Thompson Joins Casualty List at Thousand Oaks

Senior Ernie Foli, replaced three weeks ago by sophomore Trevor Thompson, is back as starting quarterback at Thousand Oaks High after Thompson sustained a broken leg in the Lancers’ 24-14 win over Camarillo last Friday.

Thompson, who is projected as Thousand Oaks’ quarterback of the future, had shown promise since taking the starting position from Foli. He had completed 23 of 39 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns.

But with eight minutes left in Friday’s game, Thompson left with a broken fibula. That made him the fourth Lancer starter to go down with an injury in the past three weeks. Tackle Eric Benson (shoulder), flanker Jamal Nichols (knee) and defensive back Chris Barone (back) also have been injured.

Barone is out for the season, and neither Nichols nor Benson has been cleared to play Friday, when the Lancers (7-1, 5-0 in Marmonte League play) meet Royal (8-0, 4-1) in a game at Moorpark College that likely will decide the league championship.

“I’ve never had a team that has had this kind of adversity,” Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards said. “Our No. 1 concern, obviously, is Royal High School. Our No. 2 concern is to be able to play with the guys who show up.”

HUNGRY FOR VICTORY

If there was any residual doubt concerning the internal compass of Kennedy linebacker Bobby (Wrong Way) Rodgers, they were put to rest in last week’s 37-10 victory over San Fernando.

Rodgers ripped the ball from the hands of Tiger quarterback Leon Blunt to set up a first-half score, then recovered a loose ball in the second half and returned it about 30 yards to inside the San Fernando 10-yard line to set up another.

Rodgers, who picked up the moniker “Wrong Way Rodgers” last season when he returned an interception into the wrong end zone for a safety, must have been a little overwhelmed by his performance.

A few minutes after the game, Rodgers scared the daylights out of his teammates and coaches when he fainted in the locker room. He was briefly hospitalized and released after it was determined that he had suffered dehydration and heat exhaustion.

“He didn’t have enough to eat,” Kennedy Coach Bob Francola explained.

HOTTER THAN COFFEE

Reseda’s Will Skett came within one dropped pass of recording an offensive hat trick in the team’s 45-14 victory over Cleveland last week.

Skett, who lines up as a slot back, rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown and threw a 25-yard pass on an option play for another score, but dropped a potential scoring pass. Skett also punted and played defensive back.

“Next week I’m gonna have him work the concession stand,” Coach Joel Schaeffer said.

When Kennedy plays Reseda this week, Skett ought to throw a few morsels in Rodgers’ direction.

THE RIGHT MIX

The absence of a proven running back has left Oxnard relying solely on the arm of talented junior quarterback Larry Bumpus this season. That weakness eventually caught up with the Yellowjackets, who won their first four games but dropped their next three.

The last of those was a 37-14 decision to Ventura two weeks ago. Oxnard Coach Jack Davis was so frustrated with the Yellowjackets’ inability to run the ball, he plugged wide receiver Jasper Satterwhite into the backfield.

“We’re still looking for a running back,” Davis said.

The help-wanted ad was answered Friday by junior Lloyd Mix, who had been academically ineligible until last week. Mix made his first appearance a lasting one, rushing for 221 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-10 win over Hueneme.

Oxnard (5-3, 2-3) seems poised for a run at the Channel League’s third-place playoff berth. The Yellowjackets need wins over San Marcos and Rio Mesa in their last two games to have a shot at their first playoff berth in six seasons.

A GROUND BEEF

Grant defeated Monroe, 29-7, Friday but made few friends in the process. It seems that with 10 seconds remaining and Monroe leading by the final score, Lancer quarterback Roy Rodriguez decided to pad his passing statistics.

Instead of taking a knee to run out the clock--which everyone, including the Monroe defense and Grant sideline thought was coming--Rodriguez stepped back and threw a short pass to Sandro Perez, who raced 83 yards to the four-yard line before he was run down from behind as time expired.

“I don’t care about losing. I’ve lost a few in my career, so it doesn’t bother me,” Monroe Coach Dave Lertzman said. “But to do something like that to the kids, to rub their nose in it, that’s not fair to them.”

It seems as though Rodriguez will have plenty of time to reflect on his passing yardage as he grinds out mileage on the ground--the Grant coaching staff promises to make him run penalty laps to pay for the lapse in judgment. “He’ll be running for the next two weeks,” said Grant Coach Bill Foster, who said that Rodriguez called the play.

RAVE REVIEWS

The accolades keep pouring in for Freddie Edwards in the wake of his one-man show Friday at Antelope Valley. Edwards, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior tailback-safety, had a career day to lead the Antelopes to a 54-38 win over Saugus.

Edwards carried 21 times for 293 yards and four touchdowns, intercepted a pass in the end zone, returned a kickoff 99 yards for a fifth touchdown and accounted for 422 all-purpose yards.

“If he can’t play in the Pac-10 right now, then I’ve never coached a game,” said Canyon Coach Harry Welch, who watched film of the game in preparation for this week’s Canyon-Saugus clash. “He did it all. He made people miss him, he overpowered people, he hit on defense like a linebacker and he was faster than everybody on the field.”

Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb also continued to praise his player, calling Edwards’ performance better than the four-touchdown effort by former Antelope Tommie Smith in the 1988 Southern Section Division II championship win over Canyon.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Newcomb said. “I told him it was one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen.”

Edwards, who will never be labeled brash or cocky, would not even cut loose in his own locker room.

“All he did was tell me about how his line did all the blocking,” Newcomb said.

FRANK EVALUATION

Poly’s recent 47-20 loss to Sylmar has provided food for thought for Poly Coach Fred Cuccia.

Cuccia, whose Parrots won the City Section 3-A Division championship last year, is convinced that the Spartans (6-1) are among the best teams in the Valley area--both in the City and Southern Section. He also blasted The Times for its failure to include Sylmar in its top 10 rankings this season. Sylmar is 10th in this week’s regional rankings.

“You all believe that Southern Section teams are far superior to the City teams, and it’s just not true,” said Cuccia, who formerly coached at Arcadia, a Southern Section school. “Sylmar is a very physical football team. The way they played Friday, they could have beaten just about anybody in the Valley. They’ve got a lot of weapons. They have speed, size, they’re well coached, and they play with great emotion.”

Cuccia said that too many area teams are resting on their laurels.

“Looking down at your top 10, I can see that Sylmar is as good any of those teams: Hart, Canyon, Alemany, Crespi. . . . They are good as any of those.

“The Harts and the Canyons. . . . those teams are living off their past reputations. (Canyon Coach) Harry Welch would be the first to tell you that Canyon is not as good as they have been in the past. Alemany and Hart have both been slaughtered this year. It’s just a joke.

“Who the hell does Hart play? Every time Hart plays someone good, what happens? They lose.”

PATIENCE PAYS

It’s been said that good things come to those who wait. Well, no other high school football coach in the area has waited longer for his team to score a touchdown than James Lippitt, the first-year coach at North Hollywood.

North Hollywood (0-5, 0-8), which went 31 consecutive quarters this season without scoring a touchdown, scored one in the fourth quarter against undefeated Birmingham.

The Huskies scored on a 75-yard pass play from Jimmie Crist to running back Ricardo Vazquez. The play developed as a short flare out of the backfield but Vazquez spun off a linebacker and raced all the way to the end zone.

“People went crazy,” Lippitt said. “It’s nice to have that monkey off our back. I didn’t think we’d ever get it off our backs after getting down inside their 10 in the first quarter and not scoring.

“I think we’ve turned the corner here and good things are to come.”

GONE TOMORROW

Granada Hills defensive back Will Brewer came though with one of the team’s biggest defensive plays of the year when he intercepted a pass and returned it 43 yards for a touchdown in the Highlanders’ 29-18 upset of Carson in September.

Brewer went coast to coast, but he won’t have the opportunity to top the feat, unless geography counts. Late last month, after a loss to San Fernando, Brewer moved East.

“He played for us on Friday, then moved to Michigan on Sunday,” co-Coach Tom Harp, who said Brewer had been living in California with a relative.

PANCAKE PANDEMONIUM

Deke Pike never met a pancake he didn’t like.

On Saturday, Pike proved it. The senior defensive tackle from Saugus ate 56 buttermilk pancakes in 12 minutes to finish first in the inaugural Pigskin Pancake Pigout at an International House of Pancakes restaurant in Saugus.

Pike outpigged eight other competitors--including two others from Saugus and three each from Hart and Canyon--stuffing stack after syrupy stack into his mouth until his cheeks were ready to burst.

“I had a system,” said the 6-1, 225-pound Pike. “While I was eating three at a time, I’d be getting three or four more ready. I just kept eating and eating and by the time I was done, I had eaten six platefuls.

“It was free food, so. . . . “

Pike and teammates Brad Finicle and Tony Destefano consumed 100 pancakes to claim a team trophy made of eight buttermilk pancakes.

Fortunately, Pike will have a week off to digest his food. After a brief scuffle with Antelope Valley’s Richard Lear in Friday’s 54-38 loss to the Antelopes, Pike and Lear were ejected.

According to Golden League rules, an ejected player must sit out the following week. The rule was instituted two years ago after the infamous Saugus-Palmdale brawl when Palmdale’s Darius Wilson attacked an official.

The ruling should affect Saugus more than Antelope Valley. Antelope Valley, without starting defensive back Lear, travels to Ridgecrest to face a 4-4 Burroughs team. Saugus, without starting lineman Pike, heads to Canyon for a game with major implications on the Golden League playoff race.

Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.