Here are Steve Fryer’s teams 16-20:
16. Santa Margarita (2-4): The Eagles were steamrollered by St. John Bosco of Bellflower, 47-21. Some people are saying Bosco is the team to beat in the Trinity League.
17. Fullerton (5-1): After seeing that the Indians had a 50-7 victory over Buena Park, yes, it can be expected that the Nov.7 game between Fullerton and La Habra will determine the Freeway League champion.
18. Fountain Valley (4-2): Kyle Middlebrooks is one of the county’s top running backs, and he is only a junior. But if the Barons are going to beat Edison, Los Alamitos or Newport Harbor, they are going to have to do a lot better than the 1-yard net passing they had in the 17-14 loss to Esperanza.
19. Western (4-2): The Pioneers will go 5-0 in the Orange League. Their 48-14 league victory over Magnolia underlines their dominance. It would be great to see them in the Empire League.
20. Valencia (5-1): Valencia can win the low-scoring games, and can win the high-scoring ones, too, like Saturday’s 36-22 victory over Pacifica. That’s a sign of a good team.
Sorry Steve but you and your crew never cease to amaze. Fullerton calls off the dogs with 3 minutes left in the second quarter and you penalize them. How do you justify leapfrogging someone over them this week. I’ll tell you how! You just can’t find the guts to take a chance on anyone but your beloved cheating Catholics or Pac 5 boys. Why in the world would you ever lower yourself to ever give any credit to schools like Fullerton or LaHabra when your so busy kissing the behinds of 2-4 teams. Pretty guttless bud. Why not step up and make a statement for the boys that do everything thats asked of them week after week.
Not to mention, the Indians are still #1 in the Southwest and Foothill and Tustin are ahead of them in the county polls but behind them in the southwest? How exactly does that work. I suppose an 86-0 win would have kept them in their spot, instead they “tried” to keep it respectful by having the JV team play the 2nd half. It’d just be nice for a little consistency in your pics…
i can just see the polls next week, and the week after that…… and at the end of the regular season poll—#16 santa margarita (3-7) and #17 fountain valley (5-5). well, if you want what the polls are suppose to be based on (what have you done for us lately) than be consistent and fair. by the way, garden grove can beat your 25 pick. believe that!
The team that leapfrogged and moved up a lot was Tustin, which is not a Catholic school team.
Which teams ranked above Fullerton should not be ranked above Fullerton?
Fullerton has not beaten a team ranked above Fullerton.
A lot of county Pac-5 teams like Esperanza, Mission Viejo and San Clemente would rather play a county team like Fullerton than have to travel out of Orange County to find nonleague opponents.
I have written excellent things about Fullerton and La Habra, in game stories, rankings, etc. I like both of those teams.
I vote in the Southwest Division poll. I had La Habra at No. 1 and Fullerton at No. 2.
Which teams ranked above Fullerton should not be ranked above Fullerton? yea,but…… the indians lost bad to canyon (3-3 #21) 42-21 AT HOME! even though laguna hills (6-0 #12), did smack’em a bit 26-7, defeats to western (4-2 #19) and foothill (5-1 #14) were close. you have dana hills (3-3 #13) higher than foothill and western higher than valencia (5-1 #20) due to wins in head to head games. tough i know. please do us a favor and get fountain valley out from at least the top 20 and santa margarita off your poll completely. sorry, but they are not as good as years past.
When is running up the score OK? I would really like to know when it is (if ever) appropriate.
Tustin beats up Brea Olinda and all of a sudden they are bumped up in the polls. Is it that important to crush a team for status? Will La Habra move up in the next couple of weeks? You can bet they will be running up the score. They have no shame in humiliating their opponents for that “big win”! Including the fans, parents and ANNOUNCERS.
Teams like Buena Park, that have players that play both ways for JV and Varsity, who play with their hearts and very tired/sore bodies, deserve many kudos for their efforts!
Best quote from a HS football coach, “Who knew that 91 was a multiple of 7.”
Great point Need 2 Know, I appluade you for that. And I think Fullerton is a very good team but if not for Mr. Allain, Fullerton would probably be 1-5. La Habra has no problem trying to score 100 points a game. And they do that knowing that Fryer and Co. are all over them…
Thanks to all for your thoughtful responses. Especially you, Steve
(after that pretty tough evaluation). With all due respect , we did beat El Dorado when they were rated above us (and exposed their weaknesses for other teams) and snapped a rather long winning streak. We did the same to Western who was rated ahead of us going into that game. Why would Tustin jump ahead of us for showing no mercy on a team we too, could have run up the score on, if we hadn’t backed off.
As far as Mr. Allain goes, what good team out there doesn’t rely on great players? Our offensive line has done a wonderful job and our defense has been very tough on running backs and quarterbacks. Nobody here believes we can beat up the big boys, but they will never give us a shot if you don’t , Mr Fryer.
Come on, 2-4 SM, 3-3 Tustin or Dana Hills.We can only beat who they put in front of us and had you seen the tapes or listened to an unbiased Max Preps announcer we really took a unjust beating from the (one) officials in the Canyon game and really should have won.
As far as the southwest division goes, I’ll even go so far to say that I think La Habra should be the the #1 team right now based on who they played in the pre-season. Everybody knows about Los Al and San Clemente, but they also beat South Hills, the #1 team in the Southeast.
There are some very good teams in our division, I look forward to CIF where we can show people once and for all that the Indians are a very good team. People can say all they like about Michael Allain and being a one-trick pony team. But NOBODY has stopped him yet, so why not ride him? Football people know that defense wins championships, and Allain doesn’t play defense…The Indians defense is a very quick, very physical bunch, just ask any of the limping, hobbling opposing offensive lineman and running backs that leave the field each night heading for the ice bags.
For those that think that Canyon game is indicative of this Fullerton team? No way. Fullerton faithful is right. Believe me, our boys would love to play Canyon right now and settle it! Much the same way as I believe Valencia is not the same team that lost to Western. Sit back and enjoy the ride folks, it’s gonna get interesting…
Go Tribe!
Mike Marrujo is the best coach in the county and has been for a long time. Valencia will be in CIF for the 20th consecutive year and beware to whoever has to face them the first round of CIF.
GO TIGERS!!!!
Fountain Valley deserves to be in the top 10.
They are probably the hardest working team in this nation. They just have bad luck when it comes to injuries. They just beat Newport Harbor… if you say they shouldn’t be in the top 10… your on crack.
–Matt Barkley–