HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : CITY 3-A : Franklin vs. Manual Arts

A Nash he is, a rambler he’s not. This model is the latest super-charged product to be paraded off the line at L.A. Manual Arts. He’s not a sprinter like Steve Broussard, who could seemingly blow past people in second gear. Still, the results are the same.

The Toilers are playing L.A. Franklin for the City 3-A championship Thursday night at 7:30 at East Los Angeles College. And, just like when they won back-to-back titles with Broussard in 1983 and ‘84, a running back leads the offense. Senior Herman Nash, 5-9 and 196 pounds, should be one of the Central City’s top exports to the colleges next season, this after rushing for 1,021 yards and 12 touchdowns in 97 carries through 10 games.

“Nash is not as quick as Steve Broussard, but he is just as strong,” Manual Arts co-Coach Chuck Hollis said. “He’s not a selfish player at all. Really, Nash could play any position on the team.

“We’ll give him the ball 20 or 30 times a game if we can. He’ll run until he drops dead, that you can be sure of. We make no bones about that.”

Similarly, Franklin (9-2) won’t surprise anyone with its plan to pass, with one of the top combinations in the City with Ricky Lopez throwing to Eric York coming out of the backfield. So, this will be an easy game to defense--on paper.

“We have pretty good speed in our secondary,” Hollis said, well aware of Lopez and York. “Nobody is going to beat us deep.”

That is fine with Franklin co-Coach Armando Gonzalez, since Lopez usually doesn’t go for long gainers. The City’s second-leading passer at the end of the regular season with 1,517 yards, he averaged just 7.9 a completion.

“We’ll take chunks at a time,” Gonzalez said. “It was the same thing when we played Garfield (during the regular season). They were the top 3-A team, and we just took a little at a time and got a great game from our quarterback. We’ll take what we can. We’ll nickel and dime them.

“We’re not too fast. But we are aggressive and we can do a lot of different things.”

The defensive strength for Manual Arts (8-2) is at linebacker, with Johnny Hughes and Kevin Johnson sharing the team lead in tackles. Likewise for Franklin, which has Sergio Lopez, No. 1 in the City in sacks (16), on the outside and Jose Aguilar and Fabrizio Elias inside.

Manual Arts, the Crosstown League champion, has rebounded from a 3-5-1 season in 1985. Franklin, the third-place team out of the Freeway League, won the 2-A title in 1983 and then went 2-7 and 5-3 the next two seasons after moving to the 3-A. It overcame a 24-0 deficit against Canoga Park in the first round and then beat Palisades in the semifinals.