3 of the 6 Ocean League teams played in week 0. All of them considered to be the likely less competitive teams in the league.
Hawthorne had the most interesting result, beating La Canada 50-12 last week. Hawthorne had 377 yards rushing, 257 by junior Omodolapo Abioro. QB Joshua Robledo was just 4 of 9 for 39 yards including 1 TD & 2 interceptions, but he had 3 rushing TD's. They added to their 4 offensive TD's by returning 2 interceptions for TD's. But La Canada seems to be a program struggling to find success.
In a side note to Foothill league historians, a Ryan Zerbel was listed as the head coach at La Canada in 2015. Despite a decent size roster, La Canada seems to lack any significant line size. La Canada is projected to go 4-6 and finish 3rd in the Rio Hondo league. Hawthorne should have an equally, to possibly easier, game this week against LA City Division 3 Rivera (0-1). Rivera lost to LA City Division 3 Marquez 12-20, last week. Rivera is projected to go 2-8 and finish 6th (last) in their Exposition League. Hawthorne will go no worse than 3-2 in pre-league, maybe even 4-1, but the competition, except for Leuzinger, is modest in pre-league.
Santa Monica lost to Segerstrom 0-39 last week. Segerstrom appears to be a program on a modest rise. Segerstrom went 11-2 in division 12 last year, making it to the D-12 semifinals before getting smoked by Arroyo of El Monte, 12-70. Segerstrom has moved up to D-11 this year and was not ranked in any preseason polls, but the CIFss and the calpreps power rankings have both moved them into their D-11 top 10 this week, #10 in the CIFss D-11 poll, & #9 in the calpreps power ratings for D-9. It remains to be seen whether Segerstrom can sustain this year's momentum as calpreps only projects them to finish 5-5 overall & 4th in the 6 team Golden West league and that may not be good enough to get into the D-11 playoffs.
Meanwhile, Samo faces another opponent this week, Cypress (1-0), with a superior rating. Cypress rolled over Woodbridge 36-3 last week. Highlights show Samo has some size but they may lack a productive passing game. I suspect this game will not go well for Samo either. Samo should have 3 winnable pre-league games after this before they get bitch slapped back into reality by Lawndale in week 1 of Ocean league play.
Beverly Hills opened the season, losing 35-0 against Carnagie of Riverside, another D-13 opponent. Carnagie is projected to finish 1st in their league, but overall 5-5. Carnagie racked up 272 yards rushing with 5 rushing TD's and their sophomore QB went 8 of 12 for 117 yards. That sounds like another rough season coming for BH. BH travels to Ojai this week to play a diminishing program, Nordhoff. Nordhoff did manage to get by Hueneme last week, 23-20. But BH should make Nordhoff look pretty good this week.
El Segundo did not play last week. The Eagles will have their work cut out for them right away as they travel to play locals Leuzinger (1-0). Leuzinger beat Lakewood of the Moore league, the projected 3rd place team in the 7 team Moore league, 20-2. Leuzinger is ranked #3 in the CIFss D-9 week 1 poll & #3 in the calpreps power ratings. Leuzinger has not posted stats from the game but we do know that they held Lakewood's new QB to 14 completions in 40 attempts for 136 yards, no TD's and 1 interception. More impressive to me is that they held Lakewood to just 43 yards rushing.
A score similar to the Lakewood game, or better will be a good enough signal that El Segundo will battle for an Ocean League playoff position. Even if they lose this one by more, they can still excuse it as a young team learning the ropes against a good team that already has a game of experience this season. El Segundo is young and we will have to see if they make progress in this game, or even perhaps later in the preseason will be good enough.
See the Culver City preview for info on their opening game against West Torrance this Friday.
Lawndale comes into their season opener ranked #10 in the CIFss D-5 poll. Calpreps power ratings have them at #9 in D-5, just ahead of Moorpark. They must have high aspirations because they have stacked their schedule with some tough preseason opponents. Probably a good thing as none of their Ocean league opponents will be as tough as their first 4 games nor as tough as most of what will make the D-5 playoffs.
They travel to Ventura County to play St. Bonaventure (1-0) who beat El Camino Real 26-10 in their opener. The closeness of that score leads me to think that an upset is possible. But it is usually good to be the team coming in with a game under their belt. And watching last year's Lawndale games will probably give you a pretty good idea of what you will face this year.
After this week it might be getting even tougher as they face Crespi, then Leuzinger, then San Pedro before they can relax against Torrance and their first league game against Santa Monica. Lawndale should be a lock to make the D-5 playoffs as they are likely to finish 1st in league and no way drop below 2nd.
Hawthorne had the most interesting result, beating La Canada 50-12 last week. Hawthorne had 377 yards rushing, 257 by junior Omodolapo Abioro. QB Joshua Robledo was just 4 of 9 for 39 yards including 1 TD & 2 interceptions, but he had 3 rushing TD's. They added to their 4 offensive TD's by returning 2 interceptions for TD's. But La Canada seems to be a program struggling to find success.
In a side note to Foothill league historians, a Ryan Zerbel was listed as the head coach at La Canada in 2015. Despite a decent size roster, La Canada seems to lack any significant line size. La Canada is projected to go 4-6 and finish 3rd in the Rio Hondo league. Hawthorne should have an equally, to possibly easier, game this week against LA City Division 3 Rivera (0-1). Rivera lost to LA City Division 3 Marquez 12-20, last week. Rivera is projected to go 2-8 and finish 6th (last) in their Exposition League. Hawthorne will go no worse than 3-2 in pre-league, maybe even 4-1, but the competition, except for Leuzinger, is modest in pre-league.
Santa Monica lost to Segerstrom 0-39 last week. Segerstrom appears to be a program on a modest rise. Segerstrom went 11-2 in division 12 last year, making it to the D-12 semifinals before getting smoked by Arroyo of El Monte, 12-70. Segerstrom has moved up to D-11 this year and was not ranked in any preseason polls, but the CIFss and the calpreps power rankings have both moved them into their D-11 top 10 this week, #10 in the CIFss D-11 poll, & #9 in the calpreps power ratings for D-9. It remains to be seen whether Segerstrom can sustain this year's momentum as calpreps only projects them to finish 5-5 overall & 4th in the 6 team Golden West league and that may not be good enough to get into the D-11 playoffs.
Meanwhile, Samo faces another opponent this week, Cypress (1-0), with a superior rating. Cypress rolled over Woodbridge 36-3 last week. Highlights show Samo has some size but they may lack a productive passing game. I suspect this game will not go well for Samo either. Samo should have 3 winnable pre-league games after this before they get bitch slapped back into reality by Lawndale in week 1 of Ocean league play.
Beverly Hills opened the season, losing 35-0 against Carnagie of Riverside, another D-13 opponent. Carnagie is projected to finish 1st in their league, but overall 5-5. Carnagie racked up 272 yards rushing with 5 rushing TD's and their sophomore QB went 8 of 12 for 117 yards. That sounds like another rough season coming for BH. BH travels to Ojai this week to play a diminishing program, Nordhoff. Nordhoff did manage to get by Hueneme last week, 23-20. But BH should make Nordhoff look pretty good this week.
El Segundo did not play last week. The Eagles will have their work cut out for them right away as they travel to play locals Leuzinger (1-0). Leuzinger beat Lakewood of the Moore league, the projected 3rd place team in the 7 team Moore league, 20-2. Leuzinger is ranked #3 in the CIFss D-9 week 1 poll & #3 in the calpreps power ratings. Leuzinger has not posted stats from the game but we do know that they held Lakewood's new QB to 14 completions in 40 attempts for 136 yards, no TD's and 1 interception. More impressive to me is that they held Lakewood to just 43 yards rushing.
A score similar to the Lakewood game, or better will be a good enough signal that El Segundo will battle for an Ocean League playoff position. Even if they lose this one by more, they can still excuse it as a young team learning the ropes against a good team that already has a game of experience this season. El Segundo is young and we will have to see if they make progress in this game, or even perhaps later in the preseason will be good enough.
See the Culver City preview for info on their opening game against West Torrance this Friday.
Lawndale comes into their season opener ranked #10 in the CIFss D-5 poll. Calpreps power ratings have them at #9 in D-5, just ahead of Moorpark. They must have high aspirations because they have stacked their schedule with some tough preseason opponents. Probably a good thing as none of their Ocean league opponents will be as tough as their first 4 games nor as tough as most of what will make the D-5 playoffs.
They travel to Ventura County to play St. Bonaventure (1-0) who beat El Camino Real 26-10 in their opener. The closeness of that score leads me to think that an upset is possible. But it is usually good to be the team coming in with a game under their belt. And watching last year's Lawndale games will probably give you a pretty good idea of what you will face this year.
After this week it might be getting even tougher as they face Crespi, then Leuzinger, then San Pedro before they can relax against Torrance and their first league game against Santa Monica. Lawndale should be a lock to make the D-5 playoffs as they are likely to finish 1st in league and no way drop below 2nd.
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