Hart’s Year Ends in Sea of Mistakes

Please, do not accuse the Hart High Indians of being sore losers.

Hart players and coaches have had nothing but congratulatory words for Crescenta Valley in the days after the Falcons’ emotional 13-7 upset of the Indians in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division II playoffs last week, a game in which Hart committed six turnovers.

Though Hart has praised Crescenta Valley for playing well, the Indians point at their turnovers as cause for defeat.

“There is no way you can win a football game when you give the ball up that many times,” Coach Mike Herrington said. “We had a lot of yards and we were driving for scores. We just couldn’t keep our hands on the ball.”

The turnovers were uncharacteristic of Hart, which this season had only 10 while its first-team offense was on the field. Five of the turnovers against Crescenta Valley were committed by quarterback Davis Delmatoff.

Delmatoff, who passed for 3,139 yards and 36 touchdowns, threw three interceptions and fumbled twice. He began the game with eight interceptions and one fumble.

“I’ve looked at the film two or three times now, and I can’t see anything that they did that threw me off,” Delmatoff said. “It was just one of those games where everything that could go wrong did.”

Delmatoff acknowledges he was nervous at the game’s outset because a BYU scout attended to observe him.

“I was thinking about (the scout) before the game, but I put it out of my mind after I got off my first pass,” he said. “I can’t blame the turnovers on that because I didn’t think about it after the first play.”

Versatile senior tailback Deriek Charles committed Hart’s first turnover when he lost a fumble on the opening series of the game. He had lost one fumble all season.

“We just self-destructed,” said Charles, who finished with 1,133 yards rushing, 757 receiving and 24 touchdowns.

No one had been able to so much as slow the Indians before the quarterfinals. Hart, which finished 11-1, entered the game with area-leading averages of 38.6 points and 415 yards.

Said Herrington: “We had one letdown the whole year, it just happened to be Friday night. We played well in our big games throughout the year, and the kids have a lot to be proud about.”

WHO’S NEXT?

Hart has developed a reputation as a quarterback factory--with good reason.

Through the seasons the program has developed many standout passers. Delmatoff, a senior, is the latest in a line that, among others, includes the record-setting Jim Bonds and Ryan Connors.

However, Herrington says the assembly line faces a slowdown.

“We have a lot of question marks heading into next season, and quarterback is definitely one of them,” Herrington said. “I can’t say we have a kid waiting in the wings who would be in the same classification of the last five or six guys we’ve had at the position.”

Said Hart offensive coordinator Dean Herrington: “We’re not sure who the guy is going to be, but we think we have some kids who can get the job done. We didn’t know that Ryan was going to be as good as he was coming up.”

CALLED FOR LOW-STICKING

It was just like the old joke: Chatsworth linebacker Robert Webb went to a football game last Wednesday and a hockey match broke out. First, Webb momentarily was ejected from the Chancellors’ 31-6 playoff victory over top-seeded Bell for fighting.

“I guess they were trying to make an example out of me,” Webb said.

Maybe not. After Chatsworth’s coaching staff argued that Webb was just defending himself, officials relented.

They agreed to let Webb return after five minutes had elapsed--meaning he served time in a football penalty box of sorts.

The game definitely had its hockey elements. It was called by officials with six minutes remaining after a Bell player kicked Webb in the groin.

FLAG MAN AHEAD

The final moments of the first half didn’t sit well with Chatsworth kicker Doug Sidwell.

With two seconds remaining in the half, Sidwell lined up for a field-goal attempt of 42 yards. The kick was good but Bell was flagged for jumping offside.

Since it was a dead-ball infraction, Chatsworth could not decline the penalty. So the ball was moved forward five yards and Sidwell connected from 37 yards. Once again, however, Bell had jumped offside.

Sidwell then sent one through the uprights from 32 yards, but Chatsworth was flagged for illegal procedure. Finally, Sidwell connected from 37 yards as time expired to hand Chatsworth a commanding 31-0 lead.

“It was too bad,” Chatsworth Coach Myron Gibford said. “The kid made a real nice kick (from 42 yards) and didn’t get credit for it.”

NO REPLAY

Van Nuys didn’t spend any time reliving its shocking, last-second 36-30 playoff upset of Locke last week. Not because the players didn’t want to, but because they couldn’t.

It seems the Van Nuys video camera stopped working after 10 plays.

“We couldn’t watch it if we wanted to,” said running back Bill Calhoun, who scored the winning touchdown with no time remaining.

JEERING SECTION

As though losing wasn’t bad enough.

Simi Valley not only bungled away its Southern Section Division III playoff game at Hawthorne on Friday, the Pioneers were harangued in the process.

Simi Valley held a 14-0 lead in the fourth quarter when Ronnie Morrissette, a tight end-safety, was moved to quarterback. Morrissette, who started at quarterback last season, threw three touchdown passes in the final 5:50 to lead the Cougars to a shocking 18-14 victory.

The final Hawthorne touchdown came five plays after Simi Valley fumbled with two minutes remaining. But that might not have been the worst of it.

Simi Valley’s players were serenaded throughout with jeers of “Rodney King, Rodney King,” from the Hawthorne fans.

FAN CLUB

Support came from various sources in area playoff games last week, from buddies in the old-boy coaching network to relatives to prominent alums.

Sighted Friday at Glendale High was former Crescenta Valley shooting guard Brad Holland, who played for UCLA and the Lakers and is now the men’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. He stopped by to see the Falcons upset Hart. Holland quarterbacked the 1973 Crescenta Valley team that won the Southern Section championship.

On hand Wednesday to watch Taft defeat Fremont, 26-14, was former Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle. Taft Coach Troy Starr coached under Vollnogle in 1987, the year Granada Hills upset the Colts in the City Section 4-A Division final.

Taft tailback Jerry Brown’s big brother, Leonice, was home for Thanksgiving and watched as his brother rushed for a personal-high 209 yards in a 26-14 win over Fremont. Leonice, a former standout at Crespi and San Fernando, rushed for a team-high 1,051 yards this season at Colorado State.

RECORD PACE

Sylmar junior tailback Tyrone Crenshaw has heard all about the feats of his predecessors, former Spartan tailback stars Jerome Casey and Tobaise Brookins. But where some athletes might buckle under the pressure of living up to past standards, Crenshaw has excelled.

“His biggest motivation is that he lives in the shadow of Jerome Casey and Toby Brookins,” Coach Jeff Engilman said.

Casey (1987-89) and Brookins (1989-91) set most of the rushing records at Sylmar.

But Crenshaw is hot on their trail. This season he has rushed for 1,523 yards and 19 touchdowns in 174 carries. He needs 152 yards to break Brookins’ record of 1,674 yards set in 1990.

QUARTERBACK SNEAK

Defenders probably think he must be Van Nuys’ backup quarterback.

Why else would the guy be wearing No. 94 while commanding the offense?

Make no mistake, John Peterson is no backup. He is the only Valley Pac-8 Conference quarterback to pass for more than 1,000 yards this season. He has completed 64 of 124 for 1,194 yards and 10 touchdowns.

He is however, a convert to quarterback. Last season, Peterson was a starting defensive tackle and part-time fullback. This season, he went to quarterback, and Bill Calhoun, a two-year starter at quarterback, moved to tailback.

The switch seems to have slipped by unnoticed. In the homecoming program, Peterson is listed as a fullback-linebacker and Calhoun a quarterback-free safety.

MIGHTY MITE

Montclair Prep assistant John Hazelton wondered what was wrong with his offensive linemen. They kept getting beaten in practice by some little guy on the scout team.

“I found myself yelling at the O-line guys, ‘What the hell is going on? This guy keeps penetrating!’ ” Hazelton said.

So, Hazelton did the logical thing and put sophomore Daniel Montez in the starting lineup to see what he could do in a game. Montez, who is 5-foot-5, has six sacks in the past two games. “We call him the coffee table,” Hazelton said. “He’s been fantastic.”

LANCER PROPHET

Thousand Oaks cross-country Coach Jack Farrell predicted it and Hart proved it Saturday in the state championships in Fresno.

Although the Lancers hammered Hart, 53-104, for the Southern Section Division I title at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 21, Farrell remained wary of the Indians because the flat course at Woodward Park in Fresno seemed to favor Hart. Because Hart was loaded with accomplished track runners, Farrell said, they would be much harder to defeat at Woodward Park than at Mt. SAC, which has three major hills.

The Indians gave credence to Farrell’s theory Saturday by defeating Thousand Oaks, 53-80, for their third consecutive state Division I title.

“We were just really confident coming in here,” Hart sophomore Brett Strahan said after finishing seventh. “Our team is made up of a lot of good track runners and this course definitely favors track runners.”

Hart’s superior track speed was evident in the final mile of the 5,000- meter race as the Indians made a collective move up in the pack while Thousand Oaks struggled.

“We looked so good at the two-mile mark,” Farrell said.

PAYING DIVIDENDS

Charles Mansfield’s decision to drop basketball to concentrate on running paid off Saturday when he finished ninth in the state Division II championships to lead Canyon to a fourth-place finish.

Mansfield, a senior, has a personal best of 1 minute 56.6 seconds in the 800 meters, but he had not competed in cross-country until this season. He began running with the team only to get in shape for basketball.

“I didn’t even expect to run in the races this year,” Mansfield said. “I just wanted to come out every day, run with the team and get ready for hoops.”

Curiosity got the best of Mansfield, however, and he began racing. Although his first few races were “not too great,” he stuck with it, eventually winning the Foothill League junior varsity title with a time that would have put him second on the Cowboy varsity.

In the Southern Section championships, Mansfield was the Cowboys’ No. 2 runner (finishing 13th) behind teammate Jon Bischop, but he passed Bischop with 1,200 meters left in the state meet and finished in 15:46.

“My goal before the race was to break 16 and to run with Jon as long as possible,” Mansfield said. “I never expected to beat him.”

Staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.