High school football scoreboards get a workout
If the first weekend of the high school football season is any indication of what’s to come, fans had better be prepared to see lots of scoring.
Twenty-two teams scored 50 or more points, and five were in the 60s.
Blame it on the spread, no-huddle offenses, which are allowing teams to run plays in rapid fashion, creating more scoring opportunities.
“It’s definitely because of more plays,” said Corona Centennial Coach Matt Logan, whose team scored 60 points against Henderson (Nev.) Liberty. “We ran the ball 50 times and threw it 38 times. That’s 88 plays. That’s a lot.”¿ Centennial will be in the spotlight this weekend at Oceanside High, which is hosting the Honor Bowl on Friday and Saturday. Six teams ranked in The Times’ top 25 are participating.
On Friday night, No. 7 Gardena Serra (1-0) plays Oceanside (1-0). On Saturday, there’s a tripleheader: No. 18 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (1-0) vs. Loomis Del Oro (1-0) at noon, No. 11 Westlake Village Oaks Christian (1-0) vs. No. 21 Upland (0-1) at 4 p.m., and No. 3 Centennial (1-0) vs. No. 13 Ventura St. Bonaventure (1-0) at 8 p.m.
Time Warner Cable will broadcast three of the four games live (Notre Dame-Del Oro won’t be televised).
Logan is 0-2 against St. Bonaventure, so his players will be motivated to take on quarterback Ricky Town & Co.
The question: How many points will be needed to win?
The answer: A lot.
“I would hope we both have better defenses,” Logan said.
Another game that figures to leave the scoreboard operator busy is Friday’s matchup between West Hills Chaminade and Newhall Hart at College of the Canyons. Chaminade scored 57 points and Hart put up 56 in opening victories.
“It sounds like the offenses are ahead of the defenses,” Chaminade Coach Ed Croson said.
Chaminade ran off 46 plays in the first half against Venice on Friday. The national average used to be 55 plays a game, Croson said.
“Hurry up and run a play” is the new strategy in prep football.
Divided family
Oct. 25 is going to be quite a night in the Modster family. Sean is a senior receiver at Mission Viejo. Devon is a sophomore quarterback at Tesoro. Their two teams will play on that night at Mission Viejo.
“That could be interesting,” Tesoro Coach Matt Poston said.
Devon, 6 feet 2, 210 pounds, made an impressive varsity debut Friday as the starting quarterback for Tesoro, completing 16 of 24 passes for 186 yards in a 43-14 win over La Mirada. Jon Rivera rushed for 208 yards.
“He was very calm, cool and collected and made good decisions with the ball,” Poston said.
Sean was busy in Hawaii, where Mission Viejo defeated Wailuku Baldwin, 49-20.
Twitter: @LATSondheimer
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