Mercifully, Marmonte’s Season Over

About the best thing one can say about this year’s Marmonte League season is that it’s over. But then it was expected to be a down year from the beginning, when only Channel Islands had a winning nonleague record.

The final evidence was presented Friday, when each of the league’s 3 Southern Section Division II playoff representatives were eliminated--Camarillo by 38 points to Canyon; Thousand Oaks by 5 to Buena; and Channel Islands, the league champion, by 14 points to Palmdale, the third-place finisher in the Golden League.

This season stands in stark contrast to the previous one, when Thousand Oaks beat Channel Islands in the Coastal Conference final.

The Golden League’s 3 representatives--league-champion Canyon (9-2), Palmdale (8-3) and Antelope Valley (9-2)--all won handily.

In Division VIII, the Frontier League enjoyed a near sweep. Only Santa Ynez, which was the division’s at-large representative, lost--and that was a 43-39 decision to Atascadero, the tournament’s top-seeded team. League-champion Santa Clara beat Mary Star, 38-7; Santa Paula edged St. Monica, 29-27; and Agoura upset undefeated El Segundo, 30-7.

Rushing: John Johnson, the Channel Islands back who was hobbled all season by ankle and knee injuries, finished his career with 3,324 rushing yards, good for third on the all-time Ventura County list. His total trails Marc Monestime’s 4,054, set at Thousand Oaks in 1985-87, and Hilria Johnson’s 3,709. Hilria, John’s brother, also played at Channel Islands. John Johnson rushed for 1,185 yards in 161 carries this season and teammate Jerry Williams had 1,085 yards in 144 carries.

With his 159 yards in Saturday’s first-round playoff loss to Oak Park, Montclair Prep’s Michael Jones, a junior, stands as the Valley area’s No. 2 rusher. In 11 games, he picked up 1,514 yards and 17 touchdowns in 209 carries. Only Monroe’s Curtis Scott, with 1,813 yards in 10 games, has more. In the Southern Section, Crespi’s Russell White has 1,217 yards in 11 games going into a second-round game against Servite on Friday. Kelvin Byrd of Taft, which had a bye last week, has 1,343 yards in 9 games going into tonight’s match-up against Dorsey.

Canyon’s Mark Santos had rushed for only 160 yards this season before exploding for 128 yards and 3 touchdowns in 15 carries in Canyon’s 44-6 playoff win over Camarillo.

Powered by Scott’s 274 yards, Monroe gained a season-high 325 yards rushing in a 28-16 win over Roosevelt, but the Vikings were 0 for 7 passing. Monroe ran 81 plays to Roosevelt’s 34.

Extra points: Granada Hills kicker Darren McMahon finished the season with 35 points, making 29 of 32 point-after attempts and 2 of 3 field-goal attempts. Only San Fernando’s Andrew Munoz (61 points) has scored more among Valley City Section kickers.