LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Three seasons have passed since the St. Francis High football team last celebrated a postseason victory.
In 2005, the Golden Knights concluded their second consecutive run to the CIF Southern Section semifinals, but the program has gone 0-2 in postseason games since, including an absence from the playoffs in 2007.
Looking back, Coach Jim Bonds quickly admits that kind of success is something you get used to and something his Golden Knights program longs to return to.
“You expect that,” he says. “You long for those days, we want to get back to them and I think we have a great group.”
A great group determined to set itself apart from past years in which the Golden Knights fell short of their annual goals of winning a Mission League title and making a deep run into the postseason.
“We constantly talk about our goals,” says senior linebacker Chris Cabrera, who led the Golden Knights with 93 tackles and returns this season to lead a team that’s short on experience, but tall on potential according to most around the team.
Nevertheless, the largest reason the Golden Knights believe this campaign will be a more successful one than the last three is rather simple.
“I think this year we have a lot more chemistry,” proclaims senior quarterback Justin Posthuma. “The whole team is together as one, I just think we feed off each other.”
Adds Dietrich Riley, the two-time reigning All-Area Player of the Year: “I think it’s gonna be a team that’s gonna shock some people. ...This is gonna be a great team, I’m definitely geeked up for the season.”
It’s a season that starts much like all past seasons for St. Francis, with a trio of games against Pacific League squads Arcadia, Crescenta Valley and Burroughs. In fact, it’s the exact same schedule as last year’s.
The Golden Knights began 2008 smashingly, going 5-0, but went awry with a 1-5 finish, likely the biggest stunner coming with a Week 10 loss to a Chaminade squad that had won just one game prior.
For that to change, as usual, St. Francis must avoid the injury bug when it plays the likes of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Loyola heading into the always stringent Mission League.
But more than anything, the Golden Knights believe what needs to change has already occurred.
