The High Schools : San Fernando Eager to Release Pent-Up Fury Against Other Teams

Even after a 1-week layoff brought on by a first-round playoff bye, San Fernando Coach Tom Hernandez said that the Tigers are as sharp as ever at this stage of the season.

In fact, sharp may be selling the Tigers short. The team is antsy, and last week players took turns stinging each other in practice.

“We had to call off the hitting drills a couple of times,” Hernandez said. “I thought we’d be out screwing around and that I’d have to stay on them, but we were going a little overboard. Everybody was looking for somebody to hit.”

Hernandez said that this year’s team, his seventh as a coach, is hitting its stride, too. And at an opportune time: The Tigers play El Camino Real in the second round of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs tonight.

“We’ve had teams that have gotten hot at the beginning or the middle of the year, but this is the best I’ve ever seen at the end of the season,” he said.

Hurt Huskies: North Hollywood Coach Fred Grimes was not making excuses for the Huskies’ 21-0 first-round loss to Franklin in the City 3-A playoffs, but he pointed out that running backs Mike Goldsmith and Tim Sutton were hampered by injuries.

Goldsmith, who gained 780 yards and scored 11 touchdowns this season, was hobbled by an ankle injury suffered against Sylmar in the last game of the regular season. He was held to minus-1 yard in 4 carries against Franklin.

Sutton, who gained 705 yards and scored 5 touchdowns, did not fare much better while nursing a pulled hamstring. He gained 43 yards in 19 carries.

With its running attack shut down, North Hollywood was helpless against Franklin, the two-time defending 3-A champion.

Add injuries: Sylmar tailback Jerome Casey did not play in the Spartans’ 28-0 victory over Wilson in the first round of the City 3-A playoffs, but it was not because of an injured groin muscle as previously reported.

Casey, who has rushed for 1,150 yards, did have a problem with his groin, but it was an infected ingrown hair--not a muscle pull--that kept him out of the game.

According to Spartan Coach Jeff Engilman, the ingrown hair bothered Casey at the start of last week, but it was not serious.

As the week wore on, however, the surrounding area became infected and after swelling to the size of a golf ball, had to be lanced Thursday night, forcing Casey to view Friday night’s game from the sidelines on crutches.

With Casey out, Robert Augustus (110 yards in 13 carries, 2 touchdowns), Donald Ward (10 carries for 66 yards) and quarterback Chris Pikes (11 carries for 49 yards, 2 touchdowns) picked up the slack. Sylmar rushed for 246 yards.

“Those guys really came through,” Engilman said. “They were put in a tough situation and they responded very well.”

Casey is expected back for Sylmar’s quarterfinal game at South Gate tonight, but the Spartans will play without Pikes, who stretched ligaments in his left knee against Wilson.

Wide receiver Shawn Aleshire, who leads Sylmar with 8 catches for 102 yards, will replace Pikes. Joseph Vaughn or Tony Manriquez will replace Aleshire.

Down but not out: Bryan Dameworth’s runner-up finish in the 2-A Division race in the Southern Section cross-country finals at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday was viewed as a major failure by some. But the Charger junior said that he was happy with his effort after placing behind Scott Hempel of Walnut.

“I would like to have won, but I don’t mind losing to a runner like Hempel. He’s always tough in the big meets,” Dameworth said.

Hempel is especially tough at Mt. SAC, which is Walnut’s home course. He won the 2-A title there in 1987 before taking the state Division II crown at Fresno 2 weeks later.

On Saturday, Hempel ran a personal best of 15 minutes, 6 seconds over the 3-mile course.

Dameworth also ran a personal best (15:09) and is looking forward to defending his state Division I title at Fresno’s Woodward Park on Saturday. Dameworth will run against Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks, who won the 4-A title Saturday in 15:02. The runners have split 2 races this season.

Williamson won the team sweepstakes race at the Mt. SAC Invitational in October and Dameworth placed third, then Dameworth defeated Williamson for the Ventura County title at Moorpark College 6 days later.

Although Hempel and Dameworth ran in the same race in the Southern Section meet, they will not meet in Fresno because Agoura and Walnut are in different divisions based on student populations.

“I don’t feel like I’m the favorite,” Dameworth said. “Williamson has been running very well lately, but I don’t mind being the underdog. I seem to run better that way.”

After finishing fourth in the 2-A finals last year, Dameworth won the state championship, outkicking Goshu Tadese of Crawford High in San Diego and David Scudamore of Palos Verdes in the final 400 meters.

Staff writers Steve Elling and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.