Tackle Actually Picture Perfect, Magnuson Says

Once was bad enough for El Camino Real High linebacker Robert Magnuson. Twice was simply too much. For Magnuson, this picture was indeed worth a thousand words, most of them unprintable.

A photo of Magnuson has appeared twice in The Times’ Valley sports section this season, each time with a caption that read, in essence: “Robert Magnuson gets plowed under by Chaminade running back Justin Giovannettone.”

The photo, which appears to show Giovannettone knocking Magnuson backward on a running play, was published when the schools played in September and again a few weeks later as part of a feature story on Giovannettone. Time for Magnuson, El Camino Real’s best defensive player, to take action.

He clipped out the photo, typed a letter on his own behalf and mailed it to The Times in an effort to set the record straight.

An excerpt: “Although Justin Giovannettone is a friend of mine and we played Pop Warner football together, the films of this game will show that when I hit Justin on this play, I drove him backward, not the other way around.”

Evidently, Magnuson harbors no hard feelings. He ended the letter: “P.S. Thanks for at least getting my picture in the paper.”

VALLEY, HO!

Reno might promote itself as “The Biggest Little City in the World,” but when it comes to signing baseball players the coaching staff at the local university heads to a legitimate metropolis--Los Angeles.

Specifically, to the San Fernando Valley.

Infielder Andy Dominique of Alemany and left-handed pitcher Chris Garza of Notre Dame this week committed to play at Nevada, an NCAA Division I school in Reno. They will not be the only area products playing for the Wolfpack: Four players from the region have committed to play at Nevada over the past year.

A pair of 1992 high school graduates from the area--catcher Shane Slayton of Royal and pitcher-first baseman Rico Lagattuta of Westlake--signed with Nevada earlier this year.

DUAL-BACK ATTACK

A little goes a long way for Devon Passno and Derek Swafford.

The Ventura running backs each have rushed for more than 1,000 yards while averaging fewer than 14 carries a game.

How do they do it?

“We make the most of what we can with what we get,” Passno said.

Passno, a senior fullback who specializes in plunging into the line, has rushed for a team-high 1,313 yards and 10 touchdowns in 123 carries, an average of 13.7 carries. Swafford, a senior tailback whose carries mostly come on pitches to the outside, has rushed for 1,030 yards in 105 carries, an average of 11.7 carries.

Neither handles the ball as much as he would like, but neither gets cheated. Passno is averaging 10.7 yards a carry; Swafford is averaging 9.8 yards.

GAME LOOMS LARGE

This has been a trying high school football season in Burbank.

City rivals Burroughs (0-9) and Burbank (3-6) have struggled to score, let alone compete with their opponents. Both teams are winless (0-3) in the Foothill League and have looked overmatched in just about every game.

However, none of that will matter tonight when Burbank takes on Burroughs in the season-ending game at Burroughs. Neither league titles nor playoff positions will be on the line--but pride will.

“It’s the battle for the city championship, and that still means a lot around here,” Burbank Coach Randy Stage said. “It’s still an important game, just like it should be.”

Burroughs co-Coach Jay Gudzin agrees. “All of the other stuff gets thrown out when we play this game,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if one team is expected to beat the other, you never know what’s going to happen.”

KICKING INTO GEAR

To put it bluntly, Hart Coach Mike Herrington says kicker Tim Cronk “stunk last year.”

However, the Indians’ coaching staff believed the 6-foot, 165-pound Cronk had the talent to become an accomplished kicker. Hart stuck with Cronk last season in hopes that he could work through his problems and enjoy a productive senior campaign.

Good move.

While his accomplishments have been overshadowed by the explosive Hart offense, Cronk has been a major contributor for the Indians (9-0).

“I think he had a mental block last year,” Herrington said. “He started to listen to everybody when he was having problems, and that only made things worse. But he’s straightened himself out and it really shows.”

Cronk has converted 37 of 38 point-after attempts and his kickoffs usually sail deep into the end zone for touchbacks. Cronk also has made the most of his field-goal attempts, converting three of four.

“With our offense, he doesn’t get the chances to kick field goals like he would for some other teams, but he definitely is capable of making a lot of them,” Herrington said.

PINUP STUFF

Nordhoff players and coaches took exception to an article in a Ventura-area newspaper that said the Rangers would have trouble scoring against Santa Paula in an important Frontier League game last week.

“We stuck (the article) on our locker room wall to remind us what we had to do,” senior quarterback Steve Saum said. “It kind of made the offense mad because we know what we can do against any defense when we want to.”

Final score: Nordhoff 48, Santa Paula 21.

SERAPH WOES

This was not the way it was supposed to be.

St. Bonaventure was expected to be a Tri-Valley League power again under Coach Jon Mack, not an also-ran struggling to finish .500. But the Seraphs (4-5, 0-3), who tied for the league championship last season, end their season tonight against Fillmore hoping simply to win their first league game.

“It’s been a very frustrating season for us, especially because of how well we did in (preseason),” Mack said.

St. Bonaventure started 4-1, but Mack is unsure what went wrong thereafter. “We’ve had opportunities to win, but they just seem to slip away,” he said.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

San Fernando quarterback Leon Blunt is beginning to make a prophet of Coach Tom Hernandez. Hernandez said over the summer that Blunt would prove to be one of the best option quarterbacks in school history.

The speedy junior has passed for 827 yards and has rushed for a team-high 489 yards to give him 1,316 combined passing-rushing yards, which, one might assume, could put him within striking distance of that particular single-season Tiger mark.

Not even close. A player who defined the option quarterback position, Anthony Davis, still leads by several lengths. Davis, the former USC standout, accounted for 2,002 rushing-passing yards in 1969 and came back with a school-record 3,239 yards as a senior in 1970.

SPARTAN EDICT

Moments after Sylmar annihilated Van Nuys, 42-14, last week behind a ground game that amassed 375 yards, it was defense--not offense--that fullback Ibn Bilal talked about.

Bilal, who scored four touchdowns and rushed for 167 yards in six carries, also is the starting free safety.

“We are sending a message out to Poly,” Bilal said of Sylmar’s opponent tonight. “Poly will be held to under 100 yards, guaranteed.”

Quite a boast considering Poly’s ground game alone is averaging 252 yards a game.

GOLDEN GRIDLOCK

How’s this for parity? Two weeks into Golden League play, Highland, Littlerock, Palmdale and Quartz Hill were tied for second place at 1-1.

Two weeks later, the same teams are tied for second at 2-2. After tonight’s games, two of those teams will finish tied for second and gain a berth to the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

FOUR’S COMPANY

The Notre Dame basketball team will boast four seniors who have earned NCAA Division I scholarships. The scholarships, however, are spread over three sports: Swingman Monte Marcaccini said he will sign today to play basketball at Indiana, forward Tom Stillwell has signed to play volleyball at UCLA, and guards Glen Carson and Ryan Stromsborg said they will sign today to play baseball at USC.

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