Rivalry Has Little to Shout About After Rout

Geographically, Compton and Dominguez high schools are close together. Athletically, they are far apart.

The cross-town rivalry is nearly obsolete, especially after Dominguez continued its dominance in the season-opening football game with a 78-0 victory on Friday. It was the Dons’ 11th consecutive victory over Compton.

“I’ve been coaching for a long time and I never thought I would be part of such a lopsided score,” Dominguez Coach Willie Donerson said. “It wasn’t anything planned. It was a fluke. We played everybody, and I requested a running clock in the second half. Truthfully, it could have been worse.”

The Dons led, 59-0, at halftime. Compton finished with 21 yards on offense, 45 yards in penalties and eight turnovers.

Donerson is in his 13th year at the school; Danny Benson is in his first season at Compton.

Donerson, 53, was an assistant at Compton from 1976 through ’84 when the school was competitive. But for the last few years he has been trying to get the Tarbabes off his schedule.

“I’ve had a very stable staff, while they’ve had numerous coaching changes since I left,” he said. “When kids in the area get into the ninth grade, the good football players all want to come to Dominguez. That’s reality.”

Donerson’s son, Keith, is the offensive coordinator at Dominguez. Twice he tried to get hired as Compton’s football coach, only to be turned down each time.

“If Keith left, I’d probably lose about half my team,” Willie said. “That’s why I decided to make him a co-head coach this season. I don’t want him to go.”

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Sylmar has been the top football team in the City Section in the 1990s, winning Division 4-A titles in ’92 and ’94.

With a talented group returning, including several projected starters who transferred in from other schools, the Spartans figured to make another title run this season. But Coach Jeff Engilman could only cringe as he watched the film of his team’s 30-6 loss to Woodland Hills Taft in last Thursday’s opener.

Engilman had to sit out the Taft game and Friday’s contest at Chatsworth as part of a punishment handed down by the section for his illegal contact with San Fernando transfer Derrell Daniels.

Without the vocal Engilman, Sylmar isn’t the same.

“I feel I let Jeff down as a coach and as a friend,” assistant Darrel McIntyre said after the Taft game.

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Gabrielino High in San Gabriel is one of several area high schools fielding a varsity football team for the first time this season.

The Eagles play their first game against La Verne Bonita tonight at 7 at Rosemead High. They will play home games at Rosemead since they don’t have a sufficient field of their own.

The public school, which still doesn’t have a senior class, opened three years ago and has an enrollment of 1,050.

Coach Vince Lopez, a former defensive coordinator at La Puente Nogales, started the program and has 80 players out for three teams. Gabrielino competes in the Southern Section’s Camino Real League, which is in Division X.

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The football season is only a week old, but already two of the area’s top senior quarterbacks have announced their college plans, and both said they will attend the same place.

David Priestly (6 feet 4, 200 pounds) of Cypress Brethren Christian said last week that he will sign a letter of intent with Ohio State in February, and Austin Moherman (6-5, 195) of Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley said earlier this week that he also will sign with the Buckeyes.

“We’ll just have to see what happens when we get there,” Moherman said. “I’m ready.”

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The state’s second-longest win streak ended when Atascadero lost to Bakersfield Stockdale, 21-20, in its opener on Friday. The Greyhounds had won 21 consecutive games. Concord De La Salle has the nation’s longest win streak at 53 games. . . . Billy Newman, a 5-10, 165-pound running back at Santa Margarita, rushed for a school-record 353 yards and three touchdowns in 33 carries in his team’s 38-24 victory over Trabuco Hills on Friday. . . . The Irvine Woodbridge cross-country invitational will be held Saturday morning at 8. It is the first major meet of the season.