Blunt Saw Irish Eyes, Said ‘Aye’

Notre Dame must have done some job selling itself to San Fernando High quarterback Leon Blunt, who made a 180-degree turn between Friday and Saturday nights and eventually committed to play for the Fighting Irish next fall.

Friday night, Blunt telephoned running back Tyrone Crenshaw of Sylmar from South Bend, Ind., and said he couldn’t wait to get home. I’m not having a great time, Blunt told his friend.

Notre Dame then poured on the recruiting charm. During the trip, Blunt and a handful of other high school recruits attended a team banquet hosted by television celebrity Regis Philbin, a Notre Dame graduate.

Blunt also met Dan Reutteger, the former pint-sized Notre Dame reserve whose story was turned into the motion picture, “Rudy.” They gave Blunt a Notre Dame jersey with his high school number on it.

Blunt also spent a few hours in a dormitory watching football highlight films with several Notre Dame players, including receiver Lake Dawson and defensive back Travis Davis, a Banning High graduate. In fact, Blunt and Irish kick-return specialist Clint Johnson each pulled out videotapes of their best plays and let the others in the room rank their efforts. Blunt says he won the war.

“The recruits were like, ‘Yeah, (Johnson), he got you on that one,’ ” Blunt said.

Then there was his meeting with Lou Holtz, Notre Dame’s fiery coach. Holtz was, well, blunt.

Holtz: “Where do you see yourself playing?”

Blunt: “Notre Dame.”

Good answer.

“(Holtz) is cool,” Blunt said. “People out there love him. . . . He sells himself to you.”

Blunt, a three-year starter at quarterback and an All-City Section selection, was recruited to play receiver.

The Notre Dame charm must have overwhelmed Blunt, right? Maybe not.

Blunt (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) said it was the school’s atmosphere and reputation as much as anything that caused him to accept the offer.

“I didn’t really have that great a time there,” he said. “There’s not that much to do.”

NORTHWEST VALLEY

Key Combination

It might seem strange that two players who did not score touchdowns were recognized as heroes of San Pedro’s 17-0 victory over Reseda on Friday night in a City Section 3-A Division semifinal football game. Quarterback Chris Pappas passed for 194 yards and 5-foot-8 wide receiver Bryan Castaneda had eight receptions for 133 yards.

The key is the Regents rarely stopped Pappas and Castaneda in crucial situations.

Pappas and Castaneda hooked up for first downs on third down and eight, third and five and third and four. Facing second and 25 in the third quarter, Pappas and Castaneda clicked for 17 yards. Although the Pirates didn’t get a first down, the play led to Mike DiMassa’s 28-yard field goal that made it 10-0.

Jeff Williams ran one yard for a touchdown to make it 17-0 after Castaneda hauled in a 41-yard bomb from Pappas on the second play of the fourth quarter.

“This was great,” Castaneda said. “They only put one guy on me. Last week I was double covered.”

*

The Cleveland boys’ basketball team won the consolation title of the West Coast Shootout at Berkeley High over the weekend. Cleveland lost to San Jose Bellarmine in the first round, then defeated Artesia and Oakland Castlemont.

Louis Fernandez and Jimmy Harris of Cleveland were named to the all-tournament team. The Cavaliers play host to defending state Division I champion Crenshaw on Friday at 7 p.m.

GOLDEN LEAGUE

Another Vantage Point

Crespi and Antelope Valley each came within a break or two of playing in the Southern Section Division I final this weekend. Crespi Coach Tim Lins knows better than anyone, because he witnessed both games.

Lins drove to Lancaster to watch Antelope Valley fall, 15-11, to Mater Dei on Friday night. Crespi lost the following night to Eisenhower, 7-3.

Crespi threw an interception in the end zone that proved to be its most critical error.

Lins had no trouble pinpointing the big play in Antelope Valley’s loss, either. Antelope Valley’s C.J. Fagan recovered an apparent Mater Dei fumble in the third quarter, but the play was blown dead before the ballcarrier was tackled.

On the next play, the Monarchs scored to take the lead for good.

Lins agreed with the Antelopes’ contention that the call was botched. Replays shown by a local cable-TV outlet seemed to support Antelope Valley’s assertion.

Said Lins: “It was a fumble, big-time. I just don’t think (the officials) saw it.”

EAST VALLEY LEAGUE

A Change of Seasons?

What would the Sylmar football program be without Coach Jeff Engilman?

Well, if Engilman remains in his present mind-set, everyone might soon find out.

“If I was to make a decision right now, it would be 80% toward retirement and 20% toward staying,” Engilman said. “(But) I’ll make my decision after Christmas.”

Engilman’s retirement could end Spartan dominance. Since Engilman took over at Sylmar in 1987, the Spartans are 61-17-2 and have won five league titles and a City 4-A championship in seven seasons. He has guided the Spartans to 10-victory seasons the past four years.

While this is not the first time Engilman has contemplated a change, he mentioned retirement more than ever this season.

Talk started even before the Spartans’ season did: “I didn’t want to go through Hell Week,” Engilman said before Sylmar’s opener. “I’m having a rough time motivating these kids, and when you can’t find ways to motivate anymore, it’s time to do something else.”

Engilman, 43, whose coaching fervor has made him a popular figure among Spartan fans, began taking medication for high blood pressure a year ago.

*

Engilman took a shot at all those other area City teams and coaches who were sitting at home or in the bleachers at the Spartans’ 4-A semifinal loss to Carson on Friday night.

Asked to sum up the Spartans’ season, which started 1-1-1 and finished 10-2-1, Engilman responded: “It was a good year. Ten wins. Anybody else in the City (among area teams) have 10 wins? Three straight years in the semifinals. Can anybody else say that?”

Answers: Yes (Taft finished 10-2), and no, respectively.

*

Sylmar tailback Tyrone Crenshaw can rest easy. He rushed for 111 yards against Carson last week and edged Taft’s Jerry Brown for the area City rushing title.

Crenshaw, last year’s 4-A player of the year, gained 1,785 yards in 199 carries and scored 23 touchdowns. Brown, who once played tailback on the same youth football team with Crenshaw, amassed 1,761 yards and 19 touchdowns in 201 carries.

Beating Brown for the rushing title was high on Crenshaw’s list. So, he was happy, right? Wrong.

“I’d have rather beaten Carson,” he said.

In three seasons--only two of which he started at tailback--Crenshaw rushed for 4,043 yards and scored 47 touchdowns. He averaged 8.3 yards a carry.

DEL REY LEAGUE

Crespi Scheme

So how did Crespi (8-4) with its assortment of sub-200-pound linemen and not nearly the team speed of Rialto Eisenhower, nearly upset the undefeated Eagles, ranked second in the nation in the USA Today poll?

Defense.

Crespi limited Eisenhower to 45 yards in the first half and led, 3-0, at halftime of the Southern Section Division I semifinal before losing, 7-3.

Crespi’s defensive line shifted before the snap on nearly every play. “As an offensive guard, I was looking for who to hit without getting in the way of our running backs,” Eisenhower lineman Jeff Bailey said. “I didn’t know where to go.”

For the Eagle rushers, there wasn’t anywhere to go. Tailback Marlon Farlow gained 25 yards in his first two carries of the half, but after that, Eisenhower gained 20 yards in its other 19 offensive plays in the half.

By game’s end, Eisenhower totaled 244 yards. However, Eagle quarterback Glenn Thompkins, a candidate for state player of the year, gained zero yards in nine rushes and fumbled twice.

“We can play with anybody,” Crespi linebacker Patrick Jeffries said. “We’ve been doing this all year.”

MISSION LEAGUE

Attention Teen-Age Girls

Some familiar faces are in new places on the Harvard-Westlake soccer field this season, and there is one new face that’s very well-known--and not just in soccer circles.

New boys’ assistant Andrew Weise has called a former Dartmouth teammate to come by and kick the ball around with the Wolverines a few times. That buddy is Andrew Shue, who plays Billy on the television show “Melrose Place.”

“I’m afraid if that gets printed in the L.A. Times, about 100,000 teen-age girls will come down to our practices,” Coach Rick Commons joked.

Commons is the new boys’ coach, moving up from the freshman team last season. Ned Smith, last season’s varsity boys’ assistant, is the new girls’ coach.

*

Notre Dame girls’ basketball player Maggie Dixon is carrying on a family tradition for the Knights.

The 6-foot-1 junior guard is the sister of former Notre Dame guard Jamie Dixon, who played for Texas Christian in the mid-1980s and was drafted in the seventh round by the Washington Bullets in 1987.

“We were joking with him the other day about his little sister taking over his name,” Knights’ Coach Rob DiMuro said.

Maggie transferred to Notre Dame from Immaculate Heart a year ago and played on the junior varsity last season. A varsity player at Immaculate Heart, she couldn’t play at the varsity level for one year because she transferred without changing residence.

But in the season opener last week, she scored 13 points and had 11 rebounds in a victory over last season’s City 4-A finalist North Hollywood.

MARMONTE LEAGUE

Simi Valley a Real Kick

The Simi Valley area has long been a wellspring of youth soccer talent.

A dramatic example: two high school girls--Royal’s Kelly Adamson and Simi Valley’s Monica Gerardo, both 16-year-old juniors--were selected to play on the under-20 national team.

“It’s a great honor for (Gerardo and Adamson) and for the city itself,” Simi Valley Coach Mark Johnson said.

Prodigious talent is nothing new for the region, though.

“Kelly is absolutely a good soccer player and deserves credit for the fact that she has taken the time and effort to try out for all those teams,” Royal Coach Monte Berna said. “But I think there’s a lot of people around this valley who simply didn’t try. I can’t explain it, but there’s a lot of talent in this valley.”

TRI-VALLEY LEAGUE

Still Going. . . .

One week after competing in the state cross-country meet in Fresno, Oak Park junior Brandon Creason had tossed his running shoes, laced up a pair of high-tops and was named most valuable player of the Nordhoff basketball tournament.

The point guard averaged 17.6 points and seven assists in the Eagles’ three victories.

“He’s got a pretty good run going,” Coach Rob Hall said.

Creason added 13 points and six assists in Oak Park’s opening-round victory in the Faith Baptist tournament on Monday.

Around the Leagues. . . .

* Antelope Valley’s defense surrendered only two touchdowns in three Southern Section Division I playoff games, but that wasn’t enough to keep Mater Dei from winning, 15-11, Friday night in the semifinals. One of Mater Dei’s touchdowns came on a 29-yard interception return in the fourth quarter. Antelope Valley was deprived of its seventh berth in a Southern Section final since 1976 and its fifth in Brent Newcomb’s 16-year tenure as head coach.

* Newbury Park fell behind, 14-0, in the first quarter against Bell Gardens last week, marking only the fourth time the Panthers faced a deficit this fall. Twice, Newbury Park trailed, 7-0, in the first quarter and another time, 3-0, before coming back. The Panthers (13-0) have never trailed past the first quarter this season.

* George Keiaho, a four-year starter at Buena, just missed eclipsing the Ventura County single-season rushing mark with his 103-yard performance in a 44-20 loss to Hawthorne in a Division III semifinal. Keiaho finished his senior year with 2,248 yards. Camarillo tailback Fahali Campbell (2,285 yards) set the county record last year.

* Sylmar’s Tyrone Crenshaw was not the only back to rush for 1,000 yards in the Valley Pac-8 Conference. Two others hit the 1,000 mark, but just barely. Van Nuys’ Larry Reed had 1,000 yards in 159 carries, and Poly’s Gerrod Taylor had 1,001 in 186 carries.

* Through four games, the Alemany girls’ basketball team has three players averaging more than 14 points a game. Sophomore center Carly Funicello leads at 15.0 points, followed by junior forward Samantha Rigley with 14.8 and junior guard Kelly McKay at 14.3.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Steve Elling, Dana Haddad, Paige A. Leech, and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.

Times’ Top 10

The region’s top high school basketball teams, ranked by sportswriters of The Times:

Rk LW Team League W-L 1 1 North Hollywood East Valley 2-2 2 5 Simi Valley Marmonte 3-1 3 2 Chatsworth West Valley 4-1 4 2 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 3-1 5 NR Hart Foothill 4-1 6 NR Saugus Foothill 3-1 7 NR Glendale Pacific 3-1* 8 NR Cleveland West Valley 2-2 9 NR Reseda North Valley 1-0 10 NR Hoover Pacific 3-0

* Does not include Tuesday’s game.