HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Durr, Canoga Park’s Biggest Gun, Pulled

Kenny Durr, one of the top offensive threats for Canoga Park High’s Sunset League-leading football team, has been temporarily suspended from the team.

Ed McCarthy, coach of Canoga Park, told Durr on Friday not to suit up for the Hunters’ game against Van Nuys that night.

“He was suspended for disciplinary reasons, reasons that I’d rather not comment about,” McCarthy said in a telephone interview Saturday.

McCarthy said Durr was not suspended for missing practice. He also said the length of Durr’s suspension had not been determined.

“I’ll have another talk with him on Monday,” McCarthy said. “We’ll know more after that.”

In five games, Durr has rushed for 306 yards and 5 touchdowns on 54 carries.

Add Canoga Park: The absence of Durr was eased by the performance of senior Junior Delgado, who was responsible for all three of Canoga Park’s touchdowns.

Delgado returned first-half punts 66 and 47 yards for touchdowns, then set up the Hunters’ third touchdown with an interception near midfield.

With its 21-3 loss to Agoura on Friday night, Santa Paula has fallen to 3-5 overall and 0-3 in the Frontier League. The Cardinals could easily be 2-1 in league if not for several costly errors in its last two games.

You’ve heard of a prevent defense? Introducing Santa Paula’s prevent offense:

The Cardinals led Agoura, 3-0, at the half, but fumbled four times in the second half--all of them inside the Chargers’ 25.

Last week, Santa Paula dropped a 20-14 decision to Calabasas because of two turnovers on first-and-goal situations in the fourth quarter.

Spectators at the Calabasas-Nordhoff game were shocked when Calabasas, leading 19-18 in the fourth quarter, faked a punt on fourth down at its 31-yard line.

Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards explained later that the play was not called from the bench, but was an automatic audible.

When the Calabasas offense leaves the field in favor of the punting unit, a wide receiver sometimes stays on, stopping just before he reaches the sideline. If the receiver is not picked up by the defense, there is an automatic audible calling for a pass.

Against Nordhoff, the receiver was open, but the pass fell short.

Nordhoff took over deep in Calabasas territory and Ty Jeffries hit a 28-yard field goal with 5:42 left in the game to give the Rangers a 21-19 win.

Said Edwards: “I don’t think the situation should preclude the play. The play was there, we just didn’t execute. If we do, we keep the ball and possibly go down and score.”

The loss leaves Calabasas with only an outside chance of going to the playoffs for the first time in four years.

Sylmar played a game without attempting a pass for the second time this season.

Quarterback Shawn Fontenot dropped back to throw twice, but ended up scrambling instead. He spent most of the game handing off to tailback Sean Hampton, who rushed for 208 yards and a touchdown in a 12-7 upset win over Reseda.

Hampton, whose 958 yards rushing leads the Valley area, carried the ball 33 times against Reseda, prompting Sylmar Coach Tom Richards to say: “When he brings me his union card, he can stop carrying the ball so often. Until then, he’s stuck.”

Cleveland Coach Steve Landress might have wondered how bad things could get after watching his team lose last week to El Camino Real, a team which had previously not won or scored.

Friday night, in a 37-0 loss to San Fernando, it got worse.

In the second half, Cleveland had first downs inside the San Fernando 10 on four occasions, yet failed to score. The Cavaliers were also called twice for having too many men on the field during a San Fernando PAT attempt, and an assistant coach was flagged for delay of game because he took too long coming off the field after a timeout.

With that in the past, Landress can start worrying about his team’s next opponent: undefeated Granada Hills.

Patrick Hardy made quite a debut as a starting running back last week.

Playing in place of the injured Roman Carter, Hardy rushed for 235 yards on 38 carries in a 21-14 loss to Granada Hills.

Hardy didn’t exactly pick up where he left off Friday night against El Camino Real, but the end result was more gratifying.

In the first half, Hardy was held to minus-seven yards on four carries. In the second half, however, he came back with 124 yards and 2 touchdowns on 11 carries.

His touchdowns came on runs of 18 and 34 yards. He also had carries of 33 and 27 yards, as Kennedy scored 15 unanswered points in the second half to win, 22-7.

Meanwhile, Carter made a return to the lineup, but was stopped for minus-six yards on seven carries.

You just can’t trust a temporary replacement.

The Down in the Valley Poll has been canceled this week due to a lack of understanding and gratitude.

The poll, which started running each Sunday six weeks ago, listed the 10 teams in the Valley area that were best at being mediocre.

The poll was started, in part, because so many Times’ Valley Top 10 teams lost after being ranked. We thought we would try a little reverse psychology.

The plan obviously worked.

The first four weeks of the poll saw three different teams and the Alpha League garner the No. 1 ranking.

Each time, the top-ranked team won the following week. (Granted, the Alpha League teams had no choice, since they were playing other Alpha teams).

Only Oak Park, last week’s top-ranked team, lost its next game.

But did those teams bother to say thank you to the Down in the Valley Poll? Noooooo!

Instead, there were letters actually degrading the poll. Yes, some people actually will argue with success.

To those people, we have this to say:

We know your names and we know the teams for which you root. And that means we also know how to hurt you most.

That’s right. Look for your team in the Top 10 next week. . . .