A blog about Sports & Recreation.
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 24, 2009 Profile Views: 3025 Blog Views: 135315 Central Section football rankings, Week 12 (playoffs) Week 11 (playoffs), Most important things Week 11 (playoffs) running thread and scoreboard Week 11 (playoffs) HS football podcast (YAY!!!!! EDITION) Week 11 (playoffs) HS football podcast (FAIL EDITION) Week 11 (playoffs) HS football predictions Central Section football rankings, Week 11 (playoffs) Time to talk volleyball Week 10, most important things Football playoff seedings (UPDATED with 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 3, most important things
I'm taking a break from crying over fantasy football (who knew a team with Philip Rivers, DeAngelo Williams, Steve Slaton and TO could be so bad?) to think back on another great high school football Friday. There was only one really big game, but I think we learned more about other teams even as they played some ho-hummers. — The big game, of course, was Bakersfield's shootout 56-41 loss at Clovis-Buchanan. The Drillers had a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter but just couldn't keep their finger on the hole in the dam without letting the Bears' passing game rush through. I'm looking forward to seeing Cody Kessler and Centennial, but the only high school passing attack in high school like this one that I've seen was last year's Bakersfield Christian team. And I don't think that team had the big line or the running game to complement what QB Lance Orender had going in the passing game. Still, Bakersfield's offense was almost as impressive, and early in the game the D was disrupting Buchanan's timing routes. I think both teams are good enough to at least reach the section's Division I semifinals, and should they meet again, the Drillers will have a good chance — but it'll be up at Buchanan again. — One team that won an important seeding battle was Stockdale, but a loss at Clovis would have been more of a disaster than this win is a coup. The Mustangs pulled away from the Cougars for a 47-22 win after spotting Clovis a 14-0 lead. There had to be some scary moments after an opening TD drive and a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, but for the second straight week, Stockdale climbed out of the hole and this time, it held on. Malik Henderson (123 yards) and Spener Prince (91) had big days again, and Efren Vengas even added two touchdown passes. The Mustangs have a big date with Centennial next week; win there and late in the season against Ridgeview and Frontier, and 9-1 with a nice seed should be the destination. — Also escaping with a road win was Frontier, which trailed Exeter 14-6 heading to the fourth but came back for a 20-14 victory. The Titans finally took the lead on a 50-yard fake-punt pass from Matt Darr to Jacob Adelman, and Adelman also had an interception to seal it. Frontier's first six points came on Darr field goals of 32 and 53 yards. The guy is a weapon, and I dare say no team around has better special teams than the Titans. But nonetheless, this was certainly a wake-up call for a team that had cakewalks in Weeks 1 and 2. Next up are very winnable games against North and West before a showdown with Ridgeview in Week 6. — Liberty finally got some of that great defense to set up offense in a 14-0 victory against West. That's what this team has to do: Score points on short fields set up by the D. And West really was powerless against it — just 79 yards and two first downs all night. The Patriots finally scored on a Carson Moyer run midway through the third quarter and got another touchdown from Moyer late in the fourth to ice their first victory. But the offense still is a big concern. If Liberty can't hold BHS' explosive offense to 14 or fewer points next week, a huge task, then it had better set up the offense with some scores. Otherwise it'll be another 1-3 start. — Also skating to victories were Ridgeview, 31-13 over Madera South, and Centennial, 56-13 against East, that kept both teams undefeated. The Wolf Pack is now just one of three Central Section at 4-0 (Lindsay and Fresno-Bullard are the others). In fact, the SWYL as a whole is rolling: the Wolf Pack, Golden Hawks, Frontier and South are all unbeaten, and the league is a combined 17-5. League play next week will start to thin that out. — Speaking of the Rebels, this run is getting more impressive all the time. After a 59-13 win at Arvin, the Rebels had a photo on the sports cover of The Californian for the first time since I started working here two years ago — in any sport — and probably quite a bit longer than that. Beat Foothill next week, and the Week 5 game at home against Stockdale suddenly becomes very interesting. — Huge win also for Golden Valley, a 7-6 victor at previously unbeaten Cesar Chavez. You can say this exposes the Titans a litlte bit, but mainly to me it shows the difference in strength between the Bakersfield leagues and the East Yosemite League that is Tulare Union and the six dwarves (soon to be Tulare Union and the eight dwarves). But the Bulldogs showed that they might not be as big of a pushover as the SEYL might have though — keep in mind that Chavez won at Highland just last week. — The eventual SSL race continues to fascinate me, but this week more than ever I'm convinced it'll come down to Taft's Oct. 30 trip up the mountain to Tehachapi. The Wildcats bowled over Coalinga 34-21, and the Warriors out-gunned Burroughs 42-34. Meanwhile, Wasco finally slipped in a 36-21 loss at Lindsay that saw the Tigers move the ball — 262 rushing yards — but commit six turnovers and play spotty defense. I still like Wasco as a third-place team (especially considering how much offensive trouble Bakersfield Christian had at Pasadena-Maranatha) but I have a hard time seeing them stop the big two SSL contenders. — Garces' offensive trouble re-emerged in the Holy Bowl against a very good Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial team that won 20-0 Saturday night. The Rams had barely 200 yards of offense and obviously didn't find the end zone. Tough to see anything better than a distant third in the SEYL for Garces if it can't move the ball a bit more. — First-win congratulations are in order for Foothill and Shafter, which beat Kennedy and Mira Monte, and their first-year coaches Mike Gregg and Ben Ansolabehere. Still waiting on the Thunderbirds and Lions, who meet in two weeks. — A quick look at the Southern Section: Kern Valley and Frazier Mountain both stayed unbeaten, the Broncs with another heart-stopping overtime win, further confirming that they might be the top two contenders for a High Desert League title. Mojave, meanwhile, let me down after I talked up its 10-0 chances, losing to McFarland. League play begins this Friday, so many games have a lot of importance — first place is on the line everywhere, right? — but here are my picks for the five biggest in Week 4 (and let me say, the Kern High School District ought to do something about having the Division I teams meet in the first week of league play. I want my biggest games in Weeks 9 and 10, not in Week 4: Centennial at Stockdale: Could be another shootout, though both Ds have had their moments 15 comments from 8 users
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posted by
BrianC
on Sep 28, 2009 at 09:45 AM
KV is for real, as the Broncs got a nice win over a North Coast team. Frazier Mountain shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as the Broncs - it is going to come down to KV and Bishop posted by
champs86
on Sep 28, 2009 at 09:48 AM
zewing, great game between the vikings and the patriots, but the media failed to mention the 4 turnovers the patriots had. also the outstanding defensive play from khari finch 2 int and the jarring hit he put on the tough running back moyer, which resulted in a loose ball recovered by liberty. just wanting a little good &nb sp; publicity for the viking. posted by
zewing
on Sep 28, 2009 at 10:50 AM
You're right; I shouldn't fail to mention the Vikings D. It's certainly possible that Liberty has just ran up against three really good defenses thus far. West has an interesting game with Ridgeview this week that might be another defensive struggle. posted by
Patrick319
on Sep 28, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Zach-didn't Exeter lose to Frontier? So that would make Fresno-Bullard and Ridgeview the only two teams at 4-0. posted by
zewing
on Sep 28, 2009 at 01:05 PM
Ugh. There are three, but I meant LIndsay, not Exeter. My bad. It's been fixed. posted by
JohnV1981
on Sep 28, 2009 at 01:26 PM
First off I'd like to say your doing an excellent work with covering Valley High School Football, I truly enjoy your blogs. Last year when I would commute every Friday from Moreno Valley (So Cal), to see my younger brother(Josh Vasquez #7) play for Delano High. Your blogs, predictions and Pod cast would keep me up to date on all the football news in the valley. Now since I recently moved to Bakersfield and my brother has Since Graduated, I still travel to Delano to catch Tiger football when I can. I've noticed you've been mentioning Delano's "other" team a bit (Chavez) and not so much Delano's True team as much. We're 3-0 and I know Shafter really was a not even a fair game but they did hold their own against North and made a statement against Hanford West last Friday. I think we have a good chance of being 7-0 when Tulare Union comes to town Oct 30th. Just wondering where the love was for Delano's "original" team was? By the way have you ever been to Gene Beck Stadium? If you haven't you should come and visit the "Jungle" we have great fans and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Keep up the Good work Zach. posted by
dbirdie
on Sep 28, 2009 at 02:26 PM
I just wanted to comment on the South High picture. You stated that it was the first picture of a Rebel in the two years you have been there. Do you have to be Liberty,Centennial,Stockdale or BHS to get a picture in the paper? That is what is pathetically wrong with this tabloid. You guys act like you are having a love affair with those teams. As you know there are several other teams in this town that play as hard as they can on Friday nights,but unless your one of the "Fabulous Four" you can pretty much forget getting any positive press time. And this doesn't just happen in football, it happens in volleyball,baseball, etc.,etc. Just like to see the playing field tilted ( no pun intended) so that everybody gets a fair shake. posted by
zewing
on Sep 28, 2009 at 02:36 PM
I've said it 1,000 times, and I'll say it again: I have no favorite teams in Kern County. I'm not from here, don't have any dogs in the fight. The coverage in our paper is designed to give the biggest news stories and the ones that interest the most people the most press. Period. When it comes to game coverage, that normally means the teams at the top of the standings get ink. When a team like South does well and starts 3-0, it gets press, too. You saw 1-2 Liberty inside the paper this week, taking a backseat to 3-0 South and 2-1 Bakersfield. Last year, when Centennial was 3-7, you didn't hear a whole lot about it. Instead, you heard about 8-2 North and 6-4 Golden Valley. Has nothing to do with a love affair. We report the news. posted by
JohnV1981
on Sep 28, 2009 at 02:50 PM
I agree with you Zach, last year Delano had an article after their 2nd or 3rd game, I know cuz I saved the article. Your doing an awesome job, there is this website cvhspreps that gave you a shout out recently; "Is it me, or is the coverage of south valley prep football leaps and bounds better than it's ever been? Major props to Ewing and his blog, podcast and overall coverage to date!" It was given by one of the founding members of the website, also here is another post; "I do not live in the south valley, but I must give props where props are due. Zach is the best. For those of us who could not make it down to the Calif. state wrestling match this year, Zack was a god send. incredible coverage, and very knowledgeable about all of the wrestlers, not just the south valley. This is very rare. I wish Zach much success in his future endeavors and he will have my support if ever looking for a job in an area that I have any influence in. Great job Zach!!!" Here is the link if you want to check it out for yourself, http://www.cvhspreps.com/in... , keep up the good work and don't forget bout Delano's Orignal team, GO TIGERS!
posted by
dbirdie
on Sep 28, 2009 at 02:51 PM
That's fine, but if South, North,Highland or maybe East for example start off 0-3, they and the people that follow them still would like to see pictures and stories about them. Period. This isn't the pro's, just high school, so if 0-8 or 8-0 you should still try to give them their moment. posted by
zewing
on Sep 28, 2009 at 02:57 PM
Believe me, I would love for every school to have its moment — and every JV team, volleyball, cross country and water polo team to boot — but we don't have the space or the manpower to manage it. There are 36 schools in Kern County, half of them in Bakersfield. Balancing it out is the toughest thing we do. And John, thanks for the link. And no worries, I've got my eye on Delano. Somehow it's been a quiet 3-0, but if they keep it up, we'll be singing the Tigers' praises before too long. posted by
Patrick319
on Sep 28, 2009 at 03:44 PM
Keep in mind that newspapers are in the business of selling product with the goal of MAKING MONEY. Of course they are going to cover the most intriguing match ups-the goal is to sell a story people (not just the fans) care about. No offense, but who cares about North vs Delano when you have BHS Stockdale playing (unless your from NHS or DHS)? The Californian is very aware that many of its readers have (like Zach) no dog in the fight. Some are just fans of good prep sports. Perhaps, this year, you might see much more of Ridgeview, Frontier, or South in the paper. If I'm not mistaken, South took front page this last week. posted by
Lynchmob1966
on Sep 28, 2009 at 05:42 PM
Not only that but the paper sent its best reporter to cover the South game this past week. ;) posted by
bryanjackson
on Sep 29, 2009 at 09:01 PM
I wouldn't mind seeing JV or frosh/soph teams get stories in the paper, either. I'm a Centennial fan, but not just a fan of their varsity sports, but a fan of frosh/soph, JV, and varsity sports of both boys and girls. But, there wouldn't be enough reporters, space, or time to go around to cover every team, every sport. posted by
bryanjackson
on Sep 30, 2009 at 03:28 PM
Centennial doesn't get front-page stories in every sport. Heck, I don't even remember the last time their girls tennis or cross country teams got a front-page story, if they ever have. I saw Centennial's girls tennis match at Centennial against BHS yesterday and the Golden Hawks got a nice win. I wouldn't mind seeing a story done on Centennial's girls tennis team sometime, even if it isn't a front-page story.
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