Play Sheet Produced a Big Zero

It was halftime of his team’s City Section 4-A Division playoff game against Crenshaw, and San Fernando Coach Tom Hernandez was looking for any edge he could find.

Actually, he was looking for the big play, one that might help snap the team out of its offensive funk. More specifically, he was looking for any play. Anything that might work.

With his team trailing, 12-10, Hernandez reached into his pocket and pulled out a smeared, dog-eared index card, one that contained the Tigers’ offensive plays. He then took a poll of bystanders.

“Here, pick a play,” Hernandez said, extending the card for all to see. “There’s got to be something on here that we can use.”

Any secret plays contained therein?

“Yeah, they’re all secret,” he quipped. “We don’t know any of them.”

His team nearly proved him right. The Tigers gained a net zero yards offensively in the third quarter and were eliminated by Crenshaw, 27-24.

Lessons from Lompoc: Rich Lawson might have lost his chance at a Southern Section football title when his team fell to Lompoc last week, but he can empathize with those coaches who are far less accustomed to winning. The 42-7 loss was the worst in Lawson’s three years as Chaminade coach.

“I see these teams that lose each week by 30, 38 points. . . .” he said. “I mean, 28-14 would have been respectable, but 42-7? Geez.”

Chaminade finished 8-3 and Lawson offered no excuses for the loss. And why should he? Lompoc (12-0), the top-seeded team in Division VII, averages 39 points a game.

“I know their coach said that that was one of their better games,” he said. “We are capable of playing better and doing more than what we showed. But we would have had to play our best game of the year--put everything together--in order to stay close.”

Lompoc’s most potent weapon was junior tailback Napolean Kaufman, a semifinalist in the 200-meter state championships last year. Showing an uncanny knack for hitting holes and turning on the afterburners, Kaufman torched the Indians on touchdown runs of 10, 16 and 48 yards.

“I hate to draw comparisons but if we had a kid in the San Fernando Valley doing things like that, he’d be one of the top backs,” Lawson said. “We don’t have a kid like that in the Valley. Jerome Casey (of Sylmar) is one of the top backs but does he have that pure speed? I mean, I don’t want to play against Jerome Casey because possibly the results would be the same.”

Deep freeze: Want to go to Tehachapi and play football on a December night in front of 2,500 screaming partisan fans?

Montclair Prep Coach George Giannini does. And he will, in a Southern Section Division IX semifinal Friday night.

“There’s no need for heaters or thermal underwear or any of that stuff. It’s not gonna be that cold,” Giannini said. “We’re just gonna go up to play football.”

Not gonna be that cold? That’s debatable. Temperatures could easily dip into the 30s, and the possibility of heavy winds--there was a high wind advisory Tuesday--make it all the more unpleasant.

Adding intrigue to what could be chilly conditions is the history between these teams. Montclair Prep teams lost to Tehachapi in the playoffs in 1982 and in the final in 1985.

Site assigned: The Thousand Oaks-Muir game in the semifinal round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs will be played at Citrus College in Azusa on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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