Foothill casts long shadow
LA CRESCENTA — While it was hosted by the Crescenta Valley High Falcons and featured more than half the other teams from the Pacific League, the championship round of the 2012 Crescenta Valley Passing Tournament was dominated by the Foothill League.
By the semifinals of the two-day tournament that concluded Saturday afternoon, the final four consisted of Foothill mainstays Hart, Valencia and Saugus and Arcadia, which shared the Pacific League title last season.
Hart bested Valencia, 30-24, in the championship round.
None of the local teams in the tournament — Crescenta Valley, Burroughs, Burbank and Hoover — qualified for Saturday afternoon’s playoffs out of bracket play.
The Falcons came the closest, going 2-2-1 and missing out on the playoffs by losing a tiebreaker with Verdugo Hills that came down to total points scored in bracket play by just two points.
“We have a lot of young kids and both the kids playing quarterback never played varsity football before,” said Schilling, who alternated Ben Rees and Joe Torres under center. “I’m a little disappointed, I thought we would have played a little better, but it is what it is.”
Not only did the Falcons find themselves tied with Verdugo Hills in the final bracket play standings, but also when the teams went head to head, as Crescenta Valley opened Saturday’s action with a 16-16 tie against the Dons.
The Falcons, who had beaten Burroughs, 8-6, but lost to L.A. Marshall, 22-14, on Friday, went on to beat Eagle Rock, 38-18, before losing to Hart, 38-18, on Saturday.
Burroughs, which was a Pacific League co-titlist last season, went winless on both days, falling to Marshall, 20-0, Verdugo Hills, 22-6, and Eagle Rock, 28-14, on Saturday after suffering the loss to CV and a 56-6 loss to Hart on Friday.
Burbank ended Saturday on a high note with a 26-14 win over Hoover followed by a win over L.A. Wilson. The Bulldogs started with losses on Friday to Arcadia, 32-18, and Valencia, 24-6, and opened Saturday with a 28-8 loss to Saugus.
Hoover split its Friday games with a 54-6 loss to Valencia and a 30-6 win over Wilson, but went winless on Saturday in losing to Arcadia, 30-16, Burbank and Saugus, 26-20.
Schilling cautioned against reading too much into a May passing league when forecasting the upcoming Pacific League season.
“Burroughs didn’t win a game, but they’re going to run the ball [during the season] and Burbank, I talked to [Coach] Hector [Valencia] and he said a lot of his guys are suspended, they weren’t even here,” Schilling said. “It’s hard to really judge anyway on May 19, but it’s good for the kids to come out and compete.”
Arcadia, which is coached by former Hoover Coach Chris Long went 4-3, with two of those losses coming against Valencia. Long’s team lost to the Vikings, 28-2, in bracket play, but kept it closer at in its 36-18 loss in the semifinals.
“It’s a good team and they’ve got a lot of skill guys,” Long said of the Vikings. “We played better the second time around.
“We did well. We just installed a new offense and we’ve only had two weeks of practice, so we don’t really have a whole lot of plays, but what we do have, I was pleased. I liked our guys’ effort.
“It was nice to see us against other teams instead of against ourselves.”