watkins, Friday night at Cal Poly Pomona. But Flannigan no doubt will be especially up for the Wolfpack after being held to 46 yards by Chino Don Lugo in his last game.

If Watkins is too slow to be a college receiver, which is the knock against him, then why does he continue to draw attention as more than “Dan McGwire’s favorite target?”

Watkins has already taken a recruiting trip to Purdue, with Illinois, Arizona and Brigham Young scheduled down the line. McGwire has already visited Purdue and Illinois, but Coach Bob Baiz claims that schools are interested in Watkins because of a 16-yard average per catch and 178 yards and 3 touchdown on reverse runs, and not looking for a package deal to please McGwire.

And while Watkins may not be Mr. Speed, Baiz isn’t exactly sure what the colleges have in mind when they put the rap on Watkins. “They’re looking for people who are called 4.4 types, but I’ve never seen ‘em out there,” he said. “But if you have a lot of people like Travis Watkins, you don’t lose many ball games.”

Talk about efficiency. There was no one better this weekend than running back Rick Ervins of Pasadena Muir, who made the Mustangs’ offense sound like a broken record Friday night in a 42-22 win over Arcadia.

First, he scored on a four-yard touchdown. When the Mustangs got the ball back, he carried on the first play from scrimmage and scored a 39-yard touchdown. When the Mustangs got the ball back, he carried on the first play from scrimmage and scored a 71-yard touchdown. When the Mustangs got the ball back, he carried on the first play from scrimmage and scored a 68-yard touchdown.

Westlake quarterback Brad Gossen also did a pretty good job of getting the most out of the least, racking up 228 yards and 2 touchdowns while completing 5 of 6 passes in the Warriors’ big win over Santa Monica Thursday night at Thousand Oaks High.

The small third baseman at Oxnard Channel Islands earned All-Southern Section honors in 1978, when he batted .520, but his coach had trouble talking college and professional scouts into taking a look at the player.

But Terry Pendleton has showed them all, especially with his fielding. The same scouts are watching him on TV now as the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting third baseman.

The Channel Islands coach recalled that he would hit 150 to 200 ground balls a day to Pendleton, then 5-7 and 140, at the insistence of the young infielder who “was never satisfied with being average.” And now that he is far above average, Pendleton hasn’t forgotten the help and comes back in February, when Channel Islands is about to start its season and St. Louis is readying for spring training, to help out.

The coach’s name? Don Cardinal .

The recruiting of Stacy Augman is still wide open, and the Pasadena Muir forward will almost certainly pass up the early signing period.

The Know-Your-Rule-Book Award for the week goes to Santa Ana Mater Dei Coach Chuck Gallo. In Friday night’s Angelus League game against St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs, the Monarchs got the ball on their own 43 with 11 seconds to play in the first half after fair-catching a Swordsmen punt.

Gallo, knowing that a team can have a free kick without any defense charging at them after a fair catch, sent Gary Coston out to try the 67-yarder. Coston teed the ball up as if he was kicking off and let it rip, only to have it land midway into the end zone, and even then without much altitude.

But Coston turned out to be the hero of the game anyway--his 47-yard field goal with 1:46 remaining in the game gave the Monarchs a 17-14 upset win over the Southern Section’s sixth-ranked team.

Pairings have been announced for two prominent December basketball tournaments--one boys’ and one girls’--with national flavor and local importance.

The Las Vegas Holiday Tournament will be held Dec. 26-30 at UNLV and Valley High School, with Santa Monica, Long Beach Wilson, Hacienda Heights Wilson and Westminster La Quinta taking part along with 12 other teams from six states and Washington, D.C. Three of the four L.A.-area schools open with East Coast teams, while Santa Monica plays Hamilton of Memphis, Tenn.

The girls’ Tournament of Champions, Dec. 19-23 at UC Santa Barbara, will have teams from the East and West, now that New York Christ the King has been added to the list. Organizers claim it is the first time a girls’ team will travel across the country to play in a tournament.

The rest of the 12-team lineup includes defending California Division I champion Point Loma, two-time Southern Section 4-A runner up Pasadena Muir, defending tournament champion Brea-Olinda, Woodland Hills Louisville, Chino, Santa Maria St. Joseph, Thousand Oaks, Lompoc, Palmdale and host Santa Barbara. Oakland Tech, which figures to be the top-ranked Division I team in the Northern California, is the final entry.

Serra basketball transfer James Moses won his appeal after leaving Alemany and will be allowed to play on the varsity team at the Gardena school.