Spread Offense

Satiated, briefly, by its season-opening victory over Fountain Valley High, the Newport Harbor football team will now hope to devour what Coach Jeff Brinkley called the flavor of the month. Brinkley was referring to the spread offense that, thanks to Coach Urban Meyer's breakout success with the University of Utah, has become wildly popular with both college and high school programs nationwide. Marina (0-2), which visits for a nonleague clash Friday at 7 p.m., will employ the no-huddle spread that typically features four receivers, a single back and the quarterback lined up in the shotgun.

The Jay Johnson era for Costa Mesa High football begins Friday at 7 p.m. when the Mustangs open the season with a visit to Brea Olinda. Johnson, 26-45 in seven seasons as a head coach, most recently at Fairmont Prep, makes his debut at the helm of the Mustangs, who are coming off a 2-8 season. Johnson has installed a no-huddle spread offense and will deploy the scheme with five returning starters. Included among the returners are senior quarterback Ryan French and senior tailback Tyler Legg.

GLENDALE — Last season, L.A. Pierce College represented one of the Glendale Community College football team’s weaker opponents. The Vaqueros hammered that point home with a 28-3 drubbing of the Brahmas, who ended the season with only one victory. Times have certainly changed with Pierce already notching two wins this season, as this year’s match-up figures to be a more competitive meeting. That showdown comes when the Vaqueros travel to face the Brahmas in a Western State Conference game at 7 p.m. today.

ARCADIA — One week, it faces a physical running team that's too powerful. Another week, it plays a team with a spread offense and an aerial attack that's difficult to contain. This week, it met a team with a superb special teams that had its way. The Hoover High football team surrendered three returns for touchdowns in the first half of their 49-6 Pacific League loss to host Arcadia on Friday night. "It's something different with this crew every week," Tornado Coach Chris Long said.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE ? Hopefully for the members of the Hoover High football team, the dark clouds have disappeared. In several ways, they are starting all over again in their quest for respectability. Hoover hired a new coach in Chris Long, who took over the reins from Dennis Hughes and looks to take the Tornadoes to the postseason for the first time since 1987, the last time the team put together a winning season. Under those dark clouds last season, the Tornadoes went 0-10 and 0-7 in the Pacific League.

The members of the St. Francis High football team more than held their own during the nonleague portion of their schedule, going 5-0 and limiting opponents to 6.8 points per game. Looking to replicate that in the Mission League might be a tall order, though the Golden Knights appear to be up to the challenge. St. Francis will get its first look at a league opponent when it meets visiting Harvard-Westlake in a league opener at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Friedman Field. The Golden Knights are ranked No. 4 in the latest CIF Southern Section Western Division poll and one of four league teams earning a top-10 ranking.

LA CRESCENTA — It was a forgettable fourth quarter for the Crescenta Valley High girls' basketball team. It was one in which the Falcons shot just one of seven from the field and scored four points to their opponent's 10. Despite it all, the Falcons still came one missed runner short of sending the Pacific League contest into overtime, but Catherine Davis' shot missed as time expired and Crescenta Valley fell, 34-32, to the visiting Burbank...

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE - In front of a jampacked homecoming faithful, the St. Francis High football team went from disaster to delirium. On the strength of the fortuitous right foot of Billy McCreary, the Golden Knights culminated a 10-point, fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Harvard-Westlake, 23-20, when McCreary booted a 37-yard field goal with two seconds left to lift his team to victory in the Mission League opener for both teams. “We, came away with the victory - and it was amazing,” said McCreary, who also had a game-tying 29-yard kick in the fourth and a 32-yard field goal in the first half before the Wolverines scored 20 straight points to take a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter.

Seeking an offensive overhaul prior to the 2008 season, the Crescenta Valley High football team spread out its offense, spiced up the playbook and made a commitment to the vertical passing game. But before they could rev up the sparkling new engine under the hood, the Falcons still needed a good set of wheels to carry it all. The task fell to Harry Pessy, who now hopes to lead Crescenta Valley back to the playoffs and farther in his second year as the Falcons’ feature running back.

GLENDALE — The following are previews of the area’s upcoming high school football games .   Ever since the return of former assistant coach Dennis Gossard to the Crescenta Valley High football team as offensive coordinator was announced back in December, anticipation has abounded over the Falcons’ return to the spread offense of years past. As the team turned heads in summer passing league tournaments behind the steady play of a new cast of skill players, while the defensive front also underwent a transformation, the buzz built further about the potential of a new-look Crescenta Valley squad.

Collin Keoshian's football career appeared to be on the fast track when he was recruited as a scholarship player by then top-25-ranked Brigham Young University out of high school in 2010, but the two-year path that has led the burly tailback to the 2012 Glendale Community College football team hasn't featured much downhill running. Keoshian redshirted his first and only year at Brigham Young University, where he got plenty of reps on the practice squad before deciding he wanted to play and go to school closer to home.

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE - In front of a jampacked homecoming faithful, the St. Francis High football team went from disaster to delirium. On the strength of the fortuitous right foot of Billy McCreary, the Golden Knights culminated a 10-point, fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Harvard-Westlake, 23-20, when McCreary booted a 37-yard field goal with two seconds left to lift his team to victory in the Mission League opener for both teams. “We, came away with the victory - and it was amazing,” said McCreary, who also had a game-tying 29-yard kick in the fourth and a 32-yard field goal in the first half before the Wolverines scored 20 straight points to take a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter.

The members of the St. Francis High football team more than held their own during the nonleague portion of their schedule, going 5-0 and limiting opponents to 6.8 points per game. Looking to replicate that in the Mission League might be a tall order, though the Golden Knights appear to be up to the challenge. St. Francis will get its first look at a league opponent when it meets visiting Harvard-Westlake in a league opener at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Friedman Field. The Golden Knights are ranked No. 4 in the latest CIF Southern Section Western Division poll and one of four league teams earning a top-10 ranking.

Thanks to an alteration in the offense, Luke Tabayoyong's workload will increase. That's exactly what Tabayoyong wanted and it instantly shifted him in motion to prepare for the grind of the 10-week regular season with the potential of running the ball around 20 times per game. Hand the ball off to Tabayoyong and he'll be ready to break a tackle and pile up yardage for a Hoover High football team thirsty for a winning season. Some changes have occurred since the tailback and Tornadoes completed last season.

LA CRESCENTA — It was a forgettable fourth quarter for the Crescenta Valley High girls' basketball team. It was one in which the Falcons shot just one of seven from the field and scored four points to their opponent's 10. Despite it all, the Falcons still came one missed runner short of sending the Pacific League contest into overtime, but Catherine Davis' shot missed as time expired and Crescenta Valley fell, 34-32, to the visiting Burbank...

ARCADIA — One week, it faces a physical running team that's too powerful. Another week, it plays a team with a spread offense and an aerial attack that's difficult to contain. This week, it met a team with a superb special teams that had its way. The Hoover High football team surrendered three returns for touchdowns in the first half of their 49-6 Pacific League loss to host Arcadia on Friday night. "It's something different with this crew every week," Tornado Coach Chris Long said.

LA CRESCENTA — In a Pacific League that is shaping up to be pretty top heavy, the Crescenta Valley High football team may be one of the most unproven commodities. That's not to say that the Falcons, who finished third in league last year and advanced to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Southeast Division playoffs, aren't contenders. They would seem to have plenty of talent funneled in from the program's fertile lower levels. It's just that much of it is unproven at the varsity level, as only a handful of players are back from last year's team and nearly every key starting position has been reassigned.

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — Never one to shy away from an honest assessment, second-year Glendale football Coach Alan Eberhart has a few ideas as to just what went wrong during a 1-9 season that ended with a winless Pacific League campaign last year. He doesn't believe many of his seniors bought into the coaching staff's approach. He doesn't believe the fundamentals were there, much as an aggressive approach was absent. But as much as anything else, Eberhart puts blame on himself.

Seeking an offensive overhaul prior to the 2008 season, the Crescenta Valley High football team spread out its offense, spiced up the playbook and made a commitment to the vertical passing game. But before they could rev up the sparkling new engine under the hood, the Falcons still needed a good set of wheels to carry it all. The task fell to Harry Pessy, who now hopes to lead Crescenta Valley back to the playoffs and farther in his second year as the Falcons’ feature running back.