Football preview: Reseda, San Fernando league showdown headlines Week 5 games
You’ll have to excuse San Fernando football coach Robert Garcia if he doesn’t want to sweat the macro at the expense of neglecting the micro.
But it doesn’t take a statistics expert to see that if San Fernando beats Reseda on Friday, the Valley Mission League may be decided before September is over. The two teams meet in a game that will go a long way in determining the league championship. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Reseda High.
“We’re taking it just like any other game,” Garcia said. “Our guys look at it like it’s the next game and we’ve just got to go win it.”
San Fernando enters league play 4-0. On paper, Reseda (3-2, 1-0) looks like the only league team that can keep the Tigers from a fourth consecutive league championship. But doing so will be tough without playmaker Dranel Rhodes, who was ejected in last week’s win over Canoga Park for targeting.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Although San Fernando has had a stranglehold on the league in recent years, the Tigers appeared vulnerable entering this season due to heavy graduation losses.
Instead of slipping, San Fernando has strung together four nonleague wins thanks to the emergence of a new cast of skill players who are putting up big numbers. San Fernando has a trio of talented running backs in Bradley Pierce, Felix Rodriguez and Andrew Hernandez.
“We were hearing since January that we lost our top guys and weren’t going to be good this year,” Garcia said. “But one thing people didn’t know is that these guys were role players last year and just didn’t get a chance to showcase their skills. This year, they’ve stepped up big time.”
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Despite his team being a big favorite in every game the rest of the way, Garcia knows San Fernando will get the opponent’s best shot and there’s no time for getting complacent.
“Every time anybody plays San Fernando, they give it their all,” Garcia said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a weak team or the best team we’ve played. I’m impressed by Reseda. I’m impressed by their play. They’re an exciting team.”
In other Friday games:
Servite (3-1) at Notre Dame (4-0), 7 p.m.
The combined record of Notre Dame’s opponents is 8-10, so you can understand why many in the area are wondering just how good the Knights truly are. Everybody will find out Friday because there’s nothing like a test against a Trinity League opponent.
Notre Dame has been led by the arm of sophomore Zachary Siskowic, who has thrown for 644 yards and five touchdowns this season. His top target is Sean Guyton, who has 10 receptions for 282 yards and four touchdowns.
The Knights were strong on defense in 2018 and that’s carried into this season. The team has allowed just 14 points per game and has a serious force in linebacker Jacob Moore, who leads the team with 30 tackles.
Servite’s only loss this season came against national power Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas. The Friars are scoring over 40 points per game and will certainly test the Notre Dame defense in a big way.
Valencia (2-2) at Calabasas (3-2), 7 p.m.
There’s no easy part of Calabasas’ schedule, but we’re starting to wonder about the Coyotes as they’ve been in some difficult games already. Last week, Calabasas was on the road against a real Orange County heavyweight and lost 31-20 to JSerra. Before that, it was La Habra and previous to that, Serra of Gardena.
Valencia certainly won’t be feeling sympathetic. The Vikings were favored to beat Loyola last week and took a physical beating in a 29-14 loss. The week before, Valencia lost to Sierra Canyon.
Both of these teams could use a win before their league schedules begin next month. As of now, it looks like this will be a battle of teams earmarked for Division 2 when the CIF Southern Section playoffs begin later this fall.