2-A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : Grossmont Next for Streaking Lincoln

Who’s the favorite in tonight’s (7:30) second-round 2-A playoff game? Grossmont High, champion of the 2-A Grossmont League, or Lincoln, second-place finisher in the City Central?

Grossmont (10-0-1) finished the regular season as the county’s No. 2 defense, allowing only 5.9 points per game. The Foothillers also were the No. 2 offense, averaging 42 points.

Therefore, Grossmont must be the clear-cut favorite, right?

Maybe not. Although Lincoln (9-2) finished second to Crawford in the Central, it played much of its schedule with four key starters on the bench nursing injuries. In the past three games, Lincoln has returned to full speed and has gone 3-0, scoring 59 points against Hoover, 46 against San Diego, and 30 last week against USDHS in the first round of the San Diego Section playoffs.

Pretty impressive?

Now add the fact that all three games were shutouts.

Pretty ominous?

“Yeah, it is pretty ominous,” said Jud Hulbert, Grossmont’s coach. “They’re running on 14 quarters without anyone scoring on them.”

No, it’s not really all that ominous, insists Vic Player, Lincoln’s coach.

“The schools on the end of our schedule really weren’t going anywhere and they were just going through the motions when we played them,” he said. But Hoover made it to the playoffs and USDHS lost in the first round.

Hulbert said he will rely on two running backs to reverse Lincoln’s tide, senior Keith Price and sophomore Jason Eskridge.

Price finished the season as the county’s No. 3 rusher with 1,440 yards on 177 attempts. Eskridge was called up from the junior varsity after the fourth game and has run for six touchdowns in the past four games.

Lincoln will counter with the running duo of Charles Brown (four touchdowns in the past three games) and Terrell Davis, who against USDHS played in his first game since going down with a knee injury six weeks before. Davis scored two touchdowns in his return, one on a run, the other on a 12-yard pass from quarterback Mike Temple.

Other 2-A quarterfinal games:

* Santana (7-2-1) at El Camino (10-1), 7:30--El Camino, the No. 1 seed, should have little trouble running over Santana tonight. The Wildcats defeated Valhalla, 55-7, in last week’s first round game. Brian Madlangbayan rushed for 136 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries and Jerry Avery carried twice for 71 yards and two touchdowns.

SATURDAY

* Ramona (7-4) vs. Mission Bay (9-2) at San Diego High, 7 p.m.--Ramona, fourth-place finisher in the Avocado League, might not have been invited to the playoffs if they hadn’t been expanded to 16 teams. Mission Bay, the second-place finisher in the weak City Western League, was expected to lose its first-round game to Oceanside.

But Mission Bay upset Oceanside, 27-14, and Ramona defeated Crawford, 17-3, and now one of these underdogs will make it to the semifinals.

* St. Augustine (7-4) at San Pasqual (10-1), 7:30--For the second consecutive week, St. Augustine plays a team that lost only once in the regular season. Last week, St. Augustine upset Kearny, 18-16.