SOUTHERN SECTION FOOTBALL PLAYOFF PREVIEWS : Rancho Alamitos Pays Price for Falling Short in Week 10

If only Rancho Alamitos could win its 10th game every season, it could avoid so much trouble.

For the sixth consecutive year, the Vaqueros fell to the Curse of the 10th Game when they dropped their Garden Grove League season final to Los Amigos, 18-17, last Thursday. The first four times were little more than a nuisance; the last two have been a nightmare.

By losing to the Lobos last week, Rancho Alamitos (8-2) gave up not only an undefeated season on the field--its only other loss was the forfeit of a 42-0 season-opening victory over Troy for using an ineligible player--but top billing in the Southern Section Division VII playoffs that start Friday.

“Every year it’s the same kind of give-it-away game,” Rancho Alamitos Coach Mark Miller said. “I don’t know what it is. I was playing cards with my wife one night before the game and I lost in the 10th game. I kid you not.”

Last season, Rancho Alamitos went into the last league game against Garden Grove tied for first place with the Argonauts. It was the 10th game. The final score was 17-15 in favor of you-know-who.

Going into the final week this season, Rancho Alamitos was ranked first in Division VII and second in the county.

Now, Freeway League champion Sunny Hills (8-1-1) is seeded No. 1, with the Vaqueros second, Northern League winner Lompoc (7-3) third and--surprise, surprise--Garden Grove (4-6) fourth, even though the Argonauts finished sixth in the Garden Grove League.

Also in the 16-team draw are four other teams from the Freeway and Garden Grove leagues, which competed in Division VI last year: Buena Park (4-6), Kennedy (7-2-1), Los Amigos (5-3-2) and Troy (5-4-1).

The unexpected slip by the powerful Vaqueros cleared the way for Sunny Hills to gain what theoretically is supposed to be an advantage--at least in the first two rounds. However, Lancer Coach Tim Devaney doesn’t see it as an automatic green light to the championship game.

“I don’t think it makes any difference whatsoever,” said Devaney, who took Sunny Hills to the Division VI title in 1990. “We were thinking we would go in at No. 1 or No. 2. It didn’t matter to us. The only thing we didn’t want to do was go on the road for four hours (to play a game).”

Sunny Hills opens at home Friday against Pomona (4-6), the Montview League runner-up, and Rancho Alamitos plays host to Santa Maria Righetti (3-6), the Northern League’s third-place team. Four other county teams will be on the road that night; Buena Park is at Culver City (6-4), Los Amigos at Azusa (7-3), Kennedy plays Inglewood Morningside at Inglewood Coleman Field and Troy at Garden Grove.

The presence of Garden Grove, and particularly its placement as the fourth seeded team, was surprising since the Argonauts forfeited four league games last week because of an ineligible player. But the principals of the league member schools, exercising an option in the league constitution that allows them to send to the playoffs the teams they deem most representative regardless of records, voted to include the Argonauts.

“I was worried,” Argonaut Coach Jeff Buenafe said after the pairings were announced Sunday. “I didn’t know how much bearing the forfeitures would have on the pairings and seedings.”

It apparently didn’t have the same impact as Rancho Alamitos being upset by Los Amigos, although Miller said he understood why the Vaqueros were seeded second.

“They had to split the four Garden Grove League teams, so if they put us first, then they would have had to put Grove third and I don’t know if that would have worked too well,” Miller said. “Overall, it made the brackets easier to work out.”

Division VII at a Glance

Last year’s champion--Laguna Hills (10-3-1) is now in Division VIII.

Top teams--Rancho Alamitos (8-2), Sunny Hills (8-1-1), Lompoc (7-3), Garden Grove (4-6).

Dark horses--Inglewood Morningside (5-4) and Los Amigos (5-3-2).

Top players--Stais Boseman, quarterback, Morningside; Marshall Brown, quarterback, Rancho Alamitos; Alan Buckley, quarterback, Buena Park; Jeff Byrd, running back, Rancho Alamitos; David DeLange, running back, San Luis Obispo; Nate Ecklund, quarterback, San Luis Obispo; John Guthrie, quarterback, Kennedy; Todd Lacey, running back, Santa Maria Righetti; Randy Maldonado, safety, Rancho Alamitos; Jim Sebreros, running back, Garden Grove; Bobby Sunderland, quarterback, Sunny Hills; Noah Tagatauli, running back, Los Amigos; Tony Thompson, running back, Lompoc; Ape Tuato, quarterback, Los Amigos; Leon Vickers, linebacker, Rancho Alamitos.

Best draw--Rancho Alamitos. The Vaqueros play Righetti (3-6) in the first round, then will face either Culver City (6-4) or Buena Park (4-6).

Worst draw--Kennedy, which compiled a 7-2-1 record, faces Morningside and Boseman in the first round. Some reward.

Notes--Los Amigos, the at-large entry in the division, is making its first playoff appearance since 1988. . . . Boseman, perhaps the best all-around prep football player in the state, will play football and basketball at USC next season. He also plays cornerback for Morningside and has four interceptions on the year. . . . Lompoc’s only three losses were in nonleague games--against Division III Santa Barbara, 31-28; Cabrillo, 14-13, and Division II power Newhall Hart, 35-9. The Braves were 4-0 in the Northern League. . . . Only two teams that were in the Division VII playoffs last year--Santa Maria Righetti and San Luis Obispo--are back because most of the leagues in the division then are now in lower divisions. San Luis Obispo lost in the first round last year and Righetti lost to Laguna Hills, 34-7, in the semifinals.