St. Francis High football enjoys historic win, performance from Ty Gangi
GLENDALE — The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club, in its 71st year, meets Tuesdays at the Elk’s Lodge. The following are odds and ends from the fifth meeting of the year.
KNIGHTS ENJOY BIG PERFORMANCES
While St. Francis High football Coach Jim Bonds acknowledged the hype surrounding his team’s trip to Monrovia last Friday, he said his team approached it like any other game.
It showed on the scoreboard, as the Knights posted yet another lopsided win, 48-14, over the Wildcats behind some incredible performances.
None was more impressive than St. Francis quarterback Ty Gangi, who logged seven total touchdowns on the night. The senior was named the team’s “Will to Win” player of the game after he threw for 305 yards and four touchdowns, ran for two scores and also caught a touchdown pass in the win.
“Ty had an incredible night. …He accounted for seven touchdowns, I haven’t seen anything like that,” said Bonds, who also earned his 100th victory with St. Francis Friday. “Some St. Francis faithful were asking me if anyone had ever done that before and I’m not sure.”
Bonds also recognized Dylan Crawford’s “career game.” The sophomore wide receiver had four catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns to earn him the team’s co-offensive player of the game award, along with senior offensive lineman Austin Finton, who was named honorary captain for the game because of his ties to Monrovia High, as his mom is a graduate of the school.
Senior defensive lineman Ricky Urzua was the Golden Knights’ defensive player of the game. Defensively, St. Francis managed to keep the Wildcats elite running back Kurt Scoby in check. The senior, who transferred to Monrovia this summer and has spent time at six different schools, ran for 120 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
St. Francis will look to carry its 5-0 nonleague start into the Mission League, as it hits the road to face a winless St. Paul team (0-5).
FALCONS LOSE IT LATE
Panic didn’t set in for the Crescenta Valley High football team until it was finally down against Burroughs in a Pacific League game last week, Falcons Coach Paul Schilling said.
CV held a 17-3 fourth-quarter lead but a botched punt and three turnovers keyed a 21-0 Indians run in the final 6:08 of the game. Burroughs’ 24-17 win handed the Falcons (4-1, 1-1 in Pacific League) their first loss of the season.
Schilling said his sideline felt confident throughout almost the entire game. There wasn’t any panic from Crescenta Valley until it took over and was trailing for the first time in the game with about a minute left.
“It’s 24-17, we have a minute left, but we can’t move the ball,” Schilling said. “We’re sort of in shock and that was the game. It was a really great game, give credit to Burroughs. It’s heartbreaking for us; we’re still trying to recover.”
It will have to be a quick recovery, as CV hosts undefeated Burbank (5-0, 2-0) Friday night at Moyse Field.
SONDHEIMER SEES GAME CHANGING
In his 30 years covering sports in Southern California, Eric Sondheimer has seen plenty of changes. The Los Angeles Times high school sportswriter reflected on some of those recent changes, particularly those on the football field, at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It’s been a fun year covering high school football because I have never seen so much offense,” Sondheimer said.
Sondheimer attributed that to the increase of up-tempo and spread offenses. He also felt scoring has gone up because, as has been in the trend at the NCCA and NFL levels, most top-notch high schools have dual-threat quarterbacks that can run and pass the ball effectively.
“It’s just causing all hell to break loose for the defensive coordinators, I don’t know how they sleep at night,” Sondheimer said. “I know I have trouble sleeping at night wondering how I’m going to write down statistics it all goes so fast.”
Another recent change is the CIF modification to the use of transfers, which is allowing some schools to assemble super teams in search of CIF championships, Sondheimer said.
“CIF changed its transfer rule more than a year ago,” Sondheimer said. “It used to be you had to sit out a whole year and now it’s only a month, that’s not really deterring transfers.
“Last year, every team that won a Division I title in basketball or football had a transfer student. It’s clear that’s what it takes to win a championship.”