THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Southern Section Notebook : Crow Bows Out With Ill-Timed Loss

Lindon Crow spent most of Saturday morning in bed with a chest cold and a sore throat. About the last thing he wanted to do was watch a videotape of St. Genevieve’s 35-0 playoff loss to Woodbridge on Friday night.

“I feel bad enough without doing that,” he said.

Losing a Desert-Mountain Conference playoff game is one thing, but Crow had another reason to feel low. The game was not reflective of his successful 12-year career, during which his teams made nine playoff appearances and posted a record of 83-50-2.

Crow had hoped for a better showing against Woodbridge, but the Valiants coughed and sputtered their way to a lopsided loss.

“They were extremely fast,” Crow said in a hoarse voice. “Much faster than I thought they’d be. That’s pretty unfortunate because we’re pretty slow. They must have been two times faster than we were.”

St. Genevieve (6-5) didn’t finish fast, but Crow said the lackluster performance won’t take the luster off an otherwise decent year--or a good career. Last week, a group of 200 parents showed up for a party in honor of Crow, 54, and to celebrate the end of the regular season.

“I made out pretty good,” he said with a chuckle.

Among the booty, Crow received an autographed football from Dallas Cowboy Coach Tom Landry, a couple of books and a plaque that reads “Crow’s Nest.” It will hang outside Crow’s new home in Cedar City, Utah, where he will retire to after the school year.

“It was a nice affair,” said Crow, who played for 10 seasons in the National Football League with the Cardinals, Rams and Giants. “I appreciated the gesture.”

Crow, who also will be leaving his post as athletic director, said no replacement has been named. A search committee will be formed soon, he said.

The Greening of White: Riverside Poly Coach Jim McNamara was unabashedly envious Friday night after watching Crespi running back Russell White rush for a school-record 348 yards and five touchdowns in Crespi’s 38-32 win in the first round of the Big Five Conference playoffs.

In fact, a certain color was mentioned after the game.

“I’ve seen some great backs,” McNamara said. “We had Mark Green a couple of years back, and White’s right there in his league. What can you say about five touchdowns?”

Green is playing collegiately at Notre Dame.

Crespi Coach Bill Redell was asked what Crespi would have done without White, who scored all of the Celts’ touchdowns, four on runs of 10 yards or more.

“I don’t know what to say,” Redell said. “What did he have, 348 yards? He’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.”

White boosted his season touchdown total to 33, despite missing last week’s 38-21 win over St. John Bosco because of an injured right ankle. He has 1,863 yards in 10 games.

White, a junior, said it was the best game of his career. Crespi (9-1-1) needed every yard he could muster.

“This was the best,” he said. “Especially because we really had to dig down inside.”

White had a brace on the heavily taped ankle, which he injured in Crespi’s 15-8 loss to Loyola two weeks ago.

“It isn’t too bad,” White said of the brace, which featured a pair of metal hinges.

McNamara would say the same of White.

Lavin’s lavish praise: Nobody can say that Chaminade tailback Tim Lavin doesn’t know how to return a favor, or that he doesn’t appreciate a good turn.

Lavin, a 6-foot, 2-inch, 205-pound senior, rushed for a school-record 315 yards in 36 carries and scored 4 touchdowns Friday night as Chaminade buried Santa Paula, 49-6, in the first round of the Desert-Mountain Conference playoffs.

Sure, Lavin was loving it, but he took time to laud the line for its role. “They’re studs, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “They’re all experienced and they work well together, they really mesh.”

Chaminade bashed Santa Paula and in doing so won its ninth consecutive game after starting the season 0-2. Lavin, despite missing a game because of a sore ankle raised his season total to 1,336 yards.

“We knew we had a good team all along,” he said. “We played some tough opponents.”

Indeed. The team’s only losses were to Notre Dame and Canyon, the No. 1-ranked team in the Coastal Conference. Chaminade led Canyon, 15-7, at halftime, but eventually lost, 22-18.

“We’ve tried really hard to eliminate the mistakes that we made early on,” Lavin said. “I think we have what it takes to go all the way.”

Add Chaminade: Three Chaminade players were ejected after a fourth-quarter free-for-all with the Santa Paula team.

Lavin said it appeared that Chaminade nose guard Brian Consiglio and Santa Paula quarterback Will McInerney got into a scrap after a pass play near the Santa Paula bench. Before the brawl was broken up, Consiglio, lineman Doug Kavulich and defensive back Felix Goodson were ejected, as were two Santa Paula players.

The game was delayed about 20 minutes as the officials tried to restore order.

“The fight only lasted a couple of minutes,” said Lavin, who watched from the other sideline. “The rest of the time was while the refs were deciding who to throw out.”

Live by the sword: Given its druthers, Agoura would rather run than pass. In fact, Coach Frank Greminger was kicking himself for abandoning the ground attack too soon Friday.

“I blew it, I guess,” he said. “I should have stayed with the run a while longer.”

If panic had indeed set in, there might have been good reason. Atascadero defeated Agoura--the Frontier League champion--with surprising ease, 42-7, in the first round of the Desert-Mountain Conference playoffs.

Afterward, Greminger wished he had it to do over. Using its conservative ball-control offense, Agoura took the opening kickoff and drove the length of the field for a 7-0 lead.

Agoura trailed, 14-7, shortly before halftime when Greminger decided to go to the air. “There wasn’t much time,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe there was time.”

Atascadero took Agoura’s own game right at them--running back Chris Dubrul rushed for 231 yards.

“That’s the worst we’ve been pushed around all year,” Greminger said. “They didn’t do anything they weren’t supposed to do. They beat us at our own game and ran right at us.

“The only thing was, they got five and six yards per chunk and we only got two or three.”