Glory won’t come easy

GLENDALE — To say the St. Francis High football team’s arduous 2006 schedule took its toll on the Golden Knights would be an understatement.

To say the 2007 slate will be any less difficult would be a falsehood.

“I told some people last year that the schedule was as tough as any we’ve ever had,” St. Francis Coach Jim Bonds said. “This year doesn’t get any easier.”

After a 5-0 start to the season and an ascension to the No. 1 spot in the CIF Southern Section Western Division, the Golden Knights struggled. The schedule and injuries, which likely had to do just as much with the schedule, led to St. Francis’ high hopes falling short, as it lost five of its final six games.

The beginning of the downswing came with a controversial 29-28 overtime loss to Bishop Amat. Due to mass division and league restructuring last season, both the Serra and Mission leagues have only four teams each. Therefore, each team in the league plays two games a year against squads from the other league. Last season, the Mission League went winless against the Serra League.

This season, the only changes to St. Francis’ schedule are with its Serra League competition — coming in the form of traditional powerhouses Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Loyola.

“Loyola’s gonna be hungry — they’re gonna want to make a statement,” said Bonds of the Cubs, who went an uncharacteristic 4-6 last year and will play St. Francis on Thursday, Oct. 18, six days after St. Francis travels to face old foe Notre Dame. “Everybody knows about Notre Dame.”

Notre Dame, which went 11-1 last year, is rated as one of the state’s best teams.

St. Francis opens against three Pacific League teams, visiting Arcadia on Sept. 7 in the opener before playing Crescenta Valley in the annual “Battle of Foothill Blvd.” and finally playing at Pacific League champion Burroughs. With Burroughs and then home games against Los Altos and Saugus before Notre Dame, the Golden Knights have a four-week span against teams that all went to the postseason. In all, seven of St. Francis’ 2007 opponents made the 2006 postseason and the two that didn’t are Alemany, a vastly improved team, and Loyola.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Serra-Mission League exchange is that it comes right before league play.

“The toughest things about playing those games is playing them right before your three most important games,” Bonds said. “The years that we’ve done OK is when we’ve stayed healthy.”

Healthy or not, the league schedule isn’t any easier for St. Francis, which travels to face Alemany and defending champion Chaminade, before a home finale against St. Paul.