South Coast League : Stark, Capo Valley Butt Way to League Crown

Jim McMahon doesn’t have anything on Scott Stark.

Stark, the Capistrano Valley High School quarterback who verbally committed to Stanford earlier this week, stole a page from McMahon’s book of tricks in helping the Cougar basketball team to a 66-59 victory over rival Mission Viejo Friday.

Simply put, led by Stark, the Cougars put their heads together and withstood a strong challenge from the Diablos in the Mission Viejo gym, winning both the game and the South Coast League championship in the process.

Remember when McMahon and his Chicago Bears linemen would butt heads after a touchdown or a good play during the Bears’ march to the Super Bowl?

Well, the Cougars copied that on the basketball court--sans the helmets, of course.

Head butts have replaced high fives as the Cougar basketball team’s celebration of choice. The only problem there is that after all of the good plays that Capistrano Valley made against Mission Viejo, the starting five probably has a collective headache this morning.

And it was Stark, playing a little wide receiver against the Diablos, who caught two long passes from fellow guard Nathan Call--during the football season, it worked the other way around--to score two key baskets on fast breaks that gave the Cougars a cushion when the Diablos challenged late in the game.

With Capistrano Valley ahead, 55-50, with 2:33 to play and Mission Viejo with the ball, Call rebounded an errant shot and hit Stark with a length-of-the-court pass.

Stark scored the easy layup, and 10 seconds later, the same thing happened off of a steal. This time, Stark was fouled on the layup, made the basket and free throw for a three-point play. That five-point burst by Stark gave the Cougars a 60-50 lead and Stark a round of head-butts from his joyous teammates.

“The basketball guys thought of it (the head butts),” Stark said. “I think it might have been Nathan (Call).”

The Fontana High School football players slap each other after a penalty, so why can’t the Cougars knock heads after a good play?

They certainly did that underneath the boards with the Diablos.

What separates Capistrano Valley from most other high school teams is that its guards--Stark, Call, and Scott McCullough--are such good athletes that the Cougars can afford to send them underneath to rebound and usually not get burned by that tactic on defense.

That generally works out to three or four players going for the ball in the lane for the Cougars against two or three for the opposition.

“We always have one man release, though,” Capistrano Valley Coach Mark Thornton noted. “Other teams talk about that but we do it on the court.”

Friday, Stark was the release man, or cherry picker, as they say in the school yards, and his alert play helped the Cougars (11-0 in league, 23-2 overall) subdue their stubborn rivals for the second time this season.

John Waikle scored 15 points and Shawn Reed added 14, but the star was Stark--no ifs, ands, or butts about it.

San Clemente 56, Laguna Hills 52 (OT)--Gary Wade scored 24 points, but it was John McGraw’s field goal and Jeff Love’s two free throws in overtime that lifted the Tritons past the Hawks at San Clemente High.

Wade was responsible for sending the game into the extra period, however. San Clemente, trailing by two points, had the ball under Laguna Hills’ basket with one second left and threw a long pass to Wade near the Tritons’ foul line.

Wade was fouled in his attempt to catch the pass and made both ends of a one-and-one situation to tie the game at 52 and and send it into overtime.