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Real Name: Zach Ewing Address: 1707 Eye St. Bakersfield, CA 93301 Date of Birth: July 29, 1984 Member Since: December 19, 2007 Last Signed In: November 07, 2009 Profile Views: 2935 Blog Views: 121560 Week 9 running thread and scoreboard Week 9 HS football podcast (this one actually works!) Week 9 HS football predictions (finally here!) Central Section football rankings, Week 9 Non-football sports update, Nov. 2 Week 8, most important things Fresno State vs. Utah State running thread Week 8 running thread and scoreboard Week 8 HS football podcast Week 8 HS football predictions December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 
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Week 12 (playoffs) running thread and scoreboard (UPDATED WITH FRIDAY NIGHT SCORES)
UPDATED, : It was a night of almosts. West High almost finished off mighty Visalia-El Diamante. North High almost got back into a dogfight with Sanger. Highland almost got revenge on Foothill. Tehachapi is almost back in the Division III championship. Even around the rest of the section, there was a bevy of near-upsets. Fresno-Edison, for a while one of the top-ranked teams in the state, needed a late touchdown to stave off 11th-seeded Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial 7-3. In Division III, Oakhurst-Yosemite rallied from a 17-0 deficit to beat 10th-seeded Dinuba. The only real upsets to develop, though, were No. 5 Clovis East over No. 1 Clovis-Buchanan in Division I (though I wouldn't even really call that an upset) and No. 6 Fresno-Washington Union over No. 3 Exeter in D-III. Meanwhile, Kern County is now absent from Divisions I and II and has just three teams left in the Central Section playoffs: Tehachapi, Foothill and Bakersfield Christian. Here's the nitty-gritty on some of the local results: Visalia-El Diamante 42, West 31: In a way, this game was nothing like the first meeting between the teams, which the Miners controlled from the start and easily withstood a couple of big plays from West to win 34-14. But in a way, it was. The difference in the end was El Diamante running back Stefphon Jefferson, who ran for more than 300 yards both times, and he wasn't going to let West win. Give the Vikings credit, though; they used a short passing game to move the ball and capitalized on five first-half turnovers from El Diamante to lead 31-14 at the break. But the game was too long. Sanger 40, North 21: Bitter way to lose for the Stars, who played the Apaches at least close to evenly but fumbled twice and repeatedly gave away yards with dead-ball penalties. When John Northrop and Julian Dean-Johnson, arguably the Stars' best two players, were ejected for separate incidents within three minutes of each other in the third quarter (and at the same time Sanger was putting up two quick touchdowns), the game was effectively over. North kept fighting, but a great season has come to an end. Tehachapi 48, Golden Valley 24: It's not too surprising to see the Warriors turn it up a notch come playoff time. The battle-tested team is, after all, the defending D-III champion. Now Tehachapi is two wins away from repeating. Those will have to come on the road, though. Up first is a trip to a different mountain, Oakhurst-Yosemite's. Not going to be an easy trip, but I won't count Tehachapi out for a second. Foothill 9, Highland 6: Highland led this one 6-0 at halftime and 6-2 late in the third quarter but gave up tremendous field position on a botched punt snap and let the Trojans score the game's only touchdown. Foothill now advances to face No. 1 seed Hanford, one win away from reaching its third straight D-III final. Highland, meanwhile, has to be shaking its head. After a 6-1 start, four straight losses to end the year, all without an offensive touchdown. Bakersfield Christian 52, Parlier 0: As expected, a rout and a big night for the Eagles passing game. Jake Peterson might have out-shined Derek Carr tonight, though: He caught seven balls for 152 yards — and four of them were touchdowns. For good measure, Peterson also returned an interception for a TD in the Eagles' first shutout of the year. Carr threw for 307 yards and a career-high six touchdowns. Hanford 48, Delano 6; Visalia-CVC 34, Arvin 7: I thought both Arvin and Delano had decent chances to go up and scare the top-seeded teams in Division III and IV, but it turned out those teams are No. 1 for a reason. You can't win if you don't score, and Arvin rushed for negative-2 yards (199 overall) and Delano only had 187 overall. UPDATED, 9:14 p.m.: Sanger has run out the string against North here and is up 40-21 with seconds left on the clock. Meanwhile, El Diamante stormed back against West and leads 35-31 with about four minutes to play. The Vikings have the ball at midfield. Meanwhile, Fresno-Edison is struggling, trailing San Joaquin Memorial 3-0 in the fourth quarter. Tehachapi has a commanding lead, 27-3 against Golden Valley. UPDATED, 8:38 p.m.: The Stars have lost a bit of control here. After yet another unsportsmanlike penalty on the kickoff return (looks like all of these are mouthing-off penalties; I didn't see any fighting or pushing or taunting or anything like that), Juan Rodriquez and Julian Dean-Johnson couldn't hook up on a pitch, and when the ball hit the ground, Dean-Johnson was fighting for the ball with a couple of Apaches. When the officials awarded Sanger the ball, Dean-Johnson said something else, got another penalty and got himself ejected as well. That's two of North's best players gone, and another Sanger score has made it 27-7. Not good news. UPDATED, 8:23 p.m.: North comes out on fire in the second half, gambling and winning with an onside kick to open the half and then storming down for a 3-yard touchdown run from quarterback Juan Rodriquez to cut the Sanger lead to 14-7. Unfortunately, the Stars were on fire in more than one way. They tried another onside kick that didn't work, then committed two consecutive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties — causing the ejection of one of North's best linemen, John Northrop and giving Sanger a first-and-goal at the North 8. The Apaches punched it in for a 21-7 lead midway through the third quarter. UPDATED, 8:11 p.m.: Not much has changed here, with Sanger ahead 14-0 at the half. But there's a shocker going on an hour north. West ran off 17 consecutive points against Visalia-El Diamante to take a 31-14 lead the half against the defending champion Miners. Californian reporter Jeff Evans checks in with a report that El D has fumbled four times and thrown an interception. Maybe the Vikings are finally reaching some potential, though you know the Miners will come out and make a run at some point. UPDATED, 7:30 p.m.: Bogus start for North. The Stars are moving the ball, but stalled again inside the Sanger 40, then had a punt snap go over David Maciel's head. Maciel made a great play to retrieve the ball and get a good punt off, but Sanger's Mario Navarrete ripped off an 85-yard TD run up the right side on the next play. The PAT was no good, but its 14-0 Apaches very early in the second quarter. UPDATED, 7:18 p.m.: Not the start North High wanted here at home. The Stars drove to the Sanger 32-yard line on the game's first drive, but Juan Rodriquez fumbled on a first-down play. The Apaches returned the ball 41 yards, then pounded six runs right at the North defense to take the lead. To make matters worse, North jumped offside on the PAT, and Sanger decided to pound in two more points to make it 8-0. Turnovers have plagued the Stars in both of their losses, and they can't afford any more tonight, for sure. ORIGINAL POST: Happy (Black) Friday everybody. I hope enough of you are in town and not too tired from shopping this morning to create some good atmosphere for the playoffs tonight. I'll be out at North High, where the Stars are attempting to win their first playoff game since 1994 against Sanger in a Division II quarterfinal. Check back often for updates from the game and for scores from around the Central Section. If you're into predictions, you can check out this week's picks, though I should note that Mojave is at home this week. I initially wrote they traveled to Yermo to play Silver Valley. Prediction stands, though. Also, if you missed it, you really need to check out Simon Samano's story on Julian Dean-Johnson, the North High stud back who leads Kern County in rushing yards a game. Simon does a great job weaving Dean-Johnson's difficult upbringing with his rise to football prowess, so check it out. And The Californian's Thanksgiving story was on Chris Schwartz, the Foothill runner who will defend his state cross country title Saturday in Fresno. Schwartz has dealt with his own set of obstacles and is well on his way past them. The state meet starts tomorrow morning, with Schwartz and McFarland's boys team favored to win state championships. Once you're done with those feel-good pieces, come back here and make this your base of operations for the second week of the football playoffs. All games below begin at 7 p.m. Friday unless noted Central Section scoreboard Southern Section scoreboard 4 comments from 3 users
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posted by
jfrancais
on Dec 1, 2008 at 05:26 AM
The seeding is the least of the problems with the playoff system. Some teams should just not be in the playoffs at all. There are also too many divisions. The year we (BHS) won valley in '94 we had to go on the road to Clovis even though we had the better record. We even had to play the championship at a "neutral" site (BC). I guess the seeding system is relatively new. posted by
Patrick319
on Nov 29, 2008 at 09:37 AM
More fuel to the argument that strength in schedule needs to be weighed more in seeding. I think Zach and others have pointed it out all season. Why schedule games with Clovis East, Edison, and Bullard if you aren't going to be rewarded with a decent seed at the end of the year? This years North team was an improvement over last years. HOWEVER, the biggest difference between this year and last for North??? Replace pre league games with Visalia El Diamante, Edison, and Hoover with a schedule consisting of Shafter, Porterville, and Delano. Results please??? An 8-2 record for the Stars and a 4 seed. What happens come playoffs? So who gives a toot that the Stars beat up on a handful of Division III and IV teams that barely made the playoffs (if they even made the playoffs)? Evidently the Central Section does. Can any win really be considered an upset? Clovis East doesn't surprise me a bit. Aren't they a 5 seed simply by virtue of not being eligible for a home game? So, here we are-exactly where all of us predicted-an ALL CLOVIS Division I Valley Championship game. posted by
Lynchmob1966
on Nov 29, 2008 at 01:11 AM
North had a very good year. Sanger is much better than its record indicates. The Apaches' five losses were to Buchanan, Clovis East, Atascadero, Edison, and Bullard. For those scoring at home that's three of the four Division I semifinalists, one Division II semifinalist, and a darn good Southern Section team. posted by
Patrick319
on Nov 29, 2008 at 12:04 AM
What's done is done. North did what has doomed them all year: turn over the ball and commit bone-head penalties. Penalties that, in this game lead to the ejection of two of North's key players. Northrup was a bigger loss tonight. The Stars could have used him on defense. More than anything, tonight highlights how significant strength of schedule is. Teams north of the Kern County line simply play a tougher schedule. I think if the 'strength of schedule' arguers could make a legitimate statement, this year's playoffs should provide strong evidence. The Bakersfield teams in DI and DII are all gone. There are still Foothill in DIII, and Tehachapi (DIII or IV?), and of course BCHS. Logic would dictate that a 4 versus 5 seed should be a good game; not a game were a 5 seed beats the 4 seed by three touchdowns. Last weeks example: 8 versus 9. Competive? Nope. Delano beat South 42-ZILCH. A handful of home losses in the first round of the playoffs? Your kidding!! Nope!!! The point of my rant is this: the Central Section seeding process is a bad joke. GONG!!!!!!!!!!!! Get the hook!!!! Anyone know the specifics of the fraucus at North that lead to John Northrup's ejection and, shortly later, Julian Dean Johnson's? It must have been pretty serious. JDJ's ejection was 2 unsportsmanlikes within about 30 seconds of eachother. Mouthing off about the first unsportsmanlike?? I notice the officiating crew wasted NO time getting the H#LL off the field when time expired. Kuddos to Mike Camps though for getting his players calmed down. Its been a good year, but a tough one discipline wise. Sanger played VERY physical ball and there were a lot of mutterings about unneccesary (dirty) hits and extra curricular activity. There was obviously some frustration on the part of the North athletes. Well, deal with it. Physical play is what you can expect at the playoff levels. Don't go complain to the officials when your down. What do you expect? Powder puff? The year the USA hockey team beat the Soviet Union it was because the USA team learned to play PHYSICAL and even a little dirty. Wasn't Miracle a GREAT movie?!?!?!? I know...tangent....
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