Foothill League Runs Into 2,000 Reasons to Party

For the rest of us, there are 40 days left in 1999. For the Foothill League, 2000 arrived on Friday night.

The league popped the cork on the Southern Section Division III playoffs with fireworks that will be difficult to match on Dec. 31.

Hart, Saugus, Valencia and Canyon combined for more than 2,000 yards in first-round games.

“I think that proves that we play some pretty good football in the Foothill League,” Hart Coach Mike Herrington said.

Like their opponents, the numbers were staggering.

Longtime offensive power Hart (11-0) set a school record with 651 yards and fell one point short of its game scoring mark in a 62-18 rout of Quartz Hill.

Valencia (8-3) overwhelmed usually solid Crescenta Valley with 626 yards in a 55-21 runaway.

Saugus (9-2) rolled up 430 yards in a 56-35 victory over Chaminade.

But Canyon (4-7) turned in perhaps the upset of the night, a 28-14 stunner over Arcadia.

The Cowboys, who finished fourth in the league and played Friday without eight players because of academic ineligibility, rolled up 353 yards on the ground to topple the Pacific League tri-champion.

Mark Barr, a 145-pound sophomore who bounced between the varsity and junior varsity, rushed for 170 yards and was among seven sophomores to play extensively.

“That was a real big win,” Canyon Coach Jack Bowman said. “I don’t know if Hart, Saugus or Valencia really surprised anybody, but maybe we surprised some people.”

The league will be hard-pressed to duplicate its performance in the quarterfinals.

Defending champion and top-seeded Hart takes a 20-game winning streak to Muir, which has lost only two games, each by one point.

Saugus meets Golden League champion Highland (8-3), which possesses one of the region’s best defenses.

Canyon hosts No. 4-seeded St. Francis (10-1), which disposed of Lancaster, a team that runs a double-wing offense similar to Canyon’s.

Valencia hosts No. 2 Notre Dame (10-1), which is averaging 40 points in its first season after dropping from Division I.

“I don’t know if it’s even possible for us to beat them,” Valencia Coach Brian Stiman said. “We’ll have to play one of our best games ever.”

Still, that’s a possibility with UCLA-bound Manuel White in the backfield.

The Viking senior raised his season rushing total to 2,087 yards.

White, who twice in his career has rushed for 2,000 yards or more, has 6,329 career yards and needs 24 to move past Justin Fargas into second place on the region’s all-time list.

White needs Valencia to defeat Notre Dame for a chance to surpass the 6,615 career yards by Buena’s George Keiaho, the region’s all-time rushing leader.

“A lot of things have to go your way in the playoffs,” White said. “So far, they have.”

And, at least for now, that’s cause for a league-wide celebration.

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Kyle Matter had 461 of Hart’s school-record 494 yards passing against Quartz Hill, the second time the junior has passed for that many yards.

Jared Bazar tied the school’s career record for receptions with 149.

But the news was not all good for the Indians.

Senior Garrett Fuller, who averaged a team-best 20.6 yards per reception, reportedly broke two bones in his right wrist on Friday.

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Saugus may have received additional motivation for next week, thanks to a postgame prep football radio show that broadcasts to the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley areas.

A caller, identifying himself as linebacker Paul Soto of Highland, guaranteed a victory over the Centurions.

The call was a hoax.

Following Highland’s 20-14 victory over Pasadena, Soto took a recruiting trip to Oregon, where he attended the Oregon-Oregon State game on Saturday afternoon.

“I’d still like to get the tape and play it over the [public-address] system at school on Monday,” Saugus Coach Ron Hilton said.

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The 38 teams from the region that began the Southern Section 11-man playoffs posted a 23-15 record in the first round.

City teams were 5-8.

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Changing of the guard: Taft defeated Banning, 41-29, last season for the City Championship.

This season, Taft was eliminated by San Pedro in the opening round.

Banning failed to qualify for the 16-team Championship bracket and is participating in the City Invitational.

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Two Southern Section quarterfinals are rematches of regular-season games.

In Division IV, Buena (10-1) faces Newbury Park (7-4), a repeat of a Sept. 24 game won by Buena, 28-14.

That was Cameron Merrill’s first game as Newbury Park’s starting quarterback after replacing injured Chris Lombardo.

Merrill is peaking now, passing for 345 yards in Newbury Park’s 47-21 rout of Santa Maria Righetti on Friday.

No. 4-seeded Buena (10-1) has won 10 in a row, but struggled in a 17-10 first-round victory over Moorpark, the fourth-place team from the Marmonte League.

Moorpark lost to Newbury Park, 26-7, last month.

In Division XII, Montclair Prep (9-2) hosts Paraclete (8-3) and tries to avenge a 30-22 loss to the two-time section champion on Oct. 23.

Paraclete, which has scored 54 points or more in four of its last seven games, defeated the Mounties, 19-6, last season.