Football: L.A. Jordan out to disprove prognosticators

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Call it bulletin-board fodder for the 21st Century.

With the proliferation of websites that provide information and projections for high school football, there are going to be some hurt feelings among players and coaches.

Los Angeles Jordan Coach Elijah Asante seemed a bit steamed that Calpreps.com has picked his Bulldogs to lose to visiting St. Bonaventure on Friday by a score of 56-0.

‘That’s the ultimate, saying you’re not worthy at all,’ Asante said.

Asante said he wants to hold powerful St. Bonaventure running back Devon Blackledge under the five touchdowns he scored against St. John Bosco and the 291 yards he piled up against Long Beach Poly. And that’s not all.

‘As ridiculous as it might seem,’ Asante said, ‘we’re going to try to win the game. I’ve never thought we were going to lose a game we were going into. My mind is not wired like that.’

Jordan is coming off a 51-12 loss to Esperanza in which the Bulldogs suffered three key injuries and had to use 330-pound lineman Trayronne Archer out of the shotgun at quarterback after regular quarterback Jack Cooper was sidelined. Cooper is expected back this week, and Asante hopes it’s enough to prove the prognosticators wrong.

‘That’s just a projection,’ he said of the 56-0 prediction. ‘They’re about 85% accurate, but that means about 15% of the time they’re wrong. We’re banking on it being part of the 15%.’

--Ben Bolch