Foothill looks to stay unbeaten at Highland
Prior to the start of the season, all the area football coaches were asked to submit their predictions for use in an anonymous poll to be featured in the BVarsity 2021 High School Football Preview issue.
The results of those predictions seemed a bit pedestrian at the time.
By a slim margin, defending league champions Liberty, Shafter and Highland were picked to repeat, with defending South Yosemite League champion Ridgeview and 2019 state champion Bakersfield Christian earning the same votes in the SYL poll.
Kern County coaches also showed plenty of respect for Garces, Kennedy and South, and even gave a first-place vote for Frontier and North. All those selections seemed reasonable enough, especially considering how some of the teams fared during the abbreviated spring season.
Now, entering the ninth week of the season, a stretch featuring multiple cancellations and schedule changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and poor air quality, a few schools have defied those expectations.
Of the schools, Foothill has by far made the biggest leap. The Trojans are 6-0 for the first time since 1996, and perhaps most importantly, are 2-0 in Southeast Yosemite League play entering tonight’s game at the defending champion Scots (6-1, 1-0).
In the preseason poll, Foothill was picked to finish in a last-place tie with Mira Monte. But the Trojans have already posted league wins over South and North, and a victory against Highland would make them the frontrunner for the school’s first football league crown since 1981.
Not bad for a program that was 0-10 in 2018, and lost its first 11 games under current coach Brandon Deckard. The team was 5-7 in 2019 and has reached the six-win mark for a season for the first time since 2011. Foothill won just six games combined during 2013-18 (6-52).
Wasco (6-0, 3-0) has also turned some heads this season. Although being among the top teams in the South Sequoia League is nothing new to the Tigers, this year’s squad has obviously surpassed projections.
With a 26-13 victory over Kennedy two weeks ago, Wasco has the easiest path toward winning its first league title under fifth-year coach Chad Martinez. Martinez guided the Tigers to the Central Section Division-4 semifinals in 2018, but this year’s squad is receiving comparisons to the 2012 team that finished 13-0 and defeated BCHS in the D-4 title game.
Martinez’s squad travels to play Arvin on Thursday and then hosts Taft next week, setting up what could be a decisive showdown with the Generals (5-2, 4-0) in Week 11.
Shafter has a tougher road ahead. Following a bye this week, the Generals have to play at Kennedy (5-2, 1-1) next Friday, needing a victory to set up a winner-take-all meeting with Wasco.
Ridgeview, which opened its season 0-4 before posting its first win with a dramatic 15-14 victory over Golden Valley last week, finds itself 1-0 in league. Despite its rough start to the season, the Wolf Pack is the only team in the SYL besides Bakersfield Christian (4-3, 2-0) that is undefeated. Ridgeview will look to stay in contention to repeat as league champion when it plays tonight at West (5-1, 1-1), which suffered its first loss of the season last week to the Eagles.
Bakersfield High (2-3, 2-0) is also looking to continue its momentum when it plays at Garces (3-3, 0-1). The Drillers lost their opening three games to state-ranked opponents, but have rebounded with two solid performances in league play after missing three weeks of play due to health and safety protocols and bad air quality, and making a coaching change.
Here’s a look at the rest of this week’s scheduled games:
TODAY
Tehachapi at Bakersfield Christian, 7 p.m. Bishop at Kern Valley, 7 p.m.
Boron at California City, 7 p.m. Desert at Rosamond, 7 p.m.
Frazier Mountain at Laton, 7 p.m. Maricopa at Cambria-Coast Union, 7 p.m. Trona at Mojave, 7 p.m. Bakersfield at Garces, 7:30 p.m. Centennial at Stockdale, 7:30 p.m. Foothill at Highland, 7:30 p.m. North at East, 7:30 p.m. Ridgeview at West, 7:30 p.m. Chavez at Taft 7:30 p.m.
Kennedy at McFarland, 7:30 p.m. Porterville-Monache at Delano, 7:30 p.m. x-Frontier at Liberty, canceled x-South at Mira Monte, canceled x-health and safety protocols