Bakersfield, Bishop Amat to Square Off

With no state playoff system for football, Saturday night’s showdown between La Puente Bishop Amat and Bakersfield might be the closest thing to a championship game this season.

Each team is 3-0 and considered among the best in California. Bishop Amat is No. 1 in Cal-Hi magazine’s weekly statewide ratings and Bakersfield No. 3.

Since the schools compete in different sections--Bishop Amat is in the Southern Section and Bakersfield the Central Section--the game offers a rare meeting of traditional powers.

“I didn’t set our schedule, but I don’t mind traveling to Bakersfield,” said Tom Salter, Bishop Amat’s rookie coach. “I watched them Saturday night and they’re very good. It’s a long trip, but we’ll be up for it.”

In anticipation of a large crowd, the game was moved from the high school to Bakersfield College, which holds 20,000. Kickoff is at 7:30.

Fans will get a rare glimpse at the two most recruited running backs on the West Coast, Daylon McCutcheon of Bishop Amat and Steve Wofford of Bakersfield.

McCutcheon, 5 feet 10 and 175 pounds, is a converted wide receiver who has rushed for 504 yards and scored 11 touchdowns in three games. He is averaging 11 yards per carry. Wofford, 5-11 and 175, has gained 512 yards this season, increasing his career total to 4,838.

Neither team has been challenged. Bishop Amat has outscored its opponents, 108-27, and Bakersfield has won by an average margin of 26 points.

This is the second intersectional game in a row for Bakersfield, which is coming off a 35-13 victory over Antelope Valley on Saturday night.

“I watched the game, and Bakersfield was more dominating than the score indicated,” Salter said. “We’re going to have to do a lot of things right to beat them.”

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Rialto Eisenhower, which finished as the state’s top-rated football team last year with a 14-0 record, is struggling.

The Eagles were routed, 42-14, by Moreno Valley Canyon Springs on Friday in a nonleague game at Eisenhower. It was the team’s most lopsided loss since Coach Tom Hoak took over 12 years ago.

“Our kids were really pumped up after the game,” said Jack Fogarty, who has coached at Canyon Springs since the school opened nine years ago. “Everything just bounced our way and we executed very well. This is just another step up for our program.”

Canyon Springs (2-1) is a Southern Section Division IV team but was rated No. 12 in Cal-Hi’s preseason state poll because it had 15 starters returning. Eisenhower (1-2) is the section’s defending Division I champion and won last year’s game, 41-19.

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City Section football teams begin conference play Friday and it couldn’t happen at a better time. Many teams filled their nonleague schedules with teams from other sections and the results were mostly disastrous.

In 29 intersectional games, City teams were 5-24. They were outscored, 696-248.

Carson, the defending Division 4-A champion, fared the worst. The Colts scored only 29 points in losses to Bishop Amat, San Diego Morse and Los Alamitos.

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A girls’ cross-country meet between Calabasas and Woodland Hills Louisville was called off Friday when the runners became frightened by a rattlesnake on the trail.

The dual meet at Malibu Creek State Park got started with no problems, but shortly after all 13 runners had crossed the mile mark they turned back screaming. Louisville’s Shaluinn Fullove was leading the race when she noticed a rattlesnake spread across the trail.

“All of the girls just followed Shaluinn’s lead,” said Marie Murphy, Louisville’s coach. “It was funny to watch all the girls come running back in a panic. Shaluinn kept asking me if she did the right thing, and, of course, she did what most other people would do.”

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The basketball season is still two months away, but already many of the Southland’s top players are committing to colleges.

Doug Gottlieb, a 6-foot point guard from Tustin, said last week that he would sign with Notre Dame. North Hollywood’s Arthur Lee, a 6-0 guard, plans to attend Stanford.

UCLA has received unwritten commitments from 6-10 center Jelani McCoy of San Diego St. Augustine and 6-1 guard Brandon Loyd of Tulsa Memorial in Oklahoma.

Players can sign national letters of intent during the early signing period, Nov. 9-16.

Prep Notes

Streaks: Norco’s 30-game winning streak ended with a 17-14 loss at Colton. Norco is the two-time defending Southern Section Division IV champion. Newbury Park, the defending Southern Section Div. II champion, saw its 16-game winning streak ended by Ventura Buena, 28-0. Meanwhile, Glendale Hoover and Garden Grove Santiago each ended slumps. Hoover, which had not won in 18 games, defeated Van Nuys Grant, 16-0, and Santiago righted itself after 17 defeats with a 17-3 victory over Buena Park. Huntington Beach Ocean View extended the state’s longest losing streak to 32 games with a 39-13 loss to Santa Ana Century.

Fans allowed: When parochial school rivals Cathedral and Salesian played last football season, no fans were permitted. Escalating violence between the schools also prompted administrators to hold the game at a neutral site. Relations apparently are improving; Saturday afternoon’s game at Roosevelt High will be open to the public.

Times’ Top 20 Football Poll

The Times’ top 20 high school football poll, with teams from the City and Southern Sections.

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Bishop Amat SS I 3-0 1 2. Los Alamitos SS I 3-0 2 3. Mater Dei SS I 3-0 3 4. Loyola SS I 3-0 5 5. Hart SS II 3-0 7 6. LB Poly SS I 3-0 9 7. Esperanza SS I 2-1 10 8. St. Paul SS I 3-0 15 9. Sylmar City 4-A 3-0 11 10. Westlake SS III 2-1 4 11. Muir SS II 2-1 16 12. Canyon Springs SS IV 2-1 12 13. Antelope Valley SS II 2-1 8 14. Edison SS I 3-0 NR 15. Paramount SS II 3-0 18 16. Colton SS IV 3-0 NR 17. Dominguez SS II 2-0 NR 18. Anaheim SS V 3-0 NR 19. Irvine SS V 2-1 6 20. Fontana SS I 1-2 17