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UPDATED, 12:20 a.m.: What a showdown at Stockdale and what a shocker of a week in other places around the county. As always, a complete score list is below, but it's time to get to to some major results:
Stockdale 17, Frontier 15: Stockdale won the game with a blocked-punt touchdown...
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UPDATE: Apparently the first version of the podcast was derailed by my less-than-stellar technological skills. Bummer. This one works, though!
ORIGINAL POST: Sorry this is so late into the evening, but I was out at Garces' girls tennis victory over Visalia-Redwood to give the Rams...
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A quick note relating the World Series to Bakersfield on this, the night of Game 6: I ran into K.C. and Butch Hobson today at Stockdale while working on a story about this weekend's big football game. Butch said he's organizing Northwest and Southwest youth baseball camps in December and...
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I just got back from the Central Section girls golf championships, where Frontier won the Division II section title with a 419, good enough for second overall behind Clovis West's 404. That moves the Titans to the Southern Cal regionals in a couple of weeks. So congrats to the Titans. Stockdale...
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We're beginning to hand out the first batch of Central Section titles of the fall, beginning tomorrow with the girls golf team championships in Tulare and then a couple of team tennis finals later in the afternoon. One of those is Division V, where Bakersfield Christian will host Fowler in what...
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Taking a break from doing nothing on a Sunday to look back at Friday night, which was another high school football week to remember. There weren't many upsets or surprises, but there were a couple of good-looking games that didn't disappoint, and the stage really is set for the last two weeks of...
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UPDATED, 6:49 p.m.: Official stats have Mathews with 185 yards on 23 carries. So I was off by one. Sue if you want, but I don't think you'll get anywhere.
I'm headed out, but check The Californian tomorrow morning for a story about Ryan. In the meantime, for those interested, here's the link...
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UPDATED, 12:32 a.m.: A thriller in Tehachapi tonight, and a few other good games around Kern County made it a good Week 8. Let's recap:
Tehachapi 16, Taft 7: It was a defensive battle until the final four minutes, when the Warriors hit two long pass plays, the second one an 18-yard touchdown...
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I know it's getting late, but here's your Week 8 podcast. Had to cover some playoff tennis (Stockdale over Liberty) this afternoon, so we got started late on producing this one, but here it is, and I think it's a pretty good one. Lots of Taft-Tehachapi talk and quite a few other things for your...
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This is the time of year when upsets happen. That's because teams get worn out, or they try to get away with resting someone, something clicks for a teams that's been struggling, or someone notices a tendency on film. But it's also because of the way the Kern County schedule is set up. The...
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We're getting into crunch time in the regular season. Three games left for every team in the Central Section, many of them huge league tilts that will alter seeding for the playoffs. Still, the pecking order right now is pretty well established.
1. Fresno-Bullard (7-0, Division I, last week: 1)...
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I was out in Taft (near Taft, really) today for the section's South Area girls golf tournament, so I thought it'd be a good time to check in on our non-football sports, two of which are already into postseason and two more that are rapidly approaching that point.
Girls golf
Frontier stole the...
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Another great football weekend, another bunch of statements made by some Kern County football teams. Let's do the recap thing.
— The first big showdown of the year in the South Sequoia League came in Wasco, and the home team was showed down. The Taft Wildcats pounced, winning 42-0 in an...
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UPDATED, 12:06 a.m.: Quite a few blowouts around Kern County tonight, but there were a few exceptions to that — and one in particular. All the scores are updated below, but here's a few I've pulled out.
West 16, Centennial 14: The Vikings returned two — count em — fumbles...
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Had some technical issues, but here is the Week 7 podcast, complete with a discussion from Todd Camps and I about the first four playoff divisions and who we might think the favorites are. It's still early for it to be anything but speculation, but it was a fun talking point.
Week 7 running...
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It's absolutely amazing how fast some of these seasons fly by. Seems like we were just wondering about whether Liberty would win a big game this year as it entered its Week 0 showdown at Clovis West, and now the Patriots are about out of "big games" to win (they did beat Bakersfield,...
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I'm headed up to Wasco for some interviews on a story I'm working on for Friday in a few minutes, so I'll make this a bit brief.
The biggest shake-up of the week comes from the northern part of the Central Section, where Fresno-Central got a breakthrough win for its program, 24-3 over defending...
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High school football update: Stockdale's Malik Henderson, who suffered one of those scary non-contact injuries Friday against Liberty, apparently is going to be OK.
Like Henderson's mom commented on an earlier post, the injury is just a bone bruise. His dad, Demetrius, said he'll be out 2-3...
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I'm sitting on my couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, trying to recover from a long Saturday night. To recap, I drove to Fresno to see Fresno State beat San Jose State 41-21 and West High grad Ryan Mathews run for 233 more yards, did this live blog, then did some interviews with FSU coach...
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UPDATED, 11:16 p.m.: Just got back from some postgame interviews, and while none of the quotes are going to make our print deadlines, I'll type some up and put them on the blog tomorrow or Monday. Some good stuff from Ryan Mathews — no, he doesn't care that leads the nation in rushing or...
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UPDATED, 12:12 a.m.: Scores are piling up all over the section, so check the list below for updates. One note I want to make is that the Delano final was Porterville 23, Delano 14, not 33-14 as I said originally.
Let's take a look at the big results:
Stockdale 17, Liberty 3: This...
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Here is your Week 6 podcast, and with it I offer this bit of news: The Central Section has rescinded its decision on Wasco's forfeit to Fresno-McLane.
Wasco athletic director Raul Rangel told me that section commissioner Jim Crichlow told him earlier today that the Tigers' scheduled Week 5 game...
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Lots of little news items this week, for those interested: Centennial's Cody Kessler is hurt, but not too badly, and Frontier's Matt Darr will be punting in the Alamodome in January, to an All-American punt returner and behind an All-American offensive line. That is, if his team's All-American...
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Went out to Frontier at noon today for an announcement that Matt Darr has been named to the West roster for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl as a punter. Darr is a USC commit who punts, kicks and plays linebacker for 5-0 Frontier.
This is a pretty big deal for Darr — it's most of the...
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It's a good-news, bad-news situation for Cody Kessler and Centennial: Kessler, one of the section's best quarterbacks (and basketball players, for that matter), has a high ankle sprain and possibly a partially torn ligament in his ankle. But x-rays were negative, and Kessler most likely will be...
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Before I get started wrapping up Week 5, I want to point out that this weekend's running thread was a great one for several reasons, all courtesy of you guys, the readers. First off, any time we can get 10 people to comment on a football blog and join in an intelligent discussion about...
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UPDATED, 12:12 a.m.: it was another night of the blowout in Kern County — and I think that might remain the case throughout a lot of the league season, with maybe a close game or two in town and the rest convincing victories. We've got a serious case of the haves and the have-nots....
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Here's your Week 5 podcast, though there are again changes to what Todd and I are talking about (we often record these on Mondays). Wasco will not be playing Fresno-McLane this weekend, and I just spent a couple of hours on the phone trying to figure out exactly why. I'm still not sure, actually....
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I know it's football season now, but I have to say, there's something about playoff baseball that absolutely captures my attention. These guys play 162 games in a game that's all about repitition and longevitiy and then have their entire seasons come down to one game. That said, the...
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I usually close one week of high school football with some idea of how I'm going to start the next — what game I'll cover, who I'll assign to cover other games, who I like to win some of the big games and how I might arrange the teams in Tuesday's set of Central Section rankings. Things...
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It's high time we took a break from football at School House Zach and took another look at the other fall sports going on. They're all well into league seasons, and I hate to pay so little attention to them. But they're up against football, and its vociferous demands on attention, so we'll just...
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The motocross of Nations is considered the "Olympics of Motocross". Countries select their best three riders to represent them each year at venues around the world. This year year it was held in Franciocorta, Italy and America chose Honda's Ivan Tedesco as its man in the Open class,...
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Seems like no matter how much people like me think we know about a group of football teams or a particular season, things get turned on their head at one point and we have to re-examine everything. For the 2009 season, that point came Friday in Week 4.
— First off, the one everyone's...
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UPDATED, 12:36 a.m.: Week 4 turned into a huge statement night for several teams around town. Let's get straight to the nitty-gritty.
Liberty 27, Bakersfield 20: Don't forget about the Patriots just yet, folks. Their offense was all but written off after three poor weeks, but what we forgot...
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Sorry this is late, but I present our Week 4 high school football podcast. Can't wait for Week 4 — and if you can't get enough of football (or of my voice), listen to KRAB Radio's morning show to catch me talking about a few of the matchups and news of the week. Should be on the air...
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As you might have read in this morning's Californian, Garces football coach David Fanucchi apparently has told his team he will resign at the end of this season. It's a strange situation at Garces, where no one is allowed to share any personnel information, not even the man who resigned. But a...
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Sorry this is a bit late; I'm working Saturday, so I took a rare Monday off and then have had a few stories to track down/catch up on.
But that doesn't change the fact that Week 4 of football season is upon us. Let's set the scene with some Central Section rankings.
1. Fresno-Bullard (4-0,...
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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...
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UPDATED, 1:27 a.m.: It's late, so I'll save most of my thoughts for the Most Important Things post coming Sunday, but here are a few results I'm ruminating on after Week 3:
Clovis-Buchanan 56, Bakersfield 41: Obviously, you can't give up 509 passing yards — and 751 total yards —...
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Here's the latest rumblings and musings from myself and Californian copy editor Todd Camps. I've got kind of a fun story coming out in the paper in the morning, on just what it's like to take a road trip for an important football game, like Bakersfield, Stockdale, Frontier and Wasco all have to...
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Which of the following most efficiently sums up my feelings after my gaudy 2009 predictions record went up in flames last Friday?
(a) Oi vay!
(b) Aye carumba!
(c) C'est la vie
(d) Oh man that was so pathetic
I tend to think in English, so if you guessed (d), you're our big winner!...
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Bigtime high school weeks tend to shake up the rankings, and this one was no exception. Big movers and shakers in both directions set the stage for Week 3, when it's all about a showdown at the top. I don't want to spoil my predictions coming tomorrow or anything, but what the...
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It was a fabulous Week 2 around Kern County high school football (for everything but my predictions, but that's a topic for another day). There were great games, surprising results, wonderful individual performances and everything in between.
So what should we take away from it heading into the...
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UPDATED, 10:46 p.m.: With Derek Carr watching from the sideline, Arend Bos threw for one more touchdown to pull BCHS within 28-19. But there was some confusion on the Eagles' sideline as to whether coaches wanted to go for one or two, and by the time kicker Darian Azemika sprinted out onto the...
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UPDATED, 12:30 a.m.: As advertised, it was a great night of high school football. Bakersfield's heart-thumping comeback against Stockdale probably tops the list, but there's plenty of action to recap. The complete scorelist is below (and it will continue to be updated as I get scores), but let's...
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A quick note on this podcast — Todd and I mention that Shafter will visit Independence on Saturday because the Falcons don't yet have lights. I've since found out that instead, the game will be moved to Stockdale and played Friday night. So make that mental correction. I've also...
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I had an interesting breaking news story to do Tuesday night. The Porterville Recorder ran a story in its Tuesday edition based on a letter it received from Rick McIntire, who's the father of Porterville senior Jordan McIntire.
You can read the Recorder's initial report here, and my full report...
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One of the difficult things about doing these rankings early in the season is that many Central Section teams are playing out-of-section games. Should a win against the Central Coast, Sac-Joaquin or Southern Section be worth as much as a win against another top Central Section team? Should a...
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While you're occupied with high school football (or even if you're not), the local high school volleyball, girls golf, cross country and girls tennis teams have all gotten their teeth into their respective seasons. Not much going on today, so it's a good time to look at what we know so far....
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Another weekend of high school football in the books, and another weekend of blowouts. It seems like the good teams are really asserting themselves early this season — is that a mirage, or do we really already know the haves and have-nots?
Here's what I took from Week 1:
— You...
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