Southwest Is Ready to Battle Harbor

L.A. Southwest College had a week between games, but Coach Henry Washington says his club is ready to meet cross-town rival Harbor in Saturday’s Western State Conference football opener at Harbor.

Both teams are 1-0 entering the 7:30 p.m. game. Southwest defeated Rio Hondo, 21-7, on Sept. 8 and Harbor slipped by Victor Valley, 14-7, last week.

“I was down there and Harbor is a little better than they were last year,” Washington said. “They do a good job defensively. They’re a team to be reckoned with.”

Last year the Cougars defeated the Seahawks, 30-12, and went on to enjoy their best season ever and their first postseason bowl. Harbor, under first-year Coach Don Weems, finished 3-7.

Glenn Baham (Serra High) is going into his second season as the Seahawks’ quarterback and running back Bill Harris (Long Beach Poly) is the key to Harbor’s running game. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound sophomore scored a touchdown last week.

Quarterback Craig Manigo looked nervous in Southwest’s opener, but Washington thinks the sophomore is ready to overcome his jitters. The Cougars are ranked No. 12 in the state.

“We’re ready to go and see how we fit in to this conference,” he said. “I really expect a great football game and it will be a good test for us. We think we’re pretty good, but we’ll see on Saturday.”

John Featherstone says his El Camino football team is still exhausted from last week’s 33-32 victory over Taft. That however, isn’t enough to stop the Warriors from getting pumped up for Saturday’s Mission Conference opener against visiting Saddleback at 7 p.m.

“This has been a very hard week for us because we had a very physical game against Taft,” Featherstone said. “The kids are very tired and very beat up, but the word letdown doesn’t exist on this team. We cannot afford to be any less intense for this game.”

El Camino (2-0) slipped to No. 2 in the state rankings after Bakersfield defeated Navarro College of Texas, 44-8, on Saturday and moved into the No. 1 spot. But the Warriors moved up from No. 11 to No. 3 in this week’s national rankings. The Gauchos are unranked.

Saddleback will have a difficult time containing El Camino’s productive offense which is second in the Mission Conference with 948 yards. Warrior quarterback Rod Harvey is second to Palomar’s Brett Salisbury in passing. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound sophomore from Morningside High has completed 30 of 44 passes for 488 yards and five touchdowns.

Saddleback lost to Santa Monica, 33-16, in its opener.