THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Amid Naysayers, L. A. Baptist Prepares to Face Montclair Prep

Publicly, they have been doubted.

“I think they may have just won their last game of the season,” said one rival Alpha League coach after a win over Maranatha on Friday.

Privately, they have been doubted.

Rival coaches and players have labeled as a joke a game they played against the Harvard junior varsity, even if a scheduling mistake by Harvard caused the match-up.

Through it all, L. A. Baptist (6-1 overall, 2-0 in league play), which suits up just 20 players on a good day, keeps on winning.

And Friday night, its sparkling season comes to a peak in a league showdown at Kennedy High against Montclair Prep (7-0, 2-0), the No. 1-ranked team in Division IX.

First-year Coach Mark Bates is understandably excited and wary at the same time.

“Montclair Prep is the best team I’ve ever played or coached against,” he said. “But this is the type of game you dream about, the type of game you live for: This is a championship game. The players are really excited for it.”

L. A. Baptist runs a wishbone offense led by quarterback Chris Robinson, who has rushed for 320 yards. Wishbone backs Jeff Hampsten, Colyn Van Buren and Dan Stepper have combined for 884 yards.

A scrappy group, to be sure, that was predicted to be a non-factor before the league began. But the defense has posted two consecutive shutouts in anticipation of the big showdown.

The only problem is manpower. Because of a couple of injuries, L. A. Baptist could enter the game with as few as 18 players. Trying to stop Derek Sparks and Michael Jones, the Mountie tandem that has combined for 2,101 rushing yards, might take that many defenders.

How will Bates deal with those two? “I was thinking about calling their bus driver and having him drive them to another game,” he said.

We’re No. 1?: It might be a little premature to issue party hats, but when the Southern Section volleyball polls are issued next week, it seems a safe bet that Louisville will move to the No. 1 position in the 4-A Division.

Thousand Oaks, formerly the top-ranked 4-A team, lost Tuesday in three games to Marmonte League rival Royal. Second-ranked Louisville, meanwhile, cemented its chances by defeating the 4-A Division’s third-ranked team in the Marlborough tournament last weekend. Louisville defeated Notre Dame Academy, 15-7, in the tournament final.

Mary Beth Giordano and Torie Sumner of Louisville were selected to the all-tournament team.

Filling in: Defensive back-tailback Vince Johnson is a third-year letterman at Cleveland, but before last week’s game against Kennedy, Johnson’s carries as a running back might just as well have been doled out by an eyedropper.

Playing behind running backs such as Sean Burwell last year and senior Pat Bryant this season, Johnson didn’t see the ball much. With Bryant out because of a hand injury, however, Johnson rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown and caught six passes for 71 yards and another score as Cleveland beat Kennedy, 35-21, last week.

All in the family: Brent Huff last roamed the San Fernando secondary in 1987. But in a manner of speaking, Huff’s departure--he now starts at Oregon State and was heard from often in Saturday’s defeat of UCLA--was just the beginning.

Huff’s younger brother, junior Keith Woods, is starting at strong safety for the Tigers. James Woods, a sophomore, will join his brother three games from now, when he becomes old enough to play for the varsity.

Although both play defensive back, differentiating between the Woodses isn’t as hard as it might be thanks to their nicknames. According to defensive coordinator Troy Starr, Keith is known as “Killer,” and James’ nickname is “Scooty.”

Football flattery: The following item marks one of the rare times that Kennedy’s football team will be spoken of in the same breath with USC and Notre Dame.

Struggling Kennedy--which has allowed 1,285 rushing yards in six games and gave up 35 points to Cleveland last week, more than the Cavaliers had scored in their previous four games combined--plays El Camino Real this week, which emphasizes the run.

Yet El Camino Real co-Coach Mike Maio is more than a little concerned, and he has taken the Terry Donahue-Lou Holtz, they-all-look-great-to-me approach.

“That worries me,” Maio said of Kennedy’s defensive problems. “They have the people to fill those holes and I keep thinking that we don’t want to be the team they put it together against.

“It’s like being the team who plays USC after the Notre Dame loss. They might be sort of mad.”

Staff writers Steve Elling and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.