Kennedy High, which has 18 fumbles in...

Kennedy High, which has 18 fumbles in its first three games, played the first three quarters of last week’s 27-14 victory over Chatsworth without dropping the football.

But 12 minutes remained. Anyone who figured the Golden Cougars were in the clear was losing his grip. “We waited until the fourth quarter to cough it up twice,” Coach Bob Francola said. “Just to make me crazy.” Kennedy fumbled three times inside its 10-yard line in a 22-15 loss to Crenshaw two weeks ago.

Scoring: Buena sophomore running back George Keiaho has scored 78 points (13 touchdowns) in just four games, tying Chuck Mullaney (1990) for the third-highest single-season total in school history.

Keiaho needs only two touchdowns to tie Paul Samples (90 points in 1971) at No. 2 on the list. Keiaho has scored 13 of Buena’s 15 touchdowns, and, barring injury, likely will break Richard Woods’ 1973 school record of 99 points.

With 606 rushing yards, Keiaho also is on track to break Samples’ 1971 school record of 1,274 yards. In only nine games last season, Keiaho rushed for 1,134 yards, the second-best output in school history.

Simi Valley has defeated Ventura, Santa Maria and Newbury Park, outscoring those teams, 76-62. Last season--a winless one for the Pioneers--those same teams outscored Simi Valley, 149-22. . . . Ventura has scored 41 points in the fourth quarter of its past two games. . . . Royal has outscored Westlake, 58-0, in the teams’ past two meetings. The Highlanders beat Westlake, 37-0, last season and, 21-0, last week.

Passing: Looking for further evidence that City Section teams lack a passing attack?

Junior quarterback Davis Delmatoff, the backup to Hart’s Ryan Connors, has passed for as many touchdowns as a substitute (two) than all but five area City starters. Only Brian Comer of Chatsworth (seven), Bill Calhoun of Van Nuys (six), and Lance Garcia of Poly, Leon Blunt of San Fernando and Ryan Walker of Sylmar (three each) have thrown more touchdowns among quarterbacks for the 17 City schools in the Valley.

In fact, with 172 yards, Delmatoff has passed for more yardage than the starters at Cleveland, El Camino Real, Reseda, Monroe, Verdugo Hills, Canoga Park and North Hollywood. . . .

Simi Valley receiver Dave Romines has an area-high 530 yards, which is more yardage than all area City passers with the exception of Comer--the City leader among Valley quarterbacks at 545 yards--have thrown for.

Receiving: Seven of Romines’ 18 receptions have resulted in touchdowns. . . . Twelve players have caught at least one pass for Santa Paula. . . .

Poly wide receiver Michael Vreeland, who leads area City Section players in pass receptions, has caught 17 of Lance Garcia’s 23 completions for 284 yards.

Defense: Kennedy linebacker Alex Sawatzke has been selected the team’s defensive player of the game three times in four weeks.

Reseda safety Larry Trammel ranks among team leaders in solo tackles with 22 in three games, which can be viewed as either good news or bad. If the secondary is making most of the tackles, it can mean that the defense is running low on fuel. That is not the case here. “He’s been filling up a lot,” Coach Joel Schaeffer said, referring to Trammel’s timely plugging of Reseda’s defensive holes. . . .

Glendale has registered two consecutive shutouts and has not been scored on in 10 quarters. The Dynamiters have 12 sacks in the past two games. . . .

Royal has limited its opponents to 192 rushing yards, an average of 48 a game, and no team has gained more than 85 in a single game. Royal limited Westlake to 16 yards in 34 carries in its 21-0 victory last week.

The Highlanders are limiting opponents to 1.7 yards a carry (192 yards in 111 carries). Royal has allowed 630 yards, an average of 158 a game. . . .

Camp Kilpatrick (2-1-1) is the leading Valley-area Southern Section team in defense, giving up an average of just 70 yards a game.

Interceptions: Justin Erlich’s 102-yard interception for a touchdown Friday for Harvard-Westlake placed him seventh in the Southern Section record book for the longest interception return. Erlich intercepted another pass and returned it 36 yards. . . .

Poly (3-1) has picked off a pass in each of its past seven games dating to its quarterfinal-round victory over Manual Arts last season. . . . Reseda senior Will Skett has been the team’s big-play guy in the secondary, despite the fact that he is not the biggest guy playing and that football is a secondary sport. Skett (5-9, 160) leads the team in interceptions with four. But he also would lead the team with one: Skett is the only Reseda player to have intercepted a pass to date.

Skett perhaps has an advantage from his off-season pursuits. When he isn’t patrolling center field in the Reseda defense, he is an outfielder on the baseball team.

Only one other player in the Northwest Valley Conference has more than one interception, Brandon Cade of San Fernando, who has two.

Regional Football Top 10

Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Lst. Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 3-1 2 3 Canyon Golden 2-1-1 3 4 Royal Marmonte 4-0 4 5 Oxnard Channel 4-0 5 6 San Fernando West Valley 3-0 6 2 Hart Foothill 2-2 7 8 Kennedy West Valley 3-1 8 9 Ventura Channel 3-1 9 10 Chaminade Mission 4-0 10 7 Rio Mesa Channel 3-1