‘Battle’ talk begins at Quarterback Club
SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club, in its 68th year, meets Tuesday’s at the Elk’s Lodge. The following are odds and ends from the ninth meeting of the year.
LOCALS READY TO RING THE BELL
Though the Hoover High and Glendale football teams don’t own winning records, it doesn’t mean much when the Tornadoes and Nitros annually get together for “The Battle For the Victory Bell.”
The teams have combined for one win this season, which belongs to Hoover. The Tornadoes are 1-8, 0-6 in the Pacific League, while the Nitros are 0-9, 0-6.
Still, more than 5,000 are expected to converge to Glendale High’s Moyse Field for the 82nd meeting between the programs at 7 p.m. Friday. Glendale owns a 40-32-2 advantage in the series that dates back to 1930. However, the Tornadoes won the last meeting, 15-7.
“Our kids are ready and fired up just as the Glendale players are,” Hoover Coach Chris Long said. “They are excited and one of our main goals is to finish the season strong with a win.
“Our kids know the history of the game. We won last year and the last time Hoover beat Glendale twice in a row was in 1983 and 1984.”
Glendale Coach Alan Eberhart, who participated twice as a player for Glendale in the rivalry in the 1970s, said the Nitros couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity at trying to snap their winless skid.
“We’ve got one more chance and there’s nothing to save it for,” Eberhart said. “The kids can go out there and play a full game.
“I’ve now played and coached in the game and everything just stops. We need to win the football game and we do have a chance. It’s amazing to see the amount of people who come to the game. We are going to run the ball and run the ball and run the ball. We need to keep Hoover’s offense off the field.”
The Nitros are 7-3 in the last 10 matchups.
FALCONS COME UP SHORT OF GOAL
In many ways, Crescenta Valley has gone through a rebuilding stage. The Falcons lost more than 30 players from last season’s team that advanced to the playoffs to graduation.
Times have changed with the new cast of athletes learning new schemes under the direction of first-year Coach Paul Schilling. The Falcons began this season 4-1 and 2-0 in league, but have fallen on some tough times with several close league losses.
Crescenta Valley was eliminated from the playoff hunt after it suffered a 39-26 Pacific League loss to Burbank on Friday at Burroughs High’s Memorial Field. The Falcons had reached the second round of the CIF Southern Section Southeast Division the previous two seasons.
Crescenta Valley (4-5, 2-4) will seek to snap a four-game losing skid when it meets rival Arcadia in a league game at 7 p.m. Friday at Arcadia. The Apaches are in the hunt for the league championship. Arcadia is 6-3, 5-1 in league and is tied for first with Burbank and Burroughs.
“We had a tough loss against a very good Burbank team,” Schilling said. “We were down, 33-6, and then we made a great comeback, but we just ran out of time.
“We now have to play spoiler and even up our record. We don’t like Arcadia and they don’t like us.”
