A fistful of notions gleaned from another weekend of CCS football action:
NO STANDS, NO PROBLEM: San Mateo coach Jeff Scheller may not agree, but for one game -- the Bearcats' 47-9 victory against Lynbrook on Saturday -- the unfinished San Mateo bleachers were no big deal.
The Bearcats, with fans from both teams watching from lawn chairs beyond the end zones, bolted to a 33-0 halftime lead en route to victory.
Watson Filiktonga rushed for 213 yards on nine carries and scored three touchdowns. San Mateo's Josh Fakava, whose dad played at the University of Hawaii, ran for 129 yards on seven carries and scored twice. Line Latu, switched from running back to quarterback this season, scored once.
"The win was great," Scheller said. "(It was a) confidence builder and a lot of kids got to contribute."
San Mateo receiver Austin Perez caught two passes for 28 yards, but was nursing a sprained ankle. He's on the mend. The Bearcats also have another athletic receiver who is ineligible, but who might be active by the Carlmont game in a few weeks.
For this game at least, the unfinished bleachers did not matter. Now if they're not done in a month, that might be a different story.
P-A ANNOUNCERS ARE NOT RADIO STARS: It's not that prevalent in the Bay Area but every once in a while you run across a homer P-A guy at a prep game who seems like he downed a few Starbucks Double-Shots before the game.
I was on the visitors' side for one game this season and the P.A. guy's voice was booming through a speaker at about an 11 on a scale of 10. By the middle of the first quarter I was stuffing wadded up pieces of paper into my ears.
Not only did we get the necessary stuff about who carried the ball and who made the tackle, but also a torrent of unneeded verbiage like "will the (insert mascot here) get a first down on this play ... well, we're about to find out!" Seemingly every second of dead time was filled with this guy's voice and when the home team scored -- oh my gosh -- it was like V-J Day and the Giants winning the World Series all at once.
Reality check: You're a P.A. announcer, not Bill King. Put down the pom pons, settle down and just tell us who carried the ball or scored the touchdown. Every thing else we can see for ourselves.
WILDCATS ARE LOADED: If you didn't know it already, defending CCS Division II champion Los Gatos are not just paper tigers. Judging from Friday's 35-7 victory at Menlo-Atherton it looks like you could drop the Wildcats into the WCAL and they'd do just fine.
Watching Joey Wood run for big chunks of yardage, Dru Brown complete nearly every pass, and Jake Jarnigan and Hugh Bohn stop everything that moves, it's easy to forget coach Mark Krail is in only his second year at Los Gatos after taking over for long-time coach Butch Cattolico.
"I'm a Butch Cattolico guy, but Mark has done a great job," said Los Gatos dad and statistician Chuck Perry. "And he doesn't just coach football but the whole person -- he cares about how they eat and how they sleep and their study habits. When they started getting a little cocky there (against M-A) he told them about winning with class and not doing anything stupid. I'm very impressed with him."
All those playmakers don't hurt, either.
RIORDAN IS IMPROVED: Riordan went just 3-7 overall and 1-6 last season in the WCAL under first-year coach John Lee. The Crusaders really haven't been good since 2007 when coach Mike Langridge led them to a 9-3-1 record.
They haven't won this season either, including a 27-0 opening loss to a big and very athletic Milpitas team. But Friday's 14-7 loss to Sacred Heart Prep offers hope for Crusader fans, even though star linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven didn't play for the Gators.
Sacred Heart Prep, you'll recall, did win the NorCal title last season and made the state playoff bowl title game. So that's a worthy effort for the Crusaders, who have some talented young players in Raymone Sanders and Jamarian Caston, among others.
The Crusaders were tied with SHP late in the first half before fumbling inside their own 25 to set up a Gator score. Sacred Heart Prep made it 14-0 on a fourth quarter, 17-yard pass from Mason Randall to Andrew Daschbach before Riordan (0-2) crept to within 14-7 on a short Caston run. The score was preceded by the strong rushing of Sanders (23 carries, 141 yards).
"We just ran out of time and time outs," Riordan coach John Lee said. "We had the ball five times inside the 30 and didn't score."
The Crusader program is showing signs of life, though. The Crusader frosh team defeated Marin Catholic on Saturday and the junior varsity downed Sacred Heart Prep.
THERE'S NO DROP-OFF AT MILPITAS: Milpitas is 2-0 following its 54-7 victory against Newark Memorial last week. Now with victories against Riordan and the Cougars, the Trojans prepare to play WCAL favorite Valley Christian on Friday. The Warriors, displaying strong line play and the running of Kirk Johnson and Mark Quinby last season, overwhelmed Milpitas and both those standouts are back this season along with QB Michael Machado.
The Trojans, coached by Kelly King, aren't bad either. Gone are the graduated QB Ronnie Reed, receiver Tre Hartley and running back Squally Canada, but standouts have taken their place. Christian Rita had a 27-yard touchdown catch from QB John Keller against Newark Memorial and also returned a punt 58 yards for a score. The Trojan defense forced the hosts into three-and-outs on six of their first nine first-half possessions, according to the Contra Costa Times.
Riordan's Lee was impressed with Milpitas after playing the defending SCVAL tri-champs.
"They're a good team and their coach does a phenomenal job," Lee said. "Their defensive end (6-foot-6, 260-pound Jason Scrempos) has a motor, their running backs run hard and their defense hits hard. They're the real deal."
So is Valley Christian. Should be a good one Friday night on the hilltop.
