NOTEBOOK : Gonzalez Brings Franklin Flavor to New Post

Armando Gonzalez left high school coaching in May to take the job as offensive coordinator for the East Los Angeles College football program.

And after a week of play, it appears Gonzalez has supplied the Huskies with the kind of firepower that helped him win four City Section 3-A Division titles in eight seasons at Franklin. Last Saturday, East L.A. rolled up 505 yards in defeating Pierce, 32-31.

Seven players from the Franklin team that defeated Garfield for the 3-A title last season followed Gonzalez to East L.A. One of them is quarterback Santiago Alvarez, the 3-A Player of the Year who led the state in passing with more than 4,000 yards. He completed 32 of 46 passes for 395 yards and four touchdowns against Pierce.

“The size and speed of the defenses we’re going to play against are a lot different,” Gonzalez said. “And they’re going to be better prepared than the high school teams.

“But this was a good way to get started.”

For openers: The Glendale College football team lost to Pasadena, 17-7, in its opener last Saturday, but Vaquero Coach John Cicuto was not disappointed with his team’s performance against the Lancers, who were ranked fourth in the nation in one preseason poll.

“I thought our biggest question mark would be defense, but our kids played with tremendous intensity,” Cicuto said. “There were situations where Pasadena had the ball at the three, the 10 and the 20 and our defense came up with plays.”

Unfortunately, Glendale’s offense was unable to do the same.

Marco Arcipreste had two passes intercepted, killing second-half drives into Pasadena territory.

Cicuto also called the play of Glendale’s special teams, “atrocious.”

Glendale has a bye this week before meeting Bakersfield College in its Western State Conference opener Sept. 22 at Glendale.

Little consolation: Occidental College running back Gary Little is out for the season with a broken leg suffered during the Tigers’ preseason scrimmage at Santa Barbara City College.

Little, who gained 898 yards as a freshman last season, will be in a cast for eight weeks and will probably redshirt.

Freshman Brian Manlangbayan filled in for Little in Occidental’s 20-12 loss at the University of San Diego on Saturday and gained 157 yards in 28 carries.

“We had high hopes and big expectations and he fulfilled them,” Occidental Coach Dale Widolff said of Manlangbayan, who led San Diego El Camino High to the San Diego Section 2-A Division championship last season.

If the shoe fits. . . .: A pair of bronzed football cleats will be on the line Saturday night when Occidental plays host to Whittier in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener.

The “trophy” is annually awarded to the winner of the game between the Tigers and the Poets.

Last season, the schools split two games under a SCIAC schedule that calls for each conference member to play another school twice. Whittier defeated Occidental, 26-12, at Whittier, but Occidental closed the season with a 7-0 win over the Poets that clinched a third consecutive conference championship for the Tigers.

First-year Poet Coach Don Uyeshima will have 18 of 22 starters back this season.

Detour: Hugo Allan Garcia of Glendale College had led from the start of the Moorpark Cross-Country Invitational last Friday until, with less than a mile remaining, he wandered 75 yards off course.

Garcia recovered to overtake Jose Pina of Long Beach City College with 250 meters remaining to win, timing 20 minutes 51 seconds for the four-mile course. Garcia’s time broke the course record of 20:59 set by Glendale’s Nick Lugo.

At last year’s Moorpark Invitational, Glendale’s Nicole Jimenez led the women’s race before taking a wrong turn in the last half-mile, cutting 200 meters off the course. She was disqualified.

Glendale’s men won the team title Friday with 59 points, defeating Bakersfield (73) and Long Beach City (99). The women, led by Jimenez’s seventh-place finish, held off Santa Monica, 72-129.

Causing a ruckus: Glendale High football Coach Don Shoemaker intended for his running backs to split action in the Dynamiters’ 36-13 win over Alhambra last Friday--a plan that lasted until halftime, when Pathon Rucker got a little greedy.

However, Shoemaker isn’t complaining.

Rucker, who finished with 191 yards in 25 carries--including three touchdowns and two two-point conversions--accounted for 118 of Glendale’s 170 rushing yards in the second half. “We were trying to balance our attack,” Shoemaker said. “But, heck, with the stuff he was doing, it didn’t make any point to give the ball to anybody else.”

Said Alhambra Coach Gil Ruedaflores: “There was only a single guy in the backfield. There was no secret what they were going to do. We just couldn’t stop him.”

Staff writers Brendan Healey and Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.