This is an update to the previously posted preview, with results added, and some minimal commentary.
The Culver City Centaurs (2-0) stayed at #1 in the CIF-SS Division 11 poll but dropped to #2 in the calpreps D-11 rankings, mostly due to the strength of the Rancho Mirage upset of the more highly rated La Quinta last week.
Culver played another lower rated opponent in Torrance (0-2) last week and they are back on the road in the Torrance area this week, this time against "North" Torrance (2-1). This will be the toughest game so far for the Centaurs but Culver is still a significant favorite. Some significant challenges as North has shown an ability to intercept opposing QB's.
Culver has faced 2 sturdy rushing teams, so I don't expect North to bring anything more than CC's prior two opponents. North will throw the ball a little better than Torrance. #6 looked like a possible playmaker at WR for North. North struggled offensively against more talented teams so far this year, but played some good defense.
I will project a 38-21 victory for Culver.
The Centaurs got a 42-7 victory. This might have been the easiest of the three Centaur victories so far this season. Despite North Torrance's better rating prior to the game, than CC's prior two opponents, I found North to be a less physical team, less organized and having no significant speed difference from prior opponents. They got themselves into trouble multiple times with penalties. The QB was only modestly effective, similar to the prior 2 teams, but then again, I might be a little spoiled.
Rancho Mirage (3-0) made the big jump from #5 in the CIF-SS D-11 poll to #2 and to #1 in the calpreps ratings. Their 38-21 win over La Quinta was a surprising eye opener to most. One would expect a closer defensive type of score based upon their first two games but not sure what will happen offensively for Rancho after they put up 38 on LQ. Will they continue to excel?
Rancho takes on Palm Desert (2-1). PD got punched in the mouth 26-2 by the higher rated Yucaipa last week. PD is about 2/3 running to 1/3 passing with only 2 passing TD's & 2 interceptions. Looks like PD might be able to play some D. Lets go with a similar score to what Rancho did a couple of weeks ago,
a 20-14 win for Rancho.
Calpreps rates it as an upset, but I did think Palm Desert could play some D and apparently they did in their 24-21 PD victory. Rancho's RB Marques Prior and QB David Talley were not completely shut down, but their effectiveness was limited enough for Palm Desert to come up with the slightly surprising victory.
Arroyo (3-0) of El Monte moves down from #2 to #3 in the CIF-SS D-11 poll and moves up to #3 from #4 in the calpreps ratings. They beat their toughest opponent so far this year in a 31-10 win over Schurr (2-1) last week.
Things get easier this week with a road game against Rowland (2-0) of Rowland Heights. Those 2 Rowland wins were against much worse teams than Arroyo. This game could be a rude awakening for Rowland. I expect Arroyo to easily win this game and the remainder of all their regular season games with only South El Monte having any possibility of putting up any resistance.
I'll project a 35-21 Arroyo win.
It was even easier than I projected as Arroyo won 49-0. It was 42-0 at the half. Junior QB Ernesto Camacho threw for a blistering 16 of 18 for 266 yards & 3 TD's. Senior RB Steven Ocariz had 66 yards on just 8 carries with 3 of them going for TD's.
Arcadia (1-2) goes from #2 to #4 in the calpreps ratings & #3 to #5 in the CIF-SS poll. Their 22-6 loss to Hart (1-1) last week is not really any embarrassment at all. Practically a positive. They did not have much of a drop in either cuz Hart is still considered a much higher level program. Let's hope that those 2 upper level opponents the last couple of weeks pays off in 2 weeks as Arcadia starts league play in their Pacific league against their second toughest opponent in the Pacific League, Muir (2-0) of Pasadena on 9/24.
Arcadia has a bye this week so they have 2 weeks to prepare. Muir is nowhere near the level of Cathedral or Hart but a win against Muir could mean an almost certain lock on a D-11 playoff spot as they are not likely to fall lower than 2nd in league. A loss and Arcadia will have to make sure that they win 5 of the 6 remaining league games to get a supposed lock on a 3rd place playoff spot. Muir will be preoccupied with another non-league game this week against LaSalle (1-2) of Pasadena. Muir shut out its 2 first opponents and scored at least 38 in each game. LaSalle should be tougher and Arcadia will certainly be tougher. Arcadia is favored right now. We will see what happens after this week's games.
Westminster (2-0) is #5 in calpreps & #4 in this week's CIF-SS D-11 poll. Westminster faces a weaker program, Katella (2-1), this week. Right now Westminster projects out to win all their games but there are significant challenges facing them and they have not blown out teams in their first two games, winning by 4 & 14 against inferior opponents.
But if Isaac Barrera can do anything about it, Westminster will win em all. If ya don't believe me, check out the highlight reel of the DT/OL. Katella has not played anybody of the level of Westminster. Katella beat Esperanza last week 31-6 and all I can say is "Oh, how the mighty have fallen". I have been around awhile and I seem to recall some good Esperanza teams in the past but they have apparently fallen on hard times in recent years. Ah yes, I have it, they lost 42-49 to Loyola in the Division 1 championship game of 2005.
I will project a 21-7 Westminster win this week.
Perhaps the Katella(3-1) folks read my post and went out determined to prove me wrong? Katella QB Nathan Arrington looks quite effective on the highlight reel in the Knights 22-20 win. Westminster drops to #15 in calpreps Division 11 ratings while Katella climbs up to #12. We will have to wait until Monday to see what the CIF poll does. Westminster's Isaac Barrera still had his moments for Westminster, but Arrington's ability to throw the ball and his own 5'11", 215 pound built like a linebacker, made him a tougher target for Barrera. I did not see any highlights on Barrera playing offense and it looked he was missing from a good portion of the defensive snaps.
The Culver City Centaurs (2-0) stayed at #1 in the CIF-SS Division 11 poll but dropped to #2 in the calpreps D-11 rankings, mostly due to the strength of the Rancho Mirage upset of the more highly rated La Quinta last week.
Culver played another lower rated opponent in Torrance (0-2) last week and they are back on the road in the Torrance area this week, this time against "North" Torrance (2-1). This will be the toughest game so far for the Centaurs but Culver is still a significant favorite. Some significant challenges as North has shown an ability to intercept opposing QB's.
Culver has faced 2 sturdy rushing teams, so I don't expect North to bring anything more than CC's prior two opponents. North will throw the ball a little better than Torrance. #6 looked like a possible playmaker at WR for North. North struggled offensively against more talented teams so far this year, but played some good defense.
I will project a 38-21 victory for Culver.
The Centaurs got a 42-7 victory. This might have been the easiest of the three Centaur victories so far this season. Despite North Torrance's better rating prior to the game, than CC's prior two opponents, I found North to be a less physical team, less organized and having no significant speed difference from prior opponents. They got themselves into trouble multiple times with penalties. The QB was only modestly effective, similar to the prior 2 teams, but then again, I might be a little spoiled.
Rancho Mirage (3-0) made the big jump from #5 in the CIF-SS D-11 poll to #2 and to #1 in the calpreps ratings. Their 38-21 win over La Quinta was a surprising eye opener to most. One would expect a closer defensive type of score based upon their first two games but not sure what will happen offensively for Rancho after they put up 38 on LQ. Will they continue to excel?
Rancho takes on Palm Desert (2-1). PD got punched in the mouth 26-2 by the higher rated Yucaipa last week. PD is about 2/3 running to 1/3 passing with only 2 passing TD's & 2 interceptions. Looks like PD might be able to play some D. Lets go with a similar score to what Rancho did a couple of weeks ago,
a 20-14 win for Rancho.
Calpreps rates it as an upset, but I did think Palm Desert could play some D and apparently they did in their 24-21 PD victory. Rancho's RB Marques Prior and QB David Talley were not completely shut down, but their effectiveness was limited enough for Palm Desert to come up with the slightly surprising victory.
Arroyo (3-0) of El Monte moves down from #2 to #3 in the CIF-SS D-11 poll and moves up to #3 from #4 in the calpreps ratings. They beat their toughest opponent so far this year in a 31-10 win over Schurr (2-1) last week.
Things get easier this week with a road game against Rowland (2-0) of Rowland Heights. Those 2 Rowland wins were against much worse teams than Arroyo. This game could be a rude awakening for Rowland. I expect Arroyo to easily win this game and the remainder of all their regular season games with only South El Monte having any possibility of putting up any resistance.
I'll project a 35-21 Arroyo win.
It was even easier than I projected as Arroyo won 49-0. It was 42-0 at the half. Junior QB Ernesto Camacho threw for a blistering 16 of 18 for 266 yards & 3 TD's. Senior RB Steven Ocariz had 66 yards on just 8 carries with 3 of them going for TD's.
Arcadia (1-2) goes from #2 to #4 in the calpreps ratings & #3 to #5 in the CIF-SS poll. Their 22-6 loss to Hart (1-1) last week is not really any embarrassment at all. Practically a positive. They did not have much of a drop in either cuz Hart is still considered a much higher level program. Let's hope that those 2 upper level opponents the last couple of weeks pays off in 2 weeks as Arcadia starts league play in their Pacific league against their second toughest opponent in the Pacific League, Muir (2-0) of Pasadena on 9/24.
Arcadia has a bye this week so they have 2 weeks to prepare. Muir is nowhere near the level of Cathedral or Hart but a win against Muir could mean an almost certain lock on a D-11 playoff spot as they are not likely to fall lower than 2nd in league. A loss and Arcadia will have to make sure that they win 5 of the 6 remaining league games to get a supposed lock on a 3rd place playoff spot. Muir will be preoccupied with another non-league game this week against LaSalle (1-2) of Pasadena. Muir shut out its 2 first opponents and scored at least 38 in each game. LaSalle should be tougher and Arcadia will certainly be tougher. Arcadia is favored right now. We will see what happens after this week's games.
Westminster (2-0) is #5 in calpreps & #4 in this week's CIF-SS D-11 poll. Westminster faces a weaker program, Katella (2-1), this week. Right now Westminster projects out to win all their games but there are significant challenges facing them and they have not blown out teams in their first two games, winning by 4 & 14 against inferior opponents.
But if Isaac Barrera can do anything about it, Westminster will win em all. If ya don't believe me, check out the highlight reel of the DT/OL. Katella has not played anybody of the level of Westminster. Katella beat Esperanza last week 31-6 and all I can say is "Oh, how the mighty have fallen". I have been around awhile and I seem to recall some good Esperanza teams in the past but they have apparently fallen on hard times in recent years. Ah yes, I have it, they lost 42-49 to Loyola in the Division 1 championship game of 2005.
I will project a 21-7 Westminster win this week.
Perhaps the Katella(3-1) folks read my post and went out determined to prove me wrong? Katella QB Nathan Arrington looks quite effective on the highlight reel in the Knights 22-20 win. Westminster drops to #15 in calpreps Division 11 ratings while Katella climbs up to #12. We will have to wait until Monday to see what the CIF poll does. Westminster's Isaac Barrera still had his moments for Westminster, but Arrington's ability to throw the ball and his own 5'11", 215 pound built like a linebacker, made him a tougher target for Barrera. I did not see any highlights on Barrera playing offense and it looked he was missing from a good portion of the defensive snaps.
