Saturday, October 26, 2024

Friday Night Lights at Cleveland H.S.


Friday, October 25, 2025
I opted for a trip to the hamlet of Reseda in the heart of the beautiful San Fernando Valley for a high school football game tonight.

It was for a West Valley League game between the two teams currently tied for second place in circuit play, so it promised to be a competitive contest.

Additionally, with friend Paul Sabolić at Dodger Stadium for Game One of the World Series and other Sabolić family members involved with their kids activities, only Joanne Sabolić would be at the game supporting son Jason who is El Camino's Head Coach.

I thought that she might want company at the game.


3 Wins - 5 Losses overall
2 Wins - 1 Loss West Valley League
at

4 Wins - 4 Losses overall
2 Wins - 1 Loss West Valley League

I found Joanne at the game quickly

Three yards and a cloud of dust football!

We were watching a game on an honest to goodness actual grass field nine games into the season in dry Southern California.

I LOVED IT!

There was lots of running tonight

The combination of the physical nature of the Cleveland Offense and the hard landing surface led to lots of stoppages of play due to injured players.

At the end of the First Quarter it was tied at 7-7.

The Second Quarter saw more dust

LOTS more dust

By Halftime, El Camino Real was holding on to a 20-14 lead but wasted a Second and Goal at the three yard line opportunity just before the intermission turning the ball over on downs at the one yard line.

It would be the pivotal series of the game.

The First Half took TWO HOURS!

The combination of injury time outs, dubious referee conferences, only God knows how many penalties, and the use of all six timeouts allotted to the teams made for an incredibly slow pace.

The glorious Dust Bowl continued . . .

In the Third Quarter, the Cavaliers, after having scored the first TD of the game, regained the lead 21-20.

The Second Half ended in only one hour

That included Cleveland's twenty minute Halftime Homecoming Game extravaganza.

There was lots of action in this final stanza and El Camino Real threatened at the end of the hard fought battle before throwing an interception into the End Zone to call it a night after the fun three hours that one could hope for on a Friday night in Reseda, California.

Final Score
Cleveland Cavaliers (5-4, 3-1 WVL) - 21
El Camino Real Royals (3-6, 2-2 WVL) - 20

On to the college front tomorrow . . . 

A BIG game for undefeated Navy
against Notre Dame

Undefeated Army has a bye this week

While in Europe . . .

Another IFAF World Championship
European Qualifying Tournament
games is on tap

There are a dozen National Teams
vying to Qualify for next Summer's
IFAF World Championships

I mentioned that good friend, Paul Sabolić, was at Dodger Stadium tonight for Game One of the World Series.

New York Yankees at Los Angeles Dodgers
in a Best-of-Seven series

This lineup looked solid to me

Great to see that the Yankees
star player was a multi-sport
athlete in high school

WOW!

Dodgers' First Baseman, Freddie Freeman, with a two out, bottom of the tenth inning, WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM HOME RUN!

This is the stuff that dreams
are made of to be sure

This blast was the first walk-off grand slam home run in World Series history.

Today's thought from the net . . .

A True Warrior's Mindset

No comments: