Leuzinger-Hawthorne: Tap Is Dry for One Game

Normally after games on Friday night, the football coaches from Leuzinger and Hawthorne high schools get together at a neighborhood bar to watch films and discuss their teams’ performances.

Leuzinger Coach Steve Carnes doubts they’ll meet this week.

“It’s not a good idea,” said Carnes, whose team faces Hawthorne at 7:30 Friday night at Leuzinger. “Win or lose, there’s always someone who’s going to be unhappy.”

Regardless of friendships, emotions will be running high.

The Hawthorne-Leuzinger game has developed into one of the South Bay’s most exciting and intense rivalries in the past 5 years. The series is dead even (1-1-2) since Carnes, a former Hawthorne assistant, moved over to Leuzinger in 1984.

Last year the game ended in a 21-21 tie. The year before, Leuzinger won 12-7. The year before that, when Leuzinger won the CIF Desert-Mountain Conference title, the teams tied 14-14. And in 1984, Hawthorne dealt Carnes a 6-0 setback in his rookie season.

“It’s always been exciting to play them,” Carnes said. “And this time it means something.”

What had been a non-league game took on added significance this season when Hawthorne and Leuzinger were realigned into the Bay League. So, in addition to the usual bragging rights, playoff berths and a league title are at stake.

Leuzinger (8-0 overall, 5-0 in league play) leads both Hawthorne (6-2, 4-1) and Santa Monica (5-2, 4-1) by one game in the standings with two games left.

The closeness of the coaches and players has helped fuel the rivalry.

Carnes, Hawthorne Coach Goy Casillas and Hawthorne defensive coordinator Larry Reed coached together under Fred Boehm at Lawndale High in the late 1970s.

After Lawndale was closed, Boehm, with Carnes as an assistant, became the head coach at Hawthorne and guided the Cougars in 1981-82 before he resigned. Reed became Hawthorne’s coach in 1983 and Casillas was his defensive coordinator.

Carnes says the rivalry heated up the next year when he became Leuzinger’s coach and Boehm accompanied him as an assistant.

“There was some unhappiness when Fred left (Hawthorne),” he said. “The rivalry was aided by that initial friction when I came over here. Initially I think it was an ego thing between the coaches. But we have thrown that aside. We know that both staffs do a good job.”

The players, many of whom know each other from the Hawthorne, Lawndale and Lennox areas, don’t have to be motivated for this one.

“There’s never a problem getting up for the game,” Casillas said. “The kids see each other on the streets every day. They don’t want to lose this one because it’s the game they remember. That’s why every game is close.”

Carnes will be going for his 40th victory at Leuzinger on Friday. In four-plus seasons, his Olympians have a 39-13-4 record, including a 5-3 mark in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

“We’ve been pretty successful,” he said. “It’s been a combination of having a good staff and improving the lower levels in the last couple of years. We have close to 150 kids for three teams this year.

“We’re carrying about 65 kids on the varsity, and that has helped. This marks the first time we’ve been able to platoon a lot of kids. In the past, we’ve had two-way players everywhere.”

Leuzinger, off to its best start in the Carnes era, moved up two places to No. 2 in the CIF Division II writers poll this week. Santa Barbara (8-0), the only other unbeaten team in the division, took over the No. 1 spot after top-ranked Antelope Valley lost to Canyon, 10-9.

Carson football Coach Gene Vollnogle is worried about playing Dorsey at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Friday night. More than the game, he’s concerned about the officiating.

“You have problems when you go to Dorsey and Crenshaw,” he said. “Not with the players, with the officials because they get intimidated. Last year the officiating at (Robinson) was extremely weak.”

Vollnogle worries that the situation could be worse this time because of Dorsey’s claim that it was “cheated” last Friday night in Banning’s 26-21 win over the Dons at Harbor College.

A kickoff and two running plays were run by Banning while the game clock remained stopped with 7:18 left and Dorsey ahead, 21-14. After the error was caught, the officials ran off 10 seconds. Dorsey contends that more time should have been run off, and if it had, Banning would not have been able to drive 75 yards with 23 seconds left for the winning touchdown.

Dorsey staged a meeting Monday at school to protest the timekeeping error, which has been brought to the attention of L.A. City Section administrators. Booster club President Ava Shaw said Dorsey was “tired of being cheated” in road games against Banning and Carson.

“I’m concerned with Dorsey making that kind of comment” Vollnogle said. “They’re baiting the officials by saying, ‘Give us a break.’ I don’t know why our name was involved with that. If anything, it’s the other way around when we go there.”

Although he coached Luis Solorio in high school, Vollnogle was just as surprised as anyone when he learned that the former Carson kicker played quarterback for Harbor College in a 41-0 loss to Glendale on Saturday night.

“Is that right?” he said, laughing.

Asked if Solorio had played quarterback at Carson, Vollnogle said: “Never ever. I knew he was a good athlete. I knew he could throw the ball. We had a fake PAT play where he would pass the ball. We practiced it, but we never had to use it.

“If he’s playing quarterback for Harbor, I’d say they’re in trouble.”

Solorio, Harbor’s punter, was pressed into quarterback duty after Grant Beachley went down with an injury.

The Bishop Montgomery girls volleyball team completed an unbeaten Angelus League season last Thursday by beating St. Paul in three straight games.

The Knights (13-1 overall, 10-0 in league play) open the CIF 5-A Division playoffs next Thursday with a home match, which comes as good news. They lost on the road to Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos of Goleta in the first round of the playoffs each of the last two years.

“It will be nice to finally play at home,” said third-year Coach Kim Willeman, whose team lost a coin flip with Mater Dei and St. Joseph after finishing in the three-way tie for the Angelus title last year.

Bishop Montgomery, ranked No. 9 in the 5-A coaches poll, suffered its only loss to No. 3-ranked Mira Costa early in the season.

The Knights’ standouts are 6-0 middle blocker Mindy Czulegar and 5-11 outside hitter Amy Sherman. Both seniors are being recruited by 4-year colleges, Willeman said.

PREP NOTES--Miraleste, the two-time defending CIF 4-A girls tennis champion, appears on course to make it three in a row after defeating No. 2-ranked Corona del Mar, 13-5, in a non-league match last week. Kimberly Po, the state’s top-ranked 16-year-old player, swept her three singles matches while Nyree Kerr and Erika Hansen each won two of three to lead the Marauders (10-0 and top-ranked in the 4-A Division) . . . Coast Christian running back Earl Rhodes carried the ball two times for 51 yards and a touchdown before Coach Dan Pride sat him down Saturday in a 56-16 win over Antelope Valley Christian. “I was afraid he’d hurt somebody,” Pride said of the 6-2, 200-pound junior. “You could tell they didn’t want to tackle him.” The Saints (7-0) go after their 20th consecutive win Saturday at 1 p.m. against Camp Kilpatrick (7-0-1) at Mira Costa High before opening defense of their CIF 8-Man Small Conference championship next week in the playoffs . . . The Bay, Ocean and Marine league cross-country finals will be run today on different areas of Palos Verdes Peninsula. Mira Costa swept both the boys and girls dual-meet titles in the Ocean League while Palos Verdes--the top-ranked girls team in the state--and Beverly Hills boys won Bay League crowns.

South Bay’s Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters

Rank, School, League Record

1 Leuzinger (Bay) 8-0

2 Carson (Southern) 7-1

3 Banning (Southern)) 7-1

4 Hawthorne (Bay) 6-2

5 Palos Verdes (Bay) 6-2

6 El Segundo (Santa Fe) 8-0

7 Morningside (Ocean) 5-2

8 Serra (Camino Real) 5-3

9 Westchester (Western) 6-2

10 North Torrance (Ocean) 5-3