Prep Review : Trabuco Hills Will Stay Home, Thanks to a Couple of Victories

Trabuco Hills High School’s football team pulled off two very important victories this past weekend.

First, the Mustangs routed host Santa Paula, 42-7, to earn the right to play Atascadero Friday in the semifinal round of the Southern Section Division VIII playoffs.

Then, in perhaps the biggest victory of the season for the Mustangs, they won a coin flip Saturday to determine the host for the semifinal game.

To the loser went a 250-plus mile trip. As it happened, Trabuco Hills does not have to drive to San Luis Obispo County. Instead, the Mustangs will play host to the Greyhounds at 7:30 p.m. at Mission Viejo High School.

“I hadn’t been that excited about a coin toss in a long time,” Trabuco Hills Coach Jim Barnett said Sunday. “I know they (Atascadero) were disappointed.

“At this point you’re happy to still be playing no matter where it is.”

It will be the second long drive in as many weeks for Atascadero, 12-0 and the division’s top-seeded team. Last week, the Greyhounds defeated Bloomington, located in San Bernardino County, 28-13.

Still, playing in Orange County might only account for a slight advantage for Trabuco Hills (10-2).

“I’m amazed they’re as big as they are,” Barnett said. “They’re monsters. Needless to say, we’ll try to run around them and not through them.”

Add Trabuco Hills: Barnett on playing at Santa Paula, located in rural Ventura County: “It’s not a big town, but it seemed like half the town was at the game.

“They were fired up, but it seemed like once we scored the first touchdown, everything fell into place.”

Add football: Los Alamitos, a finalist last season in Division III, keeps rolling along in the playoffs.

The Griffins snapped out of an offensive slump in the opening round against Foothill to defeat Schurr, 52-22.

Los Alamitos (11-0-1) led, 45-0, at one point in the third quarter. Griffin quarterback Todd Gragnano threw for 3 touchdowns to Ron Monninger and completed 14 of 17 passes for 231 yards.

Gragnano set a school record for passing yardage in a season with 1,999, breaking the mark of 1,790 yards by J.T. Snow in 1985.

Los Alamitos plays at El Modena in the semifinals Friday.

Football playoff notes:

--Woodbridge, the defending Division VIII champion, was not so lucky in its coin toss Saturday. The Warriors (11-1) will play at Agoura (8-3-1) in Friday’s other semifinal.

Last season, Woodbridge made the long drive to Atascadero and beat the Greyhounds, 40-0, in the semifinals.

--Orange County teams are assured of berths in three division championship games. In Division I, either Fountain Valley or Servite is in the title game. In Division III, Mission Viejo, El Modena and Los Alamitos are still alive. In Division VI, Corona del Mar, Pacifica, Fullerton and Valencia remain in the title chase.

--Valencia and Woodbridge still have a shot at repeating their respective championship.

Quotable? It’s early in the season, but Phil Henderson, Sonora basketball coach, is the early leader in the running for the LeRon Ellis ‘My Dad, He’s Like A Father Figure’ quote of the year award.

Said Henderson:

“Sunny Hills is far and away the favorite. They have the biggest name kids coming back. I can’t think of their names at the moment.”

Add basketball: At La Habra this past summer, the Highlanders played with a 6-foot 10-inch student from Australia named Clay Basham. He played part of the summer with the team until Coach Frank Carroll discovered that Basham already had played 4 years of high school ball in Australia.

“No matter what country you’re in, if you’ve played 4 years, you’ve used up your eligibility,” McCarroll said. “It’s unfortunate because it would have been nice to have him.”

Basham reportedly is playing at a community college in Arizona.

Tough enough: Dave Heffern, Corona del Mar girls’ tennis coach, on the Sea Kings’ upset over Miraleste in the 4-A championship Tuesday:

“The girls showed a lot of guts in the last round. We’ve been accused of being cute and not very tough. Today, they were tough.”

Heffern compared it to another coaching thrill, when his Corona del Mar girls’ basketball team won the 1983 3-A championship.

“That was unbelievable,” he said of the Sea Kings’ 59-52 upset of Esperanza in the 1983 finals. He paused and added, “So is this.”

Tuesday’s title was Corona del Mar’s first in tennis since the 3-A championship in 1979, when Scott Penner was coach.

Add tennis: The Southern Section Individual Tournament continues Wednesday with the round of 16 and the quarterfinals. Play begins at 11 a.m. at the Racquet Club of Irvine.

The semifinals and finals will be Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m., also at the Racquet Club of Irvine.

Bashing Bev: Riding the powerful arm of 6-2 Bev Oden, the Irvine girls’ volleyball team is a victory away from a return to the State Division I championship game.

Oden had 22 kills as Irvine beat Bakersfield North, 15-7, 15-11, 15-10, Saturday to advance to the semifinals against Los Altos Tuesday.

Last season, Irvine upset Newport Harbor, 15-6, 11-15, 15-13, 15-13, to take the state title.

Nice chapeau: As soon as the Dana Hills boys’ cross-country team won the Division I (large schools) State Cross-Country Championship Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, Michael Tansley, father of Dolphin runners Mike and Andrew Tansley, joyfully cheered his approval--then ran off and got his hat.

Tansley, who in a letter to The Times promised Dana Hills would win the Southern Section and state titles or he’d eat his hat, presented his hat--made of chocolate mousse cake--to a reporter to enjoy.

Add cross-country: Missing from Sunday’s results was Mary McKiernan of Orange Lutheran, who ran as an individual in the Division III (small schools) race. McKiernan finished sixth overall in 19 minutes 53 seconds, the eighth-fastest time for Orange County girls.

Prep Notes

Bill Boswell, athletic director at Westminster High and the Huntington Beach Union High School District for 16 years, will be among six people to receive the National Federation of State High School Assn.’s citation award on Dec. 13 in Las Vegas. Boswell is vice president of the California State Athletic Directors Assn.