Sorry this is a bit late tonight — just got off the phone with Boron coach Todd Fink a few minutes ago and have been gathering some more info.

We started high school football season previews yesterday with Kern County's 8-man schools, and now it's time to move on to the full squads.

Today's season previews focus in on the Desert Mountain League, where Boron has long been a title contender (or even a favorite) most years. Now there's a new horse in the race. Mojave moves in from the High Desert League after one year as an independent.

MOJAVE MUSTANGS

Coach: Larry Satterfield (18th year)

2008 record: 7-6 (freelance, 4-3 home)
Average points: 21.8
Average points allowed: 24.2
*Average rush yards: N/A
*Average rush yards allowed: 172.5
*Average pass yards: N/A
*Average pass yards allowed: 92.8
Best win: Mojave 35, San Juan Capistrano-Saddleback Valley Christian 14
Worst loss: Acton-Vasquez 36, Mojave 33
*—yardage figures are from MaxPreps and are only used if at least half of games are available. Take them with a grain of salt. Figure could be skewed depending on which games, if any, are missing

Key players: Cleo Brown, soph, RB/DL; Norman Early, jr, RB/LB; Billy Cannaday, sr, WR/DB; Dennis Nemeth, sr, QB/DB

Key losses: Doug Wilson, QB/DB; Garland Smith, RB/LB; Bryan Cantalupo, OL/DL; Quintel Madlock, WR/DB/KR

Outlook: It’s the beginning of a new era for the Mustangs, who lost a bunch of enrollment to the new California City High School, which is in its second year (Satterfield said Mojave is down to an enrollment of about 300). Seeing that writing on the wall, the school moved out of the High Desert League last year — Cal City has replaced it — spent 2008 as an independent and then joined the Desert Mountain League this year. That’s a tiny-school league, so that’s going to obviously help competitively, but the DML has also been Boron’s territory for a long time (see above). The Mustangs, though, bring an interesting team into the mix. They’ve got only 20 players on the roster but quite a few returners among them from a team that won its last two regular-season games last year to sneak into the Southern Section playoffs and then went on a run, beating No. 1 seed San Juan Capistrano-Saddleback Valley Christian and Yermo-Silver Valley — now a league opponent — on its way to the section semifinals. Mojave ought to have enough horses back from that team to finish in the top three in the DML — good enough to be eligible for another playoff run.

Quotable: “We’ve got a lot of kids back from that team, and they saw what could happen if you just keep working. I really think that’s going to help us coming into this year. You see a different attitude with the kids coming in.” — Satterfield

BORON BOBCATS

Coach: Todd Fink (ninth year)

2008 record:10-2 (4-0 Desert Mountain League, 6-2 home)
Average points: 44.3
Average points allowed: 22.1
*Average rush yards: 370.9
*Average rush yards allowed: 190.4
*Average pass yards: 76.2
*Average pass yards allowed: 137.9
Best win: Boron 46, Yermo-Silver Valley 27
Worst loss: Desert 56, Boron 40
*—yardage figures are from MaxPreps and are only used if at least half of games are available. Take them with a grain of salt. Figure could be skewed depending on which games, if any, are missing

Key players: Josh Core, jr, QB/DB; Leroy Taylor, sr, RB/DB; Cory Stanton, sr, WR/DL; Cody Caillier, sr, OL/LB; Cashe Sexton, jr, OL/DL

Key losses: Israel Lucas, RB/DB; Joshua Glass, WR/DL; Jason Hartman, WR/DB; J.R. Peleti, OL/DL

Outlook: If you paid attention to desert football last year, you heard a lot about Boron. First, the Bobcats were once again a small-school powerhouse in the Southern Section, racking up big numbers, 10 wins and staying in their section rankings all year long. Second and much more somber, Boron had to deal with the death of sophomore Vinnie Rodriguez, a talented player who died a few days after suffering severe head injuries during a play. So where are we a year later? Well, coach Todd Fink said Rodriguez's loss is still felt every day, that it'll never go away for most of his classmates but that they've done a remarkable job of dealing with it. As for the on-field product, Boron loses its big names, Joshua Glass and Israel Lucas, but returns eight offensive and seven defensive starters. That's remarkable for a school with enrollment of 143 and a football program with 21 players. The Bobcats will rely on an experienced line (four out of five starters back) and running back Leroy Taylor, who Fink said was running the ball better than anyone by the end of last year.

Quotable: "A lot of those guys were good friends with (Rodriguez), were close with him, grew up with him. To have something that devestating take place, that's going to live with guys. But kids are very resilient. They've done a fantastic job." — Fink

Tomorrow: High Desert League rivals — Desert and Rosamond