Solid Defense Gives Hart Shot at Title

This finally might be the year.

After his team advanced to the division semifinals two of the past three seasons, Hart football Coach Mike Herrington believes the Indians have the talent to win a Southern Section Division II championship.

Hart dominated its opponents offensively and defensively, rolling to the first 10-0 regular season in school history.

“It’s hard to compare teams from different eras, but I think this is one of the best teams in Hart history and it is definitely my best team,” said Herrington, in his fourth season at the school. “The kids know what the task at hand is.

“They’ve had two disappointing losses in the semifinals and they want to get it all this year.”

The Indians are sixth among area Southern Section schools in defense, allowing 205.1 yards a game. Hart is second in run defense (89.4 yards a game), has three shutouts and is surrendering only 5.8 points a game.

Through 10 games last season, Hart allowed 22.6 points and 287 yards a game. Herrington credits much of the improvement to his defensive coordinator and brother, Rick.

No one is happier with the defensive turnaround than the offensive coordinator.

“Our defense was so awful last year, we felt we had to score every time we had the ball,” said Dean Herrington, brother of Mike and Rick. “Now we know we can make a mistake and the defense can get the ball back to us.

“That means a lot in the playoffs.”

EXPECTANT SPARTANS

Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman has his doubts about his team, but he isn’t quite sure what to make of them.

“This team isn’t like any other I’ve ever coached. They are really hard to figure,” Engilman said. “They’re always laughing, screwing around and having a good time. I just can’t figure them out.”

Engilman has pleaded with team members to cut the horseplay and get down to business, but no one seems to think it’s necessary. After all, the Spartans (9-0), the top-seeded City Section 4-A Divison team, have outscored opponents, 305-63.

“Tyrone Pierce always looks me in the eye and says to me, ‘Coach, don’t worry about it. We’re going to win,’ ” Engilman said. “The guy’s 6-4, 235 pounds. What am I going to say to him?”

TOPSY-TURVY

A wild and wacky season or a shift in the balance of power? Either might explain this season’s unpredictable Marmonte League football race.

Agoura, winless in league play last year, qualified for the playoffs as the Southern Section’s Division III at-large team, while Camarillo, 3-4 in league play last season, came within a game of winning the league championship.

Meanwhile, defending champion Royal and perennial power Thousand Oaks, which began the season ranked No. 1 in Division III, failed to make the playoffs.

“We were hoping to get in,” Agoura Coach Frank Greminger said. “But we didn’t think we had a chance.”

Newbury Park (8-2, 6-1 in league play) defeated Camarillo (7-3, 5-2) for the title in the final game of the regular season. Simi Valley (6-4, 4-3), for the second year in a row, finished third.

“I made the comment in preseason that the league champion could lose two games,” Simi Valley Coach Stan Quina said. “It didn’t come true, but look what happened.”

Simi Valley might be the biggest surprise. The Pioneers are the only league team to post a winning record in each of the past two years. For Simi Valley, 1-29 from 1988-90, it marked the first back-to-back winning seasons since 1960-61.

This is the first season since 1946, the year the school began keeping records, that Simi Valley has qualified for the playoffs in consecutive years.

LESS IS MORE

Canoga Park (6-4, 4-3), which clinched the Mid-Valley League title two weeks ago, has scored 12 touchdowns this season.

North Hollywood quarterback Jimmie Crist has thrown for more (13) by himself. Sylmar backs Tyrone Crenshaw (15 touchdowns) and Ibn Bilal (14) have outscored the Hunters too.

Monroe won only two games this season, but scored 19 touchdowns. Verdugo Hills won once and scored 17 touchdowns.

Last season, Canoga Park scored 18 touchdowns but won only three games. Coach Rudy Lugo contends that the Hunters are scoring less frequently this season because of parity among league teams.

“The nature of the game we’ve been playing is ball control,” Lugo said. “The only stat that really matters is who won.”

JUST THREE TOO MANY

Last year, Viewpoint had an enrollment of 108 students and its eight-man football team played in the Small Schools division.

This season, with an enrollment of 133, it barely exceeded the cutoff of 130 (determined midway through the season), which separates large and small schools.

So after an undefeated regular season playing mostly Small School teams, Viewpoint was put into the Large School playoffs, where it lost to powerhouse Hesperia Christian, 40-8.

Coach Steve Sherman is pleased with the 8-0 Patriots’ Heritage League title in only the team’s third year but can’t help but think of what might have been. “It’s really sad for our players because they really feel we would have been the Small Schools champ,” Sherman said.

HOME ON THE HARDWOOD

Here’s one way to ensure a home-court advantage: Start your own tournament.

The plan worked for Channel Islands, which will begin the basketball season by playing host to a tournament for the first time. “It was my idea,” Coach Gary Abraham said. “I wanted us to get some home games. This way, we’ll at least get three.”

Last season, Channel Islands traveled to the Nordhoff, Santa Barbara and Camarillo tournaments, then played four consecutive nonleague road games. Before the Raiders set a sneaker on their home floor, they had dropped seven of 13 road games.

The tournament, to be held next month, will include Oxnard, Hueneme, Bakersfield, Righetti and Workman.

JINX-BUSTERS

The second round of the Southern Section water polo playoffs had been like a chamber of horrors for Royal Coach Steve Snyder until last year, when the Highlanders advanced to the third round for the first time in 10 tries. So Snyder wanted to make sure that the streak was permanently laid to rest when Royal played Crescenta Valley last week.

Snyder played three freshmen and two sophomores Friday in a 16-6 victory to emphasize to his youngsters that Royal could indeed win in the second round.

“I wanted to bury this jinx once and for all,” Snyder said. “I wanted them to see how to play in a playoff situation.”

SECOND CHANCE

San Fernando boys’ soccer Coach Arturo Vazquez knew one of the first orders of business this season would be to replace the potent scoring duo of Hector Molina and Fabian Galvan, who led the Tigers to an 18-3-2 record last season. But the last player he expected to fill the void was Omar Pascualato.

Vazquez cut Pascualato from last year’s team, but Pascualato has been the leading scorer this season. “I thought he was too small to play at this level last year,” Vazquez said. “But I told him to come back out this season. Now I wish I had kept him last year.”

David Coulson and staff writers Kennedy Cosgrove, Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.