THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : All of a Sudden, Granada Hills ‘Up’ for Carson

I’m down (I’m really down),

I’m down (down on the ground),

I’m down (I’m really down),

How can you laugh,

When you know I’m down ?

Lennon and McCartney? Try Stroh and Harp.

The refrain of Granada Hills High co-Coaches Darryl Stroh and Tom Harp for the past few weeks has been that the team will have a “down” year.

Down, down, down. The word cropped up so often that the two sounded like submarine commanders.

At Granada Hills, the Valley’s premier City Section team for the past several seasons, it seemed that the talent finally had played out. The Highlanders were pasted, 42-24, by Washington last week.

How can you laugh? After the Washington game, it is a safe bet that rival Valley coaches shared a snicker at Granada Hills’ expense. The Highlanders, after years of dominance, finally would have to face the music. And it would prove as hard on the ears as that darn bagpipe music the Highlanders play before each home game.

Against heavily favored Carson, the defending City 4-A Division champion, those bagpipes would sound the Highlanders’ funeral dirge. Or so it was thought.

“You would’ve had to be a madman to pick us (to win),” Harp said.

Evidently, there’s a big difference between down and out . Granada Hills’ 29-18 defeat of Carson was as improbable as it was unbelievable, the latter being Stroh’s description.

Familiarity might be the key. Granada Hills has played perpetually tough Carson five times in the past six years, winning twice. Overall, Carson holds an 8-5 advantage. “We respect them, but I don’t think we necessarily fear them,” Harp said. “We caught them flat this time.”

In winning, Granada Hills bucked hefty historical odds. Carson, which is 1-2 and was beaten last week by San Diego Morse, last dropped consecutive games in 1976, when the Colts were defeated by Las Vegas Clark and Long Beach Wilson.

“I think with the recognition Carson has had, our guys must feel like all they have to do is show up,” said Carson co-Coach Marty Blankenship, whose team has 13 turnovers in three games, six against the Highlanders.

“But you have to give Granada Hills credit. They played an inspired game.”

The beat goes on: The outbreak of flying knuckles and flying flags continued Friday night, with a bench-clearing brawl the extracurricular activity at the Alemany-Hoover game.

With 28 seconds left in the third quarter, a fight broke out after an Alemany kickoff. One player from each team was ejected, as was an assistant from each school. The assistants nearly came to blows before they were separated by an official. At the time, Alemany led by 40 points en route to a 47-0 victory.

The incident was the third in eight days involving area teams. Officials on Aug. 20 terminated a game between Chaminade and Burroughs after a fight broke out late in the fourth quarter. Last Thursday, six players were ejected from a game between Montclair Prep and Masada.

What gives? It would seem that sportsmanship is hardly being encouraged at every turn.

As Alemany linebacker Brian Shaw walked off the field after his ejection, dozens of the team’s fans stood and applauded.

Double trouble: Ventura fullback Devon Passno, who has scored eight touchdowns in a little more than two games, is the team’s go-to guy.

A minor explanation: Passno is actually the go- two guy.

“He’s really not the guy that were trying to get the ball to,” Ventura Coach Harvey Kochel said. “But he gives us great balance.”

Despite gaining 348 yards in 45 carries, Passno is Ventura’s second-most potent threat. Tailback Derek Swafford (351 yards, four touchdowns in 32 carries) rushed for 1,069 yards and 15 touchdowns last season. Together, the pair lead an attack that has piled up 1,283 yards in three games, an average of 427.7 yards.

These two are too much, and get used to it: Passno and Swafford are juniors.

Don’t look back: Thousand Oaks running back Cory Bowen looked in his rear-view mirror Thursday night and realized that his margin for error was nil. Blown-out leg or not, Bowen knew he had to make it into the end zone before he could afford to fall over in pain.

“On the film, he keeps looking back over his shoulder,” said Ron Bowen, Cory’s father. “He wanted to slow down, but there were a couple of guys after him.”

On the third play of the game, Bowen dashed 89 yards around end for a touchdown and collapsed with a strained hamstring in his right leg. Without Bowen, Thousand Oaks fell to Canyon, 16-12.

Yet what seemed to be a serious blow to the Lancers might not be so bad after all. Bowen started physical therapy last Friday and the leg is responding, his father said.

Bowen, who rushed for 1,257 yards last season and has 471 yards in 39 carries this season, is not expected to play in the Lancers’ Marmonte League opener Friday against Agoura, but he will be re-examined later this week before a decision is made.

The run might force Bowen to miss a game, but at least it paid off in one respect: It is the longest in Thousand Oaks history.

Add injury: Hueneme quarterback David Andrade experienced a temporary loss of feeling in his legs after he was hit in the back during Friday night’s 24-0 loss to Camarillo, Coach Ed Knight said Saturday.

Knight said that Andrade, who was removed from the field on a stretcher, was hospitalized for X-rays, which proved negative. Andrade was kept overnight for observation, then released, Knight said.

“I was real worried,” Knight said. “He was already on his knees and it was one of those deals where he was being held up and he didn’t have any give when he got hit.”

“A helmet caught him right in the back.”

Andrade, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior who is considered among the best passers in Ventura County, has passed for 408 yards and five touchdowns in 2 1/2 games. Andrade is not expected to practice or play this week, Knight said.