The Preps : Homeless St. John Bosco (11-0) Getting Noticed

The Southern Section’s football orphans are at it again. An 11-0 record and a fourth straight appearance in the playoffs, a running back with 1,200 yards and 17 touchdowns, a quarterback with 2,000 yards in total offense, a wide receiver with a 17.9 yard-per-catch average--these guys seem to have a lot of everything.

Except, perhaps, a lot of recognition.

But that’s OK, Coach Bill Friedrich says. The Braves of St. John Bosco High School are used to it.

“We don’t belong to anyone,” he says rather proudly. “Long Beach doesn’t want us. Orange County doesn’t want us. We’re kind of tucked in the pocket. We don’t get a lot of coverage.”

The team from Bellflower is, however, getting a lot of attention. You can’t stage several comebacks, beat top-10 teams Loyola and Encino Crespi in a three-week span, go undefeated in the section’s toughest league (the Del Rey), reach the Big Five Conference quarterfinals and go unnoticed.

Tonight, the Braves travel to Long Beach to play Moore League runner-up Millikan (9-1) in what Friedrich expects to be a close game. No wonder, it seems that’s all they ever play.

St. John Bosco, which closed out the regular season as The Times’ No. 3 team in the Southern Section, has won six games by seven points or less and has a knack for playing to the level of its opponents. La Canada St. Francis scores 7, Bosco gets 14. Redlands goes wild with 36 last week in the first round of the playoffs and Bosco answers with 49.

Not only that, the Braves often do it the hard way: They trailed St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs, 10-0, after two possessions before winning, 21-17. The Braves trailed Loyola, known for its defense, 21-7, late in the second quarter before winning, 28-27. They fell behind Crespi, known for its offense, 21-6, also just before halftime and came back to win, 32-27.

“Some games I have been surprised, but I kind of thought we’d be where we’re at now,” Friedrich said. “Maybe 11-0 is a little surprising, but not how we’re playing now.

“We’ve been lucky, fortunate. We haven’t had any serious injuries, and I have been impressed with some areas (a small defense with eight juniors starting, two new offensive tackles) that I thought would be question marks. But the kids have a great attitude. They never say die.”

No reason to, with an offense capable of the big play. Quarterback Jim Sterner and talented wide receiver Kelvin Means, both seniors, have been an almost unstoppable combination all year, hitting Loyola and its injury-plagued secondary for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns in 9 completions. In the same game, Oscar Meza, a 6-foot senior running back, rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown.

Much more of that and they could have a home, after all. It would be for only one day, but Anaheim Stadium Dec. 12 for the Big Five championship game wouldn’t be such a bad place to be.

A pair of league rematches will decide the two Southern Section eight-man titles today, with Chadwick of Palos Verdes (9-0) playing host to Pasadena Poly (9-1) in the Large Division at 1 p.m., and defending co-champion Bloomington Christian (8-3) playing host to Temple Christian of Perris (9-2) at 7:30 p.m. in the Small Division.

Chadwick, a 29-12 winner when the teams met during the Prep League season, is making its first-ever appearance in a football championship game. Poly, which defeated top-seeded Templeton in the semifinals, is playing for the title a second time, having lost to Rio Hondo Prep of Arcadia in 1979.

Both of the Small Division finalists were at-large playoff entrants that won big in the semifinals, Temple Christian routing Coast Christian of Redondo Beach by 39 and Bloomington Christian trouncing the other defending co-champion, Hesperia Christian, by 30. This is Temple Christian’s first football title game.

Cerritos Gahr, with one of the top girls’ volleyball teams in Southern California and a top college prospect in Jill Johnson, may not have made it to this point of the season without outside help. Actually, some contend, the Gladiators should not have made it to Saturday’s Division I semifinals of the Southern California Regionals.

The Gladiators broke a California Interscholastic Federation rule by rehiring walk-on junior varsity Coach Gary Yee after he coached two Gahr players on a United States Volleyball Assn. team last spring. Regulations state that no school representative may coach or organize a team outside the regular prep season. Gahr officials admitted the violation and wrote a letter of reprimand to varsity Coach Sonny Okamato and fired Yee.

According to the South Bay Daily Breeze, the situation was brought to the attention of Southern Section administrator Karen Hellyer, the person in charge of girls’ volleyball, before the playoffs started. Hellyer, citing a hands-off policy unless an appeal is filed, referred the matter to the San Gabriel Valley League, which supported the original action by Gahr. The team was allowed to keep the league title and go to the 4-A playoffs.

The Gladiators went on to beat L.A. Marlborough, Torrance, Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley and Irvine to win the title. Onto the state playoffs, leaving a trail of irked coaches behind when the story broke.

In the Division I quarterfinals, Gahr plays Oxnard Hueneme and top-seeded Manhattan Beach Mira Costa meets Poway of the San Diego Section. The two winners will advance to the semifinals Dec. 2, where they will play teams from Northern California. Division II and III play their regional finals Saturday, with Nordhoff facing Thousand Oaks in the medium-schools and L.A. Brentwood traveling to San Diego to play Francis Parker in Division III action.

All semifinals winners advance to the state finals at Cal State Fullerton Dec. 6.