Thurs.-Sun., December 1-4, 2022
We were all excited for a two and a half hour trip north on Friday to the San Joaquin Valley's jewell city of Delano for a Southern California C.I.F. Division 4-AA Championship game.
We were going in order to support Jack Brucker, a Sophomore on the Northwood H.S. Timberwolves' football team. Jack is the grandson of our college chums Loren and Sandy Brucker.
Fog loomed as we descended
the famed Grapevine portion
of Interstate 5
Jacob was excited to finally
get out of the car as we arrived at
Bakersfield's Fairfield Inn & Suites
We joined the Brucker Clan for
dinner at Bakersfield's Firestone Grill
If you ever are in the area, do drop in and order The Pig, a delicious and somewhat oversized BBQ pulled pork sandwich.
A bowl of their fries is enough for a group of eight hungry diners.
On to the game . . .
Southern California
C.I.F. Division 4-AA Championship Game
Northwood H.S. Timberwolves (13-1)
Irvine, California
C.I.F.-Southern Section
Division VIII Champions
Pacific Hills League Champions
at
Robert F. Kennedy H.S. Thunderbirds (11-2)
Delano, California
C.I.F.-Central Section
Division III Champions
South Sequoia League Champions
What the . . .
Our tickets and all of the on-line publicity for the game clearly stated that kickoff was scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Thus, we arrived at the stadium at about 7:15 p.m. only to find out that Northwood was leading 7-0 late in the First Quarter after the game started at 7:00 p.m.
Decidedly NOT happy.
Regardless, we all had a fun time cheering
in the stands on a chilly night
Jacob at Halftime with
Northwood now leading 10-0
Jacob with Quinn Brucker
at Halftime
The was a good old rock 'em-sock 'em affair with Kennedy finally getting on the scoreboard in the Fourth Quarter to cut the Timberwolves lead to 10-7.
The game end with a great sequence by Northwood that started with a critical fourth down stop deep in their own territory followed by two consecutive running plays on first down that each netted more than the necessary ten yards needed to seal the game for the visitors.
Final Score
Northwood (14-1) 10 - Kennedy (11-3) 7
Time for lots of fun post game photos . . .
Three generations of Bruckers
Jack and Jacob
Quinn, Laney and Jacob
What a GREAT night to be
a Timberwolves' fan
Up next is the final game of the season for all the marbles.
C.I.F. Division 4-AA
California State Championship Game
Saturday, December 10, 2022
6:00 p.m. (maybe)
Northwood H.S. Timberwolves (14-1)
Irvine, California
Southern California
C.I.F. Division 4-AA Champions
C.I.F.-Southern Section
Division VIII Champions
Pacific Hills League Champions
at
Escalon H.S. Cougars (12-3)
Escalon, California
Northern California
C.I.F. Division 4-AA Champions
C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section
Division V Champions
Third Place Trans Valley League
Escalon defeated Chico's Pleasant Valley Vikings (9-5), the C.I.F.-Northern Section Division II Champions, 42-20 at home on Saturday night for the Northern California C.I.F. Division 4-AA Championship.
Escalon H.S. is located north of Modesto, about 330 miles from Camarillo. That makes it about a 5 hour and 15 minute drive for us.
Oh, the things we are willing to do on a State Championship weekend for friendship . . .
On Saturday morning, on the drive
home, we stopped at this iconic
malt shop in Bakersfield on the
corner of California Ave. and Eye St.
The George's Special that we are pointing to sounded interesting.
We entered with a group need
for something sweet
Jacob loved the soda fountain
counter as much as we did
Forgetting the George's Special entirely,
I opted for a FABULOUS chocolate malt
while Jacob ordered some
cotton candy ice cream
Jacob actually got some of the
cotton candy ice cream into his mouth
Expanding like the universe,
YIKES!!!
Dewar's has AWESOME fans!
Interesting but no,
we stuck to the soda fountain
Unless you count the pound of Dewar's famed peanut butter chews that we purchased for the ride home.
On Sunday we stopped in
Westlake Village for a purported
European Christmas Marketplace
Their were some Christmas oriented
booths selling their wares
Mostly these booths offered what one finds in the typical arts and crafts shows seen all over Southern California on weekends in various locations.
I think that the Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France that I visited in 2012 was a definite cut above this one.
Sunday was also the day that the 42 college football bowl game assignments finally became official.
I think that they got the Final Four
correct for the most part
Still, it bothers me that three of the Power 5 Conference Champions did not make the playoffs while two conference second place teams, TCU and Ohio State, did.
The PAC-12 Champion, #7 Utah Utes (10-3) are in the Rose Bowl against the Big-10's third best team, the #9 Penn State Nittany Lions (10-2).
The ACC Champion, #10 Clemson Tigers (11-2) will play in the aptly named Orange Bowl against the SEC's #6 ranked Tennessee Volunteers (10-2).
The BIG-12 Champion, #11 Kansas State Wildcats (10-3) will take on the #5 Alabama Crimson Tide (10-2) from the SEC in the Sugar Bowl. As we all know, Alabama absolutely deserves to be ranked #1 in the country every year no matter what their record may be.
As for our beloved Washington Huskies, we have been assigned to represent the PAC-12 in the 2022 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas.
#12 Washington Huskies (10-2)
vs.
#21 Texas Longhorns (8-4)
The Longhorns are the BIG-12's third place team while the Huskies are the PAC-12's number three club as well.
Now we need to decide whether we can afford to go to the game. The cost of plane tickets when you don't know the game site until just 25 days before the kickoff makes it tough financially.
We had a great time at the Alamo Bowl back in 2011 even though the Huskies lost to the Robert Griffin III led Baylor Bears, 67-56.
Defense wins championships!
Bowl games, not so much.
The full slate of FBS Bowl Games
Then there is this from Spain . . .
The Ávila Grizzlies were proud
to announce that two of their young
players were selected to be part of
the Spanish National Junior Team
Laurie and I were proud to see young Elías and Marcos wearing game jerseys and game pants that we had shipped to the Grizzlies as part of our program to help the game grow abroad.
GRACIAS again to Coach Marc Servé at Westlake H.S. for the donations. His no longer needed gear was a windfall profit for the Ávila Grizzlies program!
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