Division 11 week 1 preview

[gvgrizzlyfan]

Arcadia maintained it's number 1 ranking in both the maxpreps & calpreps rankings and moved from 4th, to #1 in the CIFss D-11 poll, after their 20-10 victory over D-8 La Salle of Pasadena. La Salle is still ranked #9 in the CIFss & calpreps rankings although I am not sure why if calpreps is projecting them to only go 4-6 & finish 6th (last) in the very tough Angeles league. The team has virtually no chance of making the playoffs with how stacked the Angelus league is.

Speaking of tough Angelus league opponents, Arcadia faces Angelus league favorite Cathedral this week. Arcadia may be the current D-11 number 1 team, but Cathedral is #9 in both the D-2 CIFss poll & calpreps rankings. I doubt Arcadia is in the same class. This week, and next week against Hart, should have Arcadia plenty ready to battle any tough teams in their own Pacific league.

Arroyo of El Monte has the #2 ranking in D-11. They held on for 35-28 victory over Covina in week 0. They face Temple City (1-0) this week who could be said to have upset Pasadena Poly 21-7 last week. Poly has had a reputation of being a decent small school program in past years but may be struggling a bit with a small roster this year and breaking in a new QB. Poly was projected to go 9-1 & finish first in their Prep league. They were preseason rated as the #8 team in D-10. After the loss to Temple City, their ranking has dropped to #25 in the calpreps D-10 rankings.

Temple City is a program that has been struggling mightily for some years now, getting relegated to D-13 and projected to finish 5th (dead last) in the Rio Hondo league going 3-6 overall. However I believe they have already got a W in their first game that they were not supposed to get. There was a time in the 70's when Temple City had some championship seasons. Has a sleeping Ram awoken in Los Angeles? The CIFss poll jumped them up to the #6 team in the D-13 poll as does the calpreps ranking matching at #6 in D-13. This game is still rated as a slightly easier W for Arroyo this week, than last, but can Temple City surprise again? The Temple City D is likely to have a much tougher test against the experienced veteran Arroyo QB Ernesto Camacho.

More to follow on D-11, but that is it for tonight.

 

[gvgrizzlyfan]

St. Genevieve is ranked 3rd in D-11 after having moved up from D-12 last year. They crushed Poly of Sun Valley last week but should have a stiffer test against Heritage Christian of Northridge. These two teams faced each other last year & St. Gen won easily, 34-6.

Heritage beat LA City D-3 school Kennedy of Granada Hills, 48-29 last week. Heritage is ranked 11th in the D-11 calpreps ratings. They made it to the first round of the D-11 playoffs last year. The Heritage senior QB was 7 of 11 for 167 yards & 3 TD's against Kennedy. More impressively, they had 416 yards rushing including 2 100+ yards rushers, one of them being junior Luke Ramos who ran for 205 yards and 3 TD's.

Whomever emerges as the victor in this contest will likely be a force to be reckoned with in the D-11 playoffs. Heritage was not projected as a lock to get into the playoffs from their small 4 team Olympic league, but their prospects are looking better after last week's win. St. Gen, should easily make it into the playoffs from the weak Santa Fe league....unless they don't take Mary Star seriously.

Culver City is ranked 4th in D-11. See my Culver City updates for details

 

[gvgrizzlyfan]

Rancho Mirage dropped from #2 to #5 in in the CIFss poll this week and are also ranked 5th in the calpreps ratings for D-11. They did manage a win in week 0, but by just 13-7 to Beaumont, which came in as the 19th ranked team in D-10 per calpreps. According to the maxpreps website, the RM QB was held to just 2 of 9 completions for 13 yards, no TD's & 1 interception. Fortunately for RM, senior RB Marques Prior was able to run for 128 yards and 2 TD's.

Things don't get any easier for RM this week as they are on the road to Shadow Hills in Indio, another D-10 team. They beat West Valley of Hemet by 46-7 in week 0. Shadow Hills was well balanced against West Valley, passing for 167 and rushing for 193 more. RM will be a tougher game, but in a game that would have favored RM before the season, it is now looking more like a toss-up.

RM was projected to go 9-1 & finish 1st in the De Anza league, but now 6-4 with a 2cnd place record would seem more realistic. They can fix all those projections by a good performance this weekend. Either way, they are still likely to be a playoff team in D-11.

 

[gvgrizzlyfan]

Hillcrest of Riverside was already ranked #6 in the calpreps ratings and maintained that position while jumping into the CIFss D-11 poll for the first time this season, also at #6.

Hillcrest beat Jurupa Hills 34-15 after trailing 15-14 at the half. Sounds like good coaching half time adjustments. Hillcrest has not posted stats on maxpreps but we know they gave up 209 passing yards but intercepted the Jurupa QB twice. They also gave up 150 rushing yards, but that was on 46 attempts. Sounds like a solid effort by the defense.

Jurupa Hills is also a D-11 team, but not highly ranked. It gets much tougher for Hillcrest this week as they face Notre Dame of Riverside, currently the 8th ranked team in D-8.

ND beat Xavier Prep, the CIFss D-11 preseason poll #10 team. Maxpreps reported a 24-21 squeaker while calpreps had a ND blowout of 42-7. ND had 277 yards passing, & a possible switch at QB. They also had 138 yards rushing. Xavier was able to intercept one of the ND passes. Depending on which score of the ND vs Xavier game is correct, I would favor either Hillcrest or ND this week.

 

[gvgrizzlyfan]

Westminster (0-0) was the preseason #7 rated team by calpreps.com. The CIFss post week 0 D-11 poll is just catching up as they were unranked by the CIFss in the preseason poll and are now also #7 in that poll. Calpreps current ratings also has them holding the #7 spot. They are in the Golden West League, same as the previously mentioned Segerstrom, who is now at #10 in the CIFss D-11 post week 0 poll.

Westminster was projected to go 7-3 overall and finish 2nd in their league although ratings have shifted around a little after week 0 games and third place in the Golden West League looks a little more likely with Segerstrom breathing down their neck to try and secure that #3 spot in the 6 team league. Ironically they now project out to go undefeated in preleague and finish 8-2, although Garden Grove (1-0) and Marina (1-0) should put up some fight in the first couple of games of the season.

Westminster will open at home this week against Garden Grove, a middle of the pack team in division 8. Garden Grove had a modest 16-0 victory over a lightly regarded Valley of Santa Ana who is projected to go 4-6 and is not expected to make it past the opening round of the D-12 playoffs. The Garden Grove QB was just 4 of 6 for 37 yards but the team did have 170 yards rushing. If Westminster is for real, they should be able to get the W in this one.

 

[gvgrizzlyfan]

How did Pasadena lose a game and move up to #8 in the CIFss Div. 11 poll you ask? You play the CIFss Div 3 preseason #2 ranked team, Buena Park and you lose just 25-31. Pasadena was unranked by the CIFss in D-11 in the preseason poll, however calpreps had them rated as the #9 team in D-11 in their preseason poll.

While I have no stats on the game the maxpreps scoretracker suggests that the final score was a little closer than the game actually was. BP led 31-7 with about 5 minutes left in the third quarter and Pasadena did not make their final score until about a minute was left in the contest. Still, against such a highly ranked D-3 team, you would have to say it was a good effort.

Pasadena will play Maranatha of Pasadena this week in a public vs private showdown I suppose. Maranatha came away with an easy 34-7 victory over Rim of the World, a D-12 school of modest regard. Maranatha senior QB Kwon Peterson was 10 of 14 for 365 yards, 4 TD's and no interceptions according to the stats on maxpreps. Even more impressive was the 5 receptions for 237 yards and 2 TD's by Awan Parker.

Maranatha's Sumner Ortlund also managed to record an 85 yard reception. They also scraped together 153 rushing yards. This will be an interesting challenge for Pasadena, but Pasadena is still favored, at least according to calpreps power ratings.

 

[gvgrizzlyfan]

Here are my projections for D-11 week 1:
#1 Arcadia loses big to highly regarded Div 2 private Cathedral.
#2 Arroyo gets another victory this week by just 1 TD over Temple City.
#3 St. Genevieve beats #12 Heritage Christian of Northridge by 2 TD's.
#4 Culver City eeks out a win over West Torrance with both teams scoring at least 25 points.
#5 Rancho Mirage loses a close contest to Shadow Hills.
#6 Hillcrest of Riverside loses by 1 TD to Notre Dame of Riverside
#7 Westminster beats Garden Grove by 1 TD
#8 Pasadena, beats Maranatha of Pasadena by 10 points.
#9 Segerstrom has a blow out win against inferior D-13 team Saddleback.
#10 Highland gets a 1 TD win against Thousand Oaks.