HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : East Valley Rivals to Face Off for Playoffs

In 1989, Poly and North Hollywood highs combined for three wins and finished last and next-to-last, respectively, in the East Valley League.

This season, the Parrots (6-3, 4-2) and the Huskies (5-3, 4-2) enter the last week of the City Section’s regular season fighting for second place and a berth in the 3-A Division playoffs. The teams will play each other starting at 8 tonight at North Hollywood for that playoff berth.

North Hollywood has won the past two meetings--the Huskies prevailed last year, 27-18--giving Poly ample incentive.

“We’re not sky-high, but we will be,� second-year Poly Coach Fred Cuccia said. “We don’t want (our players) sky-high until the day of the game. We don’t want them to leave their game on the practice field.�

The Huskies, however, have been fired up since last week. After a 24-14 win at Grant on Friday afternoon, many of the players attended Poly’s 45-28 loss to Sylmar that night. Some North Hollywood players jawed with the Parrots as they left the field, Cuccia said.

“We’ll let North Hollywood do all the talking,� he said.

Cuccia hopes the Parrots’ offense speaks for itself tonight. Poly averages 339 yards a game, tops among area City Section teams. The Parrots have rushed for 2,312 yards in 346 carries and average 6.7 yards a carry. Jermaine Pledger (68 carries, 615 yards) is leading the flock with an average of 9.0 yards, followed by Enrique Ortiz (13 carries, 106 yards) with an 8.2 average and Jonathan Campbell (165 carries, 1,226 yards), who is averaging 7.4.

In contrast, the Huskies are virtually a one-man offensive show. Leon Gable has rushed for 1,639 yards in 248 carries (a 6.6 average) and has scored 23 touchdowns.

North Hollywood made it to postseason play in 1988 and lost in the first round. Poly has not been part of the playoffs since the Parrots were 9-0 in 1983 under Coach Dick Windham.

Highlander on the rise: Granada Hills running back Brett Washington, who already owns nine school records, has moved within striking range of four others. With his next rushing touchdown, Washington can tie Khalid Ali’s single-season mark of 18, set in 1986. Another Ali mark, for highest career rushing average at 6.8 yards a carry, is in jeopardy. In his three seasons at Granada Hills, Washington is averaging 7.02 yards, including 8.4 in 142 attempts this year.

Washington has at least two games remaining to gain the 173 yards needed to break Ali’s single-season rushing mark of 1,370 yards, also set in 1986. Washington (102 points) needs 18 points to tie Ali’s single-season mark of 120 points, set in ’86.

Marmonte duel: Mike Smith, coach of the Camarillo boys’ cross-country team, breathed a sigh of relief after the Scorpions beat Channel Islands by a point in the Marmonte League finals earlier this month.

“I’m glad we don’t have to meet CI any more,� he said in reference to the new divisional setup for the Southern Section championships.

Camarillo, the Marmonte League co-champion, competes in Division II; Channel Islands is a Division I school.

But the Scorpions will face another obstacle Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College in their quest for a second consecutive Southern Section title. One of Marmonte proportions.

Agoura, the third-place team in the Marmonte League, is ranked second in Division II behind Camarillo and will challenge the Scorpions for the championship. The Chargers also are seeking their second division title in a row.

Both teams placed three runners among the top 10 finishers in recording heat wins in last week’s preliminaries.

Agoura (39 points) defeated St. John Bosco (66) and Mission Viejo (100) to advance to its fourth Southern Section final in as many years. Camarillo eased into its fifth consecutive divisional final with 35 points, outdistancing Claremont (55) and Bishop Amat (86).

Did you know?: City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness won a City cross-country championship while at North Hollywood in 1955. Harkness toured the 1.9-mile course at UCLA in 9 minutes 41.8 seconds.

Fast times at Marmonte highs: Most leagues have only one cross-country runner capable of competing at a sectional level and about one league out of three has a state-caliber athlete.

State-level runners Shelley Taylor, a junior at Huntington Beach Edison, and Martha Pinto, a senior at Anaheim Katella, are the class of the Sunset and Empire leagues, respectively.

Seldom does a league have two great runners. But the Marmonte League boasts three runners capable of a top-10 finish in the state championships.

Jeannie Rothman, Deena Drossin and Veronica Barajas, runners who compete in the Marmonte League, posted times that ranked first, second and fourth in the Southern Section preliminaries Saturday.

Rothman, a senior at Westlake, ran 17:49 in winning her Division II heat by 1 minute 45 seconds.

Agoura senior Drossin timed 17:54 to lead the top-ranked Chargers to an 18-75 win over Division I rival Upland. She won her heat by 59 seconds.

Barajas, a Channel Islands junior, won her Division I heat in 18:27, nine seconds faster than Erica Sumi of Long Beach Wilson.

Drossin and Rothman boast the two fastest times at Mt. SAC this year--17:16 and 17:25 from the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 20. Barajas’ personal best at Mt. SAC is 18:02.

Drossin won the state Division I title last year and Rothman placed third. Barajas has made remarkable improvement since last fall and could contend for a top-10 finish in Division I.

Raging Warriors: Cross-country dual meets often are won by scores of 19-42, 24-32 and 15-50.

Rarely does any team score less than 30 or 40 points in a championship meet unless it is a national-caliber team like the Agoura girls or the 1989 Camarillo boys.

Westlake, though, made a statement in the Southern Section preliminaries. The Warriors totaled 22 points, confirming that they are in strong contention for the Division II title and a berth in the state final Nov. 24.

The Warriors placed six runners among the top nine finishers and finished with the lowest total of the four Division II preliminary heats.

Rothman won in 17:49--the fastest time of the day--over the three-mile course at Mt. San Antonio College to lead Westlake, ranked third in the Southern Section final poll.

Westlake’s Jessica Graham, known better as an 800-meter runner in track, finished second in 19:34.

Westlake will meet No. 1 Anaheim Canyon, No. 2 Huntington Beach Edison and No. 4 Mission Viejo in the championship race.

Picking up the pieces: In a flash, Fillmore has gone from 8-0 and with hopes of a perfect season to 8-2 and limping into the football playoffs.

The Flashes’ second consecutive loss came at the hands of rival Santa Paula on Friday and kindled memories of last year when Fillmore started 9-0, only to finish 10-2 after being eliminated in the second round of the Southern Section Division IX playoffs.

Coach Curtis Garner knows how easily a teen-ager’s dreams can be dashed but believes in the resiliency of youth.

“The kids are a little down,� Garner said. “But I’m confident that the excitement of the playoffs will take care of that. As the game approaches, they’ll be more and more ready to play.�

One break for Fillmore: The Flashes are at home for their first-round game tonight against Torrance.

Show time: Amy Cook, who pulled a rare double this year when she was named homecoming queen at Chaminade as a member of the football team, will appear on the television program “Into the Night Starring Rick Dees.� The show will air at midnight Nov. 26 on KABC Channel 7.

Cook scored six points on conversion kicks this season.

Site change: Camp Kilpatrick’s Southern Section Division X football playoff game against Rosamond has been moved from its scheduled site at Monroe High.

The Mustangs instead will play their first-round game at Rosamond tonight at 7:30.

Mike Glaze and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.