Idle Time Becomes Mounties’ Problem

Bye-bye Montclair Prep.

Make that, bye-bye-bye-bye. See ya next month.

At a point when most local high schools have hit the halfway point in their regular-season schedules, the Mounties are almost finished.

One game left, against Ganesha, on Nov. 11.

Montclair Prep played its one and only game of October on Thursday, defeating Gladstone, 20-7, at Citrus College. They need not rush breaking down the film.

Halloween is closer to Thanksgiving than the Mounties are to their next football game.

Mar Vista canceled a game that was to be played next Friday and Cerritos was forced to pull out from an agreement to play the week after that.

The following Fridays, Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, already were open.

Greg Reece, Montclair Prep’s beleaguered athletic director, has been working the phones. Right now, the class dweeb has a better chance of getting a date.

Montclair Prep is a free-lance team, competing without league affiliation. And for that, the school has only itself to blame.

Before its football program was rocked by recruiting and grade-fixing scandals, Montclair Prep was a member of the Alpha League.

Having been expelled, the Mounties are outcasts. Most other schools won’t even meet them in a nonleague game.

To fill in the blanks, Reece has been in touch with San Dimas, Sherman Indian and California School for the Deaf, among other possibilities. Coach George Giannini says the team’s schedule might include another game or two by the end of the week.

In the meantime, current Mountie players are feeling pinched by their predecessors.

“We’re being punished for things that happened before a lot of us even came to Montclair,” linebacker Anwan Jones said. “We’re paying the consequences of their actions, and it’s not fair.”

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On a roll: The last time Moorpark won its first five games in a season, the team played only five games in a season.

The year was 1946.

With Santa Clara next up on its schedule, Moorpark is a cinch to win its sixth consecutive game, matching the longest winning streak of its 70-year history.

In their last 14 games dating back to last season, the Musketeers are 12-1-1--the only loss coming against Atascadero in the secondround of the Southern Section Division IX playoffs.

Moorpark’s recent success has caught the fancy of fans, who are showing up in record numbers. An estimated 5,000 watched the Musketeers down Oak Park, 35-34, on Friday.

“There at the end, they were really loud,” Moorpark Coach Rob Dearborn said. “They were going crazy.”

Among those watching was former Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia, recently hired by his former club as an instructor. Scioscia is a friend and business partner of Luja Bodesta, an orthopedic specialist who is Moorpark’s team doctor.

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Murphy’s Law: Getting knocked out by three neighborhood bullies is one thing. Being out-jabbed is another.

Kennedy has lost three football games--by a total of four points.

Close scores, big losses.

“Any time you lose rivalries, those are big losses,” Coach Bob Francola said.

The first loss came against second-ranked Sylmar, 16-14. Then the Golden Cougars dropped a 7-6 decision to Granada Hills by missing a chip-shot field goal and having an extra-point attempt blocked.

Their latest setback was to San Fernando, 21-20. The linescore of the game showed Kennedy failed on three two-point conversion tries.

The assumption is that Francola scrapped the kicking game altogether.

Not so. Kennedy, which blew a 20-7 lead, tried a PAT after its first touchdown, but the holder couldn’t get the ball on the tee.

“Our kicking problems haven’t always been the kicker,” Francola said. “Everybody else always make those plays look so easy. We keep making it an adventure.”

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They’re believers: Us, too.

Don Markham, first-year football coach at Bloomington High, must have the greatest tactical mind this side of that maniacal basketball coach from Bloomington, Ind.

Bloomington’s play-action attack faked Chaminade defenders out of their hip pads Friday night in a 72-14 rout. This against a team that opened the season with back-to-back shutouts and had held opponents to negative rushing yards after three games.

Bloomington had outscored the opposition, 280-31, in its first four games. But, heck, who had they played?

“Yeah, that’s what we thought,” said Jason Giovannettone, a Chaminade defensive back. “We didn’t think they’d played anyone decent.”

Giovannettone & Co. were a confident 3-1 coming in and a philosophical 3-2 going out. “They’re for real,” Giovannettone said. “I hope this strikes a little fire in our heart to get better.”

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Two-liners: Ventura is the best 1-4 team in the region, and the Cougars proved it by defeating Hueneme, 51-0, and holding Viking tailback Ronney Jenkins to 61 yards. Ventura opened the season with consecutive losses to Simi Valley, Westlake, Royal and Buena--teams all ranked in The Times’ regional Top 10. . . .

The most surprisingly strong team in the region would have to be Simi Valley, a squad picked to finish near the bottom of the Marmonte League standings by most alleged experts. The Pioneers are 4-0-1, 2-0 in league play. . . .

Contrary to popular belief, having a great running game doesn’t guarantee victory. Friday night’s top rushers--Monroe’s Nick Nuccitelli (286 yards against Poly), and Grant’s Di-Onte Smith (256 against Van Nuys)--each ended up on the losing side.

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Optional advice: Burbank opponents might want to try onside kicks.

Glendale tried kicking away from Carlos Baker Friday night, and with good reason. Baker, who had two returns for touchdowns last season, had scorched Arroyo on a 66-yard return the previous week.

So Glendale went to the other side, at Vaughn Lucas.

Oops. Lucas took one back 81 yards for a touchdown.

Worse yet, Baker ended up burning the Dynamiters anyway, scoring on a 91-yard pass play.

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He’s all wet: In an age when coaches routinely are drenched by icy buckets of fluid even after the most ordinary of victories, how in the world did Agoura water polo Coach Jason Rosenthal walk away from the pool Friday bone dry?

Easy. He lied.

Agoura players threatened to submerge Rosenthal after the Chargers defeated Royal, 12-11, snapping Royal’s 66-game Marmonte League winning streak.

He persuaded them to defer by saying such a celebration was against CIF rules.

“I don’t really know if it is,” Rosenthal said. “But that’s what I told them.”

Soak that man.

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Thought for the day: Steve Snyder, Royal’s water polo coach, after his team’s first loss in 67 league games:

“A jillion people in China still don’t give a (darn).”