San Fernando Pays $4,000 to Avoid Mud-Slinging Match With Banning

Tom Hernandez knows the opportunity is there.

“If we’re going to do it,” said the football coach at San Fernando High School, “let’s do it now. “

What the Tigers will attempt to do in the City 4-A semifinals tonight is something that no San Fernando Valley team has done since 1978--beat Banning.

The Pilots of Wilmington have won 20 straight games against Valley teams, and 32 of their last 33. Granada Hills was the last Valley team to beat Banning, taking a 24-14 victory in the ’78 regular season.

San Fernando hasn’t beaten Banning since 1975. The Tigers have lost six straight to the Pilots, five of those coming in the playoffs.

According to Hernandez, however, San Fernando (8-2) has its best team in years. The Tigers, the Valley 4-A League champions, have won seven straight. They are a team brimming with confidence.

Banning, meanwhile, is not fielding one of its stronger teams. At one point this season, the Pilots were 2-3. Since then, they have won five in a row.

Still, if San Fernando ever had a shot at beating Banning . . . “let’s do it now. “

Hernandez thought his 1983 team had a chance to stop the Pilots in the semifinals. The Tigers went into the game at San Fernando with an 8-2 record.

Heavy rains right before the game left the field looking like a mud bowl.

“It was the worst field conditions we have ever seen,” Hernandez said. “Our top running back, Chris Richards, could do just about nothing. Our team speed wasn’t there.”

Banning scored on the game’s fourth play, as quarterback Jamelle Holieway raced 42 yards on a keeper. The Pilots added a two-point conversion and won the game, 8-0.

“We don’t want to go through that again,” Hernandez said. “We want a good surface.”

When rains last week again turned the Tiger field into mud, San Fernando went shopping for another home.

The Tigers found one at East Los Angeles College. The rental fee was $4,000. Its playing surface is artificial turf.

San Fernando practiced at the college for the first time Wednesday. The players’ reaction?

“They said, ‘Let’s play on this all the time,’ ” Hernandez said.

The Tigers’ wishbone attack will be aided by the turf, the coach added.

“On our field, somebody in the option is always slipping,” Hernandez said. “With this, we can turn it up the field and turn it on.

“Everything goes better. Our kicker was kicking the ball out of the end zone on kickoffs. Our field goal kicker was making field goals from 45 yards out with five yards to spare.”

San Fernando has an edge over Banning in quickness. That edge increases on the turf.

“When we practiced at East L. A., we looked really fast,” Hernandez said, “as fast as I’ve ever seen us.”

The rental fee was somewhat of a setback, but San Fernando thinks it is worth it.

“It’s going to take a lot of profit from the game,” Hernandez said. “But the administration has been real supportive. They have said it’s important to have the best field possible.”

The team’s booster club, Hernandez said, purchased turf shoes for the 40 players on the team at about $18 a pair.

Add San Fernando-Banning: San Fernando last beat Banning in the 1975 City championship game, when the Tigers prevailed, 20-8.

In 1976, Banning ended San Fernando’s season in the quarterfinals, 29-0. In 1977, the Pilots did it in the first round, 24-14.

San Fernando was 10-0 in 1978 and led, 21-7, at halftime of the teams’ semifinal game. But three second-half touchdowns led Banning to a 25-21 win.

In 1980, Banning walloped the Tigers during the regular season, 42-0. The next year, Banning won a first-round playoff game from San Fernando, 45-7.

The 1983 match-up in the semifinals was the last time the two schools played.

What did Canyon earn by entering the Southern Section playoffs seeded No. 1 in the Northwestern Conference?

Very little, as far as home-field advantage is concerned.

For the second straight Friday, Canyon will have a three-hour bus ride to its game.

Last Friday, Canyon traveled to Santa Maria for the quarterfinals. Tonight, the Cowboys will play in Lompoc.

“You’re darn right,” Canyon Coach Harry Welch said, when asked if he was upset his team would again have to play on the road.

Canyon, the two-time defending conference champion, opened the playoffs at home against Serra. Since Santa Maria was on the road for its opening game, the Saints were awarded the home field for last week’s game.

Lompoc, seeded No. 4, was at home in the opening road and on the road last week.

After the opening round, the team with the fewest number of previous home games in the playoffs is designated as the home team. If the teams have played an equal number of home games in the playoffs, a coin flip determines who will play host.

“Maybe in the first round they ought to have the league champion go away,” Welch said.

If Canyon wins tonight and Antelope Valley defeats Hawthorne, the Cowboys would be at home for the final. If Canyon and Hawthorne win, they’ll flip a coin.

“But it’s not that big a deal,” Welch said. “We’re OK. If we lose, it’s not going to be because we had to travel.”

The last team to defeat Canyon in a playoff?

It was Lompoc.

In 1982, the Cowboys had a long ride back from the home of the Braves after losing, 27-14, in the quarterfinals.

Since that game, Canyon is 39-1, having won 36 straight.

“It was a very, very intense situation for a young inexperienced team to have success in,” Welch said, reflecting on that game. “And we weren’t real successful.”

Welch was in his first year as Canyon’s varsity coach in 1982, and the week of the game he lost nine players--including six starters--to academic ineligibility. The players had not maintained a 2.0 average.

“The rule caught me off guard,” said Welch, who added that he has not lost a player since to grades.

Sweetwater High from National City had its winning streak snapped at 36 games last Friday night, losing to Helix, 15-6, in the San Diego Section 3-A semifinals.

The Red Devils had actually won 37 in a row on the field, but had to forfeit the first victory of the streak for using an ineligible player. Sweetwater’s previous loss had come in the 1982 semifinals.

Sweetwater’s loss leaves Canyon with the longest current winning streak in the state.

The California record for most consecutive victories was accomplished by Cardinal Newman High from 1972 to 1977. Cardinal Newman, located in Santa Rosa, won 47 in a row.

The Southern Section record is 46, set by Temple City from 1969 to 1973. Canyon’s mark of 36 is the second longest in Southern Section history.

Wilson High of Los Angeles holds the City Section record, having won 42 straight from 1975 to 1978.

If Lompoc defeats Canyon, the Braves will have their fifth shot at a football championship.

Said Coach Dave Reynolds: “We have never gotten the big ring.”

In 1970, Lompoc lost the 3-A final to Edison, 27-14.

In 1977, Lompoc started a streak of four straight Northwestern Conference championship game losses. Antelope Valley defeated Lompoc, 35-24, that year.

The next year, Culver City won, 14-7. In 1979, La Canada scored a 21-7 win. The next season, Lompoc was shut out by San Luis Obispo, 7-0.