The High Schools : Disjointed Showing Sinks Hagge

At first, St. Francis Coach Terry Terrazone thought his quarterback needed time to get warm, maybe a possession or two to get loose, crack his knuckles, limber up.

Something about the performance of senior quarterback Erik Hagge looked peculiar, but Terrazone could not quite put his finger on it. Aesthetically, Hagge’s throws were not picturesque. Aerodynamically, they were grotesque.

“He was throwing some of the weirdest looking passes I’ve ever seen,” Terrazone said. “We couldn’t figure out what was wrong.”

After watching Hagge struggle through the first half, Terrazone finally approached the quarterback and asked about his passing.

“He’d dislocated a finger on his throwing hand on the first play,” Terrazone said. “But he didn’t tell anybody about it, he just popped it back in himself.”

Trouble was, Hagge’s passes had no pop. His spiral behaved more like backspin. And as his index finger ballooned, his passes looked like water balloons.

“He threw one that landed on the ground and just flat stopped--splat--it didn’t bounce or anything,” Terrazone said.

The rest of the St. Francis offense didn’t do much, either, finishing with 89 net yards as Pasadena pounded the Golden Knights, 27-0.

Hagge completed 5 of 13 passes for 51 yards and had 2 passes intercepted.

“He may not play this week, either,” Terrazone said. “That finger was swollen up like a plum.”

Double time: Kennedy Coach Bob Francola was not overwhelmed by the fact that his team already had doubled its win total of last season.

“All it took was two,” he noted, referring to last year’s 1-6-1 record.

This season, things have started differently. The Golden Cougars are 2-0 because of their offense--a run-and-shoot set that operates at double time.

“So far, we’ve been getting plays off every 17 or 18 seconds,” Francola said. “We audible at the line of scrimmage, or run without a huddle sometimes. It really throws off the defense.”

The frantic pace does more than just confuse opponents. Kennedy led, 7-6, in Friday’s game against Crenshaw then scored 15 points in the second half to win, 22-6.

“In the third and fourth quarter, they really suffered,” Francola said of the opponent. “They were outta gas.”

Thumbed out: Wayne Cook, the Newbury Park quarterback who has caught the attention of Division I scouts, suffered a hairline fracture at the base of his right thumb last week. Cook dove for a loose ball in practice and thumb met helmet.

The quarterback might return as early as Oct. 7, when the Panthers play Westlake.

Junior Jai Johnston, who passed for 85 yards in a 20-16 loss to Ventura last week, is Cook’s replacement.

Offensive defense: The Reseda defense scored 4 touchdowns last season and the ’88 edition continued that trend, scoring 8 points last week against Canoga Park. Henry Ray return an interception 43 yards for a touchdown and Aaron Brumfield sacked quarterback David Erhardt in the end zone for a safety.

“I don’t know that it’s anything you can really practice, but it’s one thing that we’re constantly talking about,” Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer said. “I’ve always felt defense stimulates your offense. And our team plays with that in mind.”

The touchdown by Ray was the second of his career defensively. The senior linebacker, called “Big Play” Ray by Schaeffer, returned a fumble 20 yards for a touchdown on the last play of last season’s 13-12 victory over University.

Touchdown that taunts: As the clock wound down during Sylmar’s 44-7 victory over Verdugo Hills, Spartan Coach Jeff Engilman had his reserves on the field.

“They needed the work. I wasn’t concerned with scoring again,” Engilman said.

Engilman was shocked when the Spartans, leading 37-7, scored on an 85-yard touchdown bomb with 40 seconds left.

“I had my back turned and all of a sudden, we’re scoring a touchdown on a fly pattern,” Engilman said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Verdugo Hills Coach Bill Novikoff refused to shake Engilman’s hand after the game.

“The play should not have been called,” Engilman admitted. “I don’t blame them for being ticked off. I would have been, too. I guarantee that it won’t happen again.”

More than filling: Harvard’s Jeremy Schweitzer filled in nicely for injured tailback Marty Holly against Beverly Hills. Schweitzer rushed for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns in 25 carries.

“He’s our secret weapon,” Coach Gary Thran quipped.

It is no secret where Thran turns when in need of a running back. Schweitzer, like Holly and fullback Grant Marston, is a member of Harvard’s rugby team.

Holly, who played sparingly at linebacker last week, is recovering from a pulled hamstring and is “day to day,” Thran said.

Harvard quarterback Scott Collins might be lost for the season because of torn cartilage in his right knee. Collins has completed 17 of 22 passes for 158 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Returning home: Jeff Pressman, who guided the Montclair Prep baseball team to 4 Southern Section titles and 10 league championships from 1976-87, is returning to the school as the administrator in charge of athletics. Walt Steele, however, will remain as the school’s baseball coach.

Pressman will oversee the boys’ and girls’ athletic programs starting next month, Principal V.E. Simpson said.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Steve Elling, John Ortega, Vince Kowalick and Steven Fleischman contributed to this notebook.

FOOTBALL TOP 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 2 Crespi Del Rey 1-1 2 5 San Fernando North Valley 1-1 3 1 Hart Foothill 1-1 4 7 Channel Islands Marmonte 1-1 5 6 Taft West Valley 1-0 6 9 Reseda Mid-Valley 1-0 7 10 Alemany Del Rey 2-0 8 NR Kennedy North Valley 2-0 9 3 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 1-1 10 8 Granada Hills North Valley 1-1

NR--Not ranked.