I must be feeling confident about who's the best football team in the county when I'm writing about ... my No. 10.

In my voting this for the county rankings, I welcome back the La Habra Highlanders and San Diego State-commit Ronnie Hillman (left) to my top-10, replacing Esperanza. The Aztecs have been hanging on for weeks and going overtime against Marina- even though the Vikings are vastly improved - creates enough doubt.

Esperanza, of course, will have a chance starting this week against Newport to change my mind, so I'm not forgetting about the Aztecs and that defense.

I like the Highlanders for handing South Hills' its only loss to date and playing LosAl and San Clemente tough. Sure, I considered Dana but the Dolphins need at this point a higher quality victory than Foothill, another improving team.

Laguna Hills is out there, too, and I believe I'll be seeing the Hawks live this week, so we'll see.

Here's my top-10 vote this week:

1. Tesoro
2. Los Alamitos
3. Orange Lutheran
4. Mater Dei
5. Edison
6. San Clemente
7. Mission Viejo
8. Servite
9. Newport Harbor
10. La Habra

RELATED:

• Top 10 gets new No. 1 and a new entry

1. Faith Baptist

2. Windward

3. Santa Clarita Christian

4. Avalon

5. Thacher

6. Sierra Canyon

7. Hesperia Christian

8. Calvary Chapel/MV

9. Montclair Prep

10. Excelsior Education Center

Division II

1. Big Pine

2. Desert Chapel

3. Trona

4. Rolling Hills Prep

5. North County Christian

6. Hope Centre Academy

7. Lighthouse Christian

8. Southlands Christian

9. Cuyama Valley

10. Desert Christian/BD

Thanks to the efforts of parents and coaches around the county these girls are getting the publicity they deserve.

Valencia has been consistently good all season long and that has kept this team in the top 10 rankings.

Here are 10 things I know about girls tennis around the county:

1. Its fun when an unranked team gets an upset win over ranked team. There has been a lot of this happening lately. For example: Woodbridge beat Laguna Hills, Northwood beat Santa Margarita, Mater Dei beat Sage Hill and El Dorado beat Esperanza.

2. There is a complicated formula to get into the top 10 of the girls tennis standings. A lot of variables come into play. Here are a few of them: strength of schedule, overall record and how many ranked or quality teams have you beaten? Want a quick way to get into the top 10, beat a ranked team.

3. It seems that there are three tiers in tennis: tier 1 (Dana Hills and Corona del Mar), tier 2 (University, Valencia and Troy – when healthy and fully loaded) and tier 3 (everyone else).

4. Here two ranked teams on the rise in tier 3: Northwood (might be one of the better teams in this tier – at least more consistent and not scared to play quality teams) and El Dorado (some people thought they were really down this year, but a quality win over Esperanza proved otherwise).

5. Now the flip side – here is a ranked team on the decline in their 3: Mater Dei (already lost twice this week to Northwood and Los Alamitos – although there was some shady business with this one sending its Junior Varsity team).

6. There are quite a few quality teams outside of the top 10 that are ready to break in, all they need is a big win: Laguna Beach (6-1 overall, could do so with a win over University next week), Newport Harbor (6-3 overall, had a big win against Troy this week) and Los Alamitos (might be better than most people had anticipated).

7. There are also some teams that win and lose some big games, all they need to do is be a little more consistent: Santa Margarita (lost to Troy and beat Laguna Hills as well as Los Alamitos), Esperanza (lost to El Dorado and has beaten everyone else), Sage Hill (lost to Mater Dei and beat Woodbridge, 11-7, Newport Harbor, 12-6, and Los Alamitos, 11-7), and Laguna Hills (lost to Santa Margarita and beat Mission Viejo, 11-4, and Tesoro, 10-8).

8. Capistrano Valley has an interesting team. The Cougars might be the kings of tier 4, if there was one. Despite losing to all of them, I like that they are not scared of going up against some of the better teams in the county (Laguna Beach, Newport Harbor, St. Margaret’s and Dana Hills). In fact Capo might have one of the toughest schedules in the county. A tough nonleague schedule should prepare the Cougars for a league and another return to CIF playoffs.

9. If you make the effort, then I will make the effort. Here are few scores that have been reported: Corona del Mar defeated Laguna Hills, 12-6, Laguna Beach beat Calvary Chapel, 14-4, Northwood beat Trabuco Hills, 18-0, Esperanza beat Marina, 14-4, Sage Hills beat Calvary Chapel, 16-2, and Valencia beat Pacifica, 16-2. Don’t mean to be picky, but it would be nice to get overall records as well, only one that reported theirs was the Lightning (7-1).

10. The best game of the young season is finally upon us and I will be there to cover it. No. 2 Corona del Mar will be on the road against No. 3 University on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Here is how I see it playing out: The Sea Kings will win the doubles match-up and the Trojans will be victorious on the singles end. The key will be the games scores within the match and someone will have to find a way to get an upset victory, maybe a No. 3 over a No. 2 in singles.

Not long after Veterans Stadium in Long Beach had been emptied of spectators on that Sept. 3 evening, the Internet was buzzing about Barkley’s performance.

Some went so far as to say that the 2007 Gatorade national player of the year and future USC quarterback was all hype.

Not so fast.

Click here if you want to read the entire story.

El Dorado   6   (F)
Tesoro      27

Corona del Mar  27  (F)
Magnolia             6

Laguna Hills   45  (F)
Woodbridge     9

Anaheim   24   (F)
Loara        21

Orange   0   (F)
Marina   41

Santa Ana Valley  21  (F)
Santiago               27

Rancho Alamitos   34  (F)
Sonora                   9

Trabuco Hills   28  (F)
Gahr                 21

Fountain Valley   17  (F)
Palos Verdes       3

JSerra      37   (F)
Pacifica   35

The Barons (4-1) scored first on a 5-yard pass from Dominic Ragland to Artie O’Keefe to take a 7-0 lead at 2:58 in the first quarter.

The Sea Hawks (0-4) connected on a 35-yard field goal to close the deficit to 7-3. Fountain Valley responded with a 22-yard field goal to push its lead to 10-3 at intermission.

Kyle Middlebrooks broke a 41-yard touchdown run early in the fourth, and the Barons led, 17-3, with 11:41 left in the contest.

Though Fountain Valley dominated throughout, Coach John Shipp said his team needs to clean up its play.

The Barons committed 9 penalties for 90 yards.

“We need to work on that,” Shipp said. “It was nice to get the win but the penalties set us back.”

El Modena 11, San Clemente 4

I definitely want to talk to Tritons coach Marc Parker about this one but this is a huge victory for El Modena and first-year El Mo coach Jeff Gorman.

El Modena played a very good match against the ninth-ranked team in Division II. The Vanguards had 14 steals and only four turnovers. Erich Schwamb had five goals and six steals. Thomas Patterson had four goals and nine steals. Goalie Curtis Matthews added 14 saves.

Said Gorman in an e-mail, "I'm really proud of the boys they deserve this win.  They have been working very hard and its showing."

Decillo carried 28 times, continually pounding the ball up the middle.

Mayer, who was playing for the first time since breaking his wrist in the Mustangs’ first game, engineered two  second-half scoring drives.

“It’s good to get one under our belts,” said Mayer, who played with a cast on his left wrist and completed 11 passes as Trabuco Hills (1-3) defeated the Gladiators (2-3) for the third year in a row “It’s been a long couple of weeks for me.”

With the score tied, 14-14, late in the third quarter, Mayer tossed a 33-yard TD pass to Justen Lasch giving the Mustangs a 21-14 lead.

Donnie Simonsen scored on 6-yard run in the fourth.

Bryan Camino put Rancho Alamitos (2-2) up 13-0 early in the second quarter after hauling in a 5-yard pass from Mike Frank and returning an interception 35 yards for two of his three touchdowns.

In the second half, running back Jason Willis, who had 181 all-purpose yards, stole the show for the Vaqueros with a 26-yard touchdown reception and a 48-yard run for another score.

Sonora (2-2) had a hard time holding onto the football, fumbling it on five occasions and losing it three times. 

Running back Arnold Luevano led the Raiders with 59 yards rushing, including a 12-yard TD run.