Hart Opponents Should Cease Griping--Stage

Burbank High football Coach Randy Stage, whose team lost to Hart, 44-14, last week, is tired of hearing his disgruntled peers complain about the Indians.

During the past few weeks, Alemany Coach Pat Degnan and Burroughs co-Coach Jay Gudzin have complained that Hart--ranked first in The Times’ regional poll and 11th in the state by Cal-Hi Sports--tried to embarrass their teams by piling on points.

“I just don’t see how (Hart) can be accused of running up scores. I just don’t buy it,” Stage said. “I saw the Burroughs game (a 50-3 Hart victory), and Burroughs did a lot to hurt itself.

“Hart has a fast-break offense and they are very talented. What do people expect them to do, just stop scoring once they get a lead?”

Stage was not angered when Hart, leading 30-0 against Burbank, went for a two-point conversion. He believes the Indians simply were trying to prepare for the playoffs.

“Hart could have scored 100 points against us if they wanted to,” Stage said. “They haven’t played a full game this season because they keep lifting their starters once they get a lead.

“It’s not Hart’s fault that the rest of us can’t tackle (tailback Deriek) Charles and their receivers. They’re just playing their game.”

Said an irritated Hart Coach Mike Herrington: “I think these coaches (who complain) need to stop looking outward for excuses and look inward.”

FRUSTRATION DEFINED

Five reasons why Taft Coach Troy Starr sat speechless and slumped in a locker room chair for several minutes after his team’s 14-12 loss to Granada Hills last week:

-- Granada Hills had gained only 107 yards before embarking on a 13-play, 80-yard drive to erase a 12-6 deficit with 1 minute 36 seconds remaining.

-- Taft had the ball six times in the game and crossed the 50-yard line on each occasion, yet scored only twice. Taft, in fact, crossed the Granada Hills 35-yard line on each of its first five possessions.

-- Taft did not punt.

-- Kicker-quarterback Mike Ferguson missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt with 7:17 left, one play before Granada Hills started its game-winning drive. Taft was flagged for delay of game as Ferguson lined up moments earlier from 27 yards. His 32-yard effort fell just short and slightly wide left.

-- Finally, and most importantly, it marked the third time this season that Taft (5-4, 3-3 in league play) had lost in the final two minutes. Taft fell to Canoga Park, 20-19, in its opener and to San Fernando, 24-21, a month ago.

BIG BACKFIELD

Savvy motivator that he is, Saugus Coach Jack Bowman decided to reward some of his linemen for their work in the trenches.

After all, Bowman surmises, you have to throw the big guys a bone for making those high-profile quarterbacks, running backs and receivers look good so often. Against Burroughs last week, Bowman allowed linemen Matt Speranza (6-foot-1, 240), Mike Watner (6-1, 220) and Tray White (5-10, 220) to each carry the ball during the Centurions’ 42-14 win.

The experiment produced negative yardage and a chorus of baritone laughter.

“Watner and White got crushed and lost some yards,” an amused Bowman said. “Speranza looked pretty impressive, though. He broke two tackles, and the guy who tackled him got up real slow.”

Any chance of a position change?

“I think Speranza would like to carry the ball a lot more, but part of the deal going in was that this was a one-time thing only,” Bowman said. “His running back days are over for now.”

DID YOU SEE THAT?

Montclair Prep running back Wilbert Smith’s 75-yard punt return for a touchdown last week was watched not only by all of the spectators in the stands but by all of the Marshall Fundamental players on the field too. Problem was, they were watching Smith rather than trying to tackle him.

The Eagle special-team players thought they had downed the punt, but the ball was still rolling. In high school, a punt is not downed until the ball comes to a rest in the possession of the kicking team.

“(The Marshall Fundamental players) just stood there and watched the ball roll and roll,” Mountie Coach George Giannini said.

Smith picked up the ball and ran untouched into the end zone.

NAME GAME

Van Nuys wide receiver Tasheeri Walker is known to many around campus, but not everyone knows him as Tasheeri. Teachers and school administrators know him officially as Ralph.

A couple of weeks ago, Coach George Engbrecht called Walker at home to get a progress report on his injured shoulder and the person answering the phone said, “Oh, you mean Fred.”

Because of the confusion, Walker recently was renamed by Dave Ochoa, an assistant coach.

“Now it’s Just Bob,” Ochoa said. “Not Bob, Just Bob. “

ILL-EQUIPPED

Entering Friday night’s Channel League finale against Ventura, it is likely that Hueneme (0-9) will go winless for a second consecutive season and for the third time in four years. The Vikings are 1-38 since the start of 1989.

The team’s frustrations were typified Friday against Oxnard, which Hueneme had battled to a scoreless tie midway through the second quarter.

The game was stopped when a pair of key defenders for Hueneme were ordered off the field by officials because they were not wearing hip pads, Hueneme Coach Ed Knight said.

The pair hurried to the locker room to find their pads. Meanwhile, Oxnard scored two touchdowns.

“They ran exactly where we took the two kids out,” Knight said.

THE RETURN

L.A. Baptist Coach Mark Bates knew it was a mistake to kick the ball anywhere near Village Christian’s Tarik Blair. But his team did it anyway and Blair returned the kick 99 yards for the winning touchdown.

“We should have just squibbed it,” Bates said. “In the emotion of everything, I just blew it.”

L.A. Baptist led the game, which decided the Alpha League championship, 13-7, midway through the fourth quarter. Village Christian drove 98 yards to take a 14-13 lead inside the final two minutes. On the first play after the kickoff, Zack Hernandez threw a 58-yard scoring pass to Craig Lord, but the Knights failed on a two-point conversion and had a 19-14 lead with 1 minute 25 seconds to play.

And they kicked off.

“Blair walked past me and said, ‘Coach, I’m going to run this one back all the way,’ ” Village Christian Coach Mike Plaisance said.

Blair and Mike Spielman lined up one in front the other until the kick, then separated. Blair had broken to the left on previous kicks but broke right this time. The kick went to his right, and Blair picked up a bouncing ball a yard short of the end zone.

“I don’t know what I was doing,” Blair said. “I knew it was our last chance. I can’t remember (the return) hardly. I just ran.”

VICTORY TO DEFEAT

Buena senior Nathan Jobe might have begun to savor victory prematurely in Thursday’s Channel League cross-country finals at College Park in Oxnard, and it cost him.

Jobe had broken away from Hueneme’s Donald Carmona, the pre-meet favorite, midway through the race, and had what appeared to be an insurmountable 80-meter lead with 400 meters remaining. But he went straight when he should have turned right, and by the time he realized his mistake it had cost him nearly a minute and seven places in the finish order.

Carmona timed a victorious 15 minutes 34 seconds over the three-mile course. Jobe placed eighth in 16:09.

“(Nathan) would have run at least 15:15 if he had not gone the wrong way,” Buena Coach Steve Blum said. “He just spaced. He had run a great race. He had made a move to break away from Carmona, and succeeded, and I think he was so happy that he just forgot where he was going.”

At least Jobe could take solace that Buena won its seventh league title in the last 10 years.

A LITTLE LEE-WAY

Crespi tailback Torie Lee rushed for a personal-best 267 yards last week to give him 1,004 for the season, not bad considering he missed a game because of a hand injury.

At some schools, Lee might be threatening the single-game, single-season and career rushing marks. Yet Lee’s effort was well off the single-game mark of 345 set by Russell White against Riverside Poly in 1987.

Lee twice has topped the 1,000-yard mark and is closing in on 3,000 in his career. He had 709 yards as a sophomore and 1,167 as a junior to give him 2,880. The career rushing mark? Well, Lee needs only 3,000 more yards to move within striking range of White’s mark of 5,998.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.