It’s a week for rivalry football games

By OC Tribune Staff on September 4, 2018 • ( 1 Comment )

GARDEN GROVE and Orange – who played earlier – are ranked second and fifth in this week’s High Five poll (Orange County Tribune photo).

This is a kind of “rivalry week” with two of the older such games played this week in area high school football. Rivalries have led to epic contests, petty acts of vandalism, many memories and much motivation.

The longest standing such competition in our area is Garden Grove High vs. Rancho Alamitos. The series started in 1958 when the Vaqueros won 20-12 in a bit of an upset, since GGHS had opened in 1921 and Rancho was still being constructed in ’58. The series has been back and forth pretty evenly, although Grove has dominated in the last decade.

Anaheim High School dates back to 1898, but its oldest city rival is Western High, which opened in 1955. The Colonists and Pioneers started their series of football games, playing for The Bell, in 1959. The blue-and-gold (AHS) won that one, 24-6.

Friday (and Thursday) Night Lights

Here are the high school football schedules for this week for teams of interest to the communities of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Stanton and Westminster. These are non-league games, scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Times, dates and locations are subject to change without notice.

THURSDAY

Saddleback (0-3) at Los Amigos(1-1) at Monsoor Stadium (Garden Grove High).
Canyon (0-3) at Orange(1-1) at Fred Kelly Stadium (El Modena High).
Kennedy (1-2) at Magnolia(1-2) at Handel Stadium (Western High).

FRIDAY

Edison (1-2) at San Juan Hills (1-2).
Garden Grove (2-0) at Rancho Alamitos (1-2) at Bolsa Grande High.
Pacifica (2-1) at Woodbridge (2-1) at University High.
Irvine (0-2) at Huntington Beach (2-1).
Katella (3-0) at Marina (2-1) at Boswell Stadium (Westminster High).
Calvary Chapel/Santa Ana (0-2) at Ocean View (2-0).
La Quinta (0-2) at Costa Mesa (0-3).
Estancia (2-0) at Santiago (2-0) at Monsoor.
Westminster (0-3) at Artesia (1-1).
Anaheim (1-1) at Western (2-1).

Rankings are polls apart

The CIF-SS polls for fall sports – especially football – will be delayed because of Labor Day on Monday. The Tribune will post them as soon as they become available.

In the meantime, the Trib’s High 5 ranks teams in our coverage area.

It’s tough to rate teams this early in the season. Some have faced schools in a different class, leading either to a one-sided loss or a one-sided victory. Without common opponents to make comparisons, this is really just a dart-throw.

So to give our guesses a little bit of mathematical credibility, we’re going to rely this week on the point system employed by the Maxpreps.com website, which covers high school sports nationally. We expect to return to our usual guesswork next week.

As you’ll note, Edison bounced from third into first on the strength of a big win (51-15) over Canyon High. Garden Grove rose from fourth to second after smacking Santa Ana 38-12; the Saints had been ranked number one in their division.

Pacifica stayed in third despite a tough loss to Capistrano Valley, based on the strength of the opponent.

In fourth is Huntington Beach (down from first) after an upset loss to Wilson High of Long Beach. The fifth spot goes to Orange; the Panthers lost narrowly to second-ranked Garden Grove in their opener, and then spanked University High of Irvine 61-15 last week.

On the bubble are Ocean View, Marina and Western.

Not an encouraging sign …

If you were at Friday’s game between Pacifica and Capistrano Valley at Monsoor Stadium on the Garden Grove High campus, you might have noticed something a bit strange about the scoreboard.

Although the teams playing were the Mariners and Cougars, the scoreboard listed the “Vaqueros” and the “Colonists.” Those were the names of the teams (Rancho Alamitos and Anaheim) that had played there the night before, and somehow the display got stuck.