Monday, October 22 - Sunday, October 28, 2018
Disappointing news from the Gones American football team to start the week . . .
Arson in Lyon, France
Gones' Equipment Shed
On the brink of the start of the French DII season, vandals broke into this shed and then torched all of the contents.
Nearly 100% Destruction
A few jerseys partially survived
Even though the Gones are my former team, the Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons, crosstown rivals, this is a time of much needed unity and brotherhood in Europe's American football community.
If you would like to help the Gones get back on their feet, go to: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/eveil-de-lyon-section-foot-us/formulaires/1/widget?fbclid=IwAR1weCtdbQ-pmYFwrHH0iIZvg-JMoL4IdEs1Nq_6NgdEXr9FuUsCp3Tp7K8
Time to prepare for our final
Ventura County Star
Game of the Week podcast
This week we had the 50th renewal of one of our county's fiercest rivalries, The Battle for the Valley!
The Simi Valley that is.
The valley's old school,
the Simi Valley H.S. Pioneers
The new kids on the block,
the Royal H.S. Highlanders
Tackling practice at Royal
I visited the two campuses to interview the two Head Coaches and watch them put their charges through their paces.
The excitement was high at both schools as, for the first time in rivalry history, both schools could claim a league title by simply winning this regular season finale.
Another Passing
Coach Yang was our highly
esteemed Line Coach at
St. Francis H.S. in the mid-1960s
Coach would eventually become the Head Coach of the St. Francis H.S. Golden Knights (1966-67) and then go on to be the long time leader of the South Pasadena H.S. Tigers. His stint at South Pas included a C.I.F.-S.S. "AAA" Championship in 1975.
Coach Yang had a stoic approach to coaching the game that always stressed fundamentals. Goodness only knows how much time we spent on the Crowther two-man sled mastering our blocking techniques.
After his high school coaching career came to a close, he would go on to be an assistant coach at DIII Occidental College in Los Angeles.
On a side note, Coach Yang was a starting lineman on the 1956 Los Angeles State Diablos squad that took on the eleven from Mexico Polytechnic University in a game played at East Los Angeles College's stadium. I was in the crowd watching the game. It was the first game of American football that I ever saw in person.
We lost a good man this week.
The Camarillo House
We joined our friends Koreen and Brian FitzGerald for the monthly Food Truck/Live Music night at the historic Camarillo House.
Food from Italy?
Not really but their empanadas
were quite tasty
It lasted long into the night
I still wanted Italian food
the next day so . . .
. . . Settebello Pizzeria in Oxnard it was!
I wanted to try the Pizza Special, the Pizza Varese!
Unfortunately, they were out of pork belly so I had to settle for a delicious Pizza Diavola.
Canyon League Champnshp
GAME DAY!
Royal Highlanders
4-5 on the season
2-0 in Canyon League play
But winners of four of their last five games after their transfer QB became eligible to play.
Simi Valley Pioneers
7-2 on the season
2-0 in Canyon League play
In the checkered history of the Simi Valley program, they had only averaged 2.8 wins a season since the late 1940s.
Needless to say the 2018 campaign is a high water mark in Pioneer football history!
The green clad home team Highlanders
It was a BEAUTIFUL night for an
American football championship game!
The stands were packed and the feeling in the stadium was electric!
The Highlanders warmed up in their traditional green jerseys but came out for the kickoff in yellow ones.
HERE COME THE HIGHLANDERS!
The yellow jerseys are definitely
NOT tear-aways
TOUCHDOWN ROYAL!
The Highlanders led 10-7 at the end of the First Quarter thanks to this contested TD grab by WR Colin Mitchell.
Simi Valley's RB #28 Jackson Sterling
was a tough load to tackle all night long
He had 179 yards rushing on 22 carries on the night and scored a TD.
Royal's great band had a marvelous
halftime performance
The game was tied 10-10 at the intermission.
Pioneer QB Jack Applegate on the loose
SVHS's Malik Hunt was
in the open field . . .
. . . often
Royal came out of the intermission en fuego, scoring 14 unanswered points to lead 24-10 after three periods.
Since Royal Head Coach Matthew Lewis
got a Gatorade bath, I think you know
the outcome of game
FINAL SCORE: Royal (5-5) 27 - Simi Valley (7-3) 18
Royal (5-5) is the 2018 Canyon League American Football Champion and will now host the Alta Loma Braves (6-4) in the opening round of the C.I.F.-S.S. Division VIII playoff game on Friday.
As for Simi Valley (7-3), their season continues with a C.I.F.-S.S. playoff game of their own. On Friday the Pioneers will travel to Ojai to play the Nordhoff Rangers (8-2) in a Division X playoff contest.
Final Red Robots
Calcio Saturday
Jacob and his tongue were
ready for the Red Robots' finale
HAIL TO THE RED ROBOTS!
Move when you DON'T have the ball
Eyes on the prize!
CELEBRATE, WE SCORED!
In bounds kick
We scored AGAIN!
I do not know . . .
BREAK AWAY!
On the ATTACK!
Cool, calm and collected
What a Hair Day!
YOUR mighty Red Robots
won today 4-2
I know that we do not keep score at this level but some of us feel as if we are above the law at times.
Lots of joy as the Red Robots won their first game of the ten Saturday season.
The Washington Huskies (6-3) would not be so fortunate in losing to the California Golden Bears (5-3) on the road on Saturday by a 12-10 score.
On the plus side . . .
A Great Victory over the
tough Green Bay Packers
We could not have won without
"Little Eddie's" efforts in the secondary
YEP, 8-0!
The last thing of note this week was the Boston Red Sox winning the 2018 World Series, four games to one, over our Los Angeles Dodgers thanks to Sunday night's 5-1 victory at Dodger Stadium.
The BoSox were simply the better team.
