All That Hard Work Puts Kennedy, Granada Hills in Precarious Positions

Because City Section football teams took last week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, Darryl Stroh and Bob Francola had two weeks to study films for tonight’s semifinal games. Rewind. Fast forward. Pass the turkey, please.

Beginning Monday, Stroh, the coach at Granada Hills High, and Francola, the coach at Kennedy, scooped up the reams of notes dotted with Xs and O’s and charged off to practice. The math, science and English lectures that players sat through all morning were not half as complex as the hieroglyphics their coaches made them learn. And made them learn is right. Biology teachers don’t order wind sprints for missed assignments.

All season, the homework has paid off. Granada Hills (9-0-1) completed its first unbeaten regular season and has the top offense among the Valley’s City teams, averaging 317 yards a game. Kennedy (6-3-1) outscored its Valley 4-A League opponents, 103-7, and has the area’s best defense, allowing 80 yards a game.

And because the players have learned so well, they have the somewhat dubious honor of playing two of the nation’s top teams tonight in the City 4-A semifinals.

A thundering herd of thoroughbreds from Carson (9-1) is headed for Granada Hills. Carson’s nickname is the Colts, which is as accurate as calling a snarling German Shepherd a pooch.

Kennedy must travel to Long Beach Veterans Stadium to face Banning (10-0), which knows the real meaning of the popular chant, “We’re No. 1.” The Pilots are ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today and, while winning eight 4-A championships in the last 10 years, have beaten teams from the Valley 33 times in their last 34 meetings.

If the Valley teams are to have a chance, they must rely on their strengths. Granada Hills will have to score a lot of points and Kennedy will have to prevent Banning from scoring.

Having had quarterbacks such as John Elway and Dana Potter, Granada Hills has a reputation for making more passes than Rudolph Valentino. Jeremy Leach, a 6-2, 200-pound junior, is another good Highlander quarterback, but he is asked to share the ball with running backs Khalid Ali, Mike Davis and Jamaal Farmer.

“Our best athletes are running backs for a change,” offensive coordinator Tom Harp said. “I’d be a fool not to give Ali the ball.”

Ali has rushed for 1,287 yards and 20 touchdowns from his tailback position, mostly on draws and power plays off tackle. Davis can play either tailback or fullback and, despite missing three games with an injury, has added 248 yards on sweeps around end. Farmer, a fullback, has rushed for 307 yards and is the team’s No. 2 receiver with 17 catches.

Leach has thrown only three interceptions in 161 attempts and has completed 58% of his passes. In clutch situations, he usually goes to tight end Sean Brown, who has 32 catches for 420 yards.

“We have a lot of combination plays where Jeremy has the option to throw to one of several receivers,” Harp said. “He reads coverages well, especially for his limited experience.”

Leach also has great leeway on calling audibles. Sometimes, in fact, Granada Hills breaks its huddle without having called a play. Leach recognizes the defensive formation, then calls the play while standing behind center.

“In our offense he has a lot of control,” Harp said. “He can’t be a mechanical quarterback. A lot of coaches don’t use audibles because they don’t want a 16-year old kid changing the play they called.”

Said Stroh: “We feel that if we prepare our people well enough, he’ll make the right call most of the time.”

Audibles are most effective against a team that uses several defensive sets and blitzes. Carson is so talented, though, that its defense usually sits in a basic 4-3 and challenges an offense to beat it. “We don’t expect any tricks,” Stroh said.

Harp, who calls the plays, does not use a computer to prepare for games nor does he communicate via headphones with a coach in the press box. He and Stroh believe it is more important to prepare players to make the proper adjustments during a game. The Highlander offensive line, small by City standards, is a good example.

“Our linemen, at this point, are able to make effective blocks regardless of the defensive set,” Harp said. “In high school, that’s tough to do.”

The line--tackles Scott Craven and Jon Munson, guards Aaron Hess and Mark Meyerhoff, center Joe Beauvais and tight end Sean Brown--is coached by Bill Lake.

“We are outmatched one-on-one,” Harp said. “Our blocking schemes are more advanced than most teams’ and the line has worked really hard to learn them. Like most lines on good teams, those guys are our unsung heroes.”

Bob Francola says his defense is full of junkyard dogs.

“There’s a lot of barking going on in the huddle,” he said with obvious pride. “They are a bunch of scrungy, scrappy guys who love to attack.”

A lot of teams have hard-charging defenses, but often the players are more like Labradors than Doberman Pinchers, tending to slobber over a ball-carrier, rather than bring him down. Kennedy’s dogs have a bite equal to their bark.

Kennedy employs four linebackers and only three down linemen. The cornerbacks use man-to-man coverage and the safeties, who often are essentially linebackers, help out quickly against the run. The team’s leading tackler is free safety Stacy Ramsey.

“Usually when a safety has the most tackles it means that teams are kicking your butt,” Francola said. “In our defense the safeties and cornerbacks are supposed to make tackles at the line of scrimmage.”

Ramsey and strong safety George Davison are also the emotional leaders of the Kennedy defense, which has allowed only 304 yards rushing and 504 yards passing in 10 games, nine of which were against 4-A opponents. Only if a team’s cornerbacks are exceptional at man-to-man coverage can safeties be so conscious of the run. And in Dion Lambert, a 6-3, 180-pound ball hawk who will be one of the most heavily recruited defensive players in the area, and Mark MacMillan, a 5-8, 160-pound speedster, Kennedy has exceptional corners.

Linebackers Billy Dykes, Zeus Woody, Ron Hardy and Steve Yurosek are all juniors. In the complex stunting schemes developed by Francola and defensive coordinator Dick Whitney, one or two may blitz on any play.

Although the linebackers are nearly interchangeable parts, the three linemen are specialized.

Andre Murray, a tremendous athlete who is playing football for the first time, lines up on the side opposite the tight end and is a designated pass rusher. The 6-3, 215-pound senior has 17 1/2 sacks.

Akili Calhoun (6-4, 225) is a nose guard who demands double-team attention. “If Akili is blocked by both the center and a guard,” Francola said, “he should be making tackles in the backfield.”

Ron Simmons (6-4, 245) is Kennedy’s solid rock. A Times’ All-Valley offensive center last year, Simmons sometimes is relieved on defense by Leo Castro (6-0, 190).

Effectively defensing Banning’s veer attack is an 11-man effort. One breakdown and, boom, six points.

“We hope to force the pitch,” Francola said. “If the veer isn’t working, they’ll go to a power offense or the shotgun. I’ll consider it a supreme compliment if Banning abandons the veer.”