Friday, October 26, 2007

Luster lost

With Atascadero's loss to Righetti on Friday, the Greyhounds' season finale with Paso Robles just won't be the same.

Even if both teams win next week, some of the shine is off of a rivalry that looked to pit two teams with unblemished league records head to head for the title.

It still should be an important matchup, but the race has become a little more complicated.

Well, it's still simple for the Bearcats: Win out, and you're the champion.

But a loss next week puts San Luis Obispo back in the hunt and gives Atascadero an opportunity to be back in the driver's seat.

A Tigers win would mean Paso Robles could do no better than a tie for the league championship and would lose the tiebreaker to San Luis Obispo unless the Tigers lost to Arroyo Grande in the finale.

It would also mean Atascadero could win the league title and hold the tiebreaker over San Luis Obispo or Paso with wins over Lompoc and the Bearcats.

The Tigers would need to beat Paso Robles then have the Bearcats beat the Greyhounds to win the top spot in the league.

And Righetti, the team that spoiled the party, needs Lompoc to beat Atascadero, San Luis Obispo to beat Paso Robles and Arroyo Grande to beat San Luis Obispo.

Every single one of those outcomes has to happen, and the Warriors need to beat Arroyo Grande to force a gnarly four-way tie for the title that might need the jaws of life to determine which three will get the league's CIF-Southern Section Northern Division playoff spots.

Before I scramble your brain with any more hypotheticals, my only point is had both A-town and Paso gone into rivalry week unbeaten in league, the outcome of that game might have been The Tribune's No. 1 Sports Story of the Year.

Now, it's pretty much guaranteed to be Jordan Hasay.

Oh, and here's my record on picks. North County and Shandon have yet to face off, and I stand 5-3 this week.

The sentimental pick of Templeton over Pioneer Valley backfired, and Mission Prep lost on the road at Orange Cove. I thought Atascadero could be in for some trouble but honestly didn't see the Greyhounds losing.

How do you guys and girls see it?

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was surprised that atascadero lost, i figured it would be atascadero and paso in the championship too, this just makes things more interesting though if you ask me. another thing were leaving out is saint joe's loss to santa ynez, and morro bays stomping of cabrillo 54-0. that puts morro bay ahead of saint joes and if they can win next week they secure the league title. i think many people overlook morro bay, i mean people say great teams beat the good teams and blow out the weak ones, well thats what morro bay has done so far, theyve shut out at least 3-4 opponents. i think this next game will be the determining factor.

Anonymous said...

ATASCADERO LOST TO RIGHETTI........

Everyone said they were unstoppable. Could not lose. Did Righetti beat them or did A-town just fold. Actually A-town hasn't scored much in the last 2 games. So no with common opponents played it is clear PASO IS BETTER THEN ATASCADERO. That felt good to say.

Go Bearcats............

Anonymous said...

I feel vindicated. Righetti must have read this blog - they stacked to stopped the run on Atascadero.

Righetti gets coaching of the week aware - expoit a weakness.

Santa Ynez/St. Joe's is a shock.

And so the latest best game we son't get to see this year is Paso vs. Morro Bay.

For all those MB doubters out there, look at the passing statistics for the County. Look at the QB ratings and that MB has not thrown an interception and they pass a fair amount - almost unheard of in High School football.


So what are Paso's and MB's weaknesses?????

of course, St. Joes will now promptly go out and torch MB to defy logic.

Anonymous said...

Jordan Hasay the story of the year? I often wonder whether the Trib is going to have anything to fill its sports pages with before deadline once Hasay graduates. The dream scenario for the sports department is Hasay going to Cal Poly for cross country and track.

As far as the Atascadero game... other teams have stacked the box before against them, which resulted in big runs once the runner got through the initial wave of nine guys. But Righetti has better linemen than those other schools. Righetti had better linemen last year, too, but the Hounds had a passing game to overcome it. This time, Atascadero kept calling running play after running play even though it wasn't working. Manier was something like 1-for-5 passing in the first half, and that one completed pass was a shovel pass for negative yards. The other passes were sorely overthrown, although in his defense, the receivers weren't getting down the field that fast either. In the second half, when things got desperate, the passing game finally opened up, which got some big plays, notably the last scoring drive, and also meant a pair of interceptions, including the game ender. So it was a mix of stubborn playcalling and bad execution.

Plus, fifth-year senior Adam Wilson had a big game for Righetti.

When Atascadero heads to Paso, the key for the Bearcats will be whether they can be as physical in the trenches as Righetti was. When Paso beat Righetti, the Warriors were physical in the trenches but Paso started executing its passing game.

Anonymous said...

amen, Jordan should be on the front page more often. She has the potential to be an Olympic Gold medalist in a specialty in track that the Americans vanquished to the rest of the world over 25 years ago

Anonymous said...

Back to this subject.

A-town lost. Why?

Anonymous said...

why? they can't pass - they're one dimensional - unless their D shuts down Paso, they will lose - simple

Anonymous said...

Who will win next week in the PAC7 games? Can A-town beat Lompoc?

Anonymous said...

The only bad thing about being King of the Hill is you can fall harder from the top of the mountain. Now Paso is on top.

Anonymous said...

How to make spaghetti.......

8 parts stud defenders in the box
3 parts capable DB's
Roll the Hound dog meat into meatballs for 48 minutes
Pick out the bad passing game
Add a touch of Spagetti Offense

Serves about 4000 home fans

P.S. this recipe is free to distibute as long as the ingredients are not altered.

Lompoc - your copy is in the mail

Anonymous said...

It's funny to see how there were many Atascadero fans bragging about how well their team has been doing these last two seasons. I, myself, am from Paso Robles and I know how big the rivaly is between the two teams. For one, i have never been much of trash talker at all and just like to leave things to the players and the play field. But these last couple of weeks I have been noticing how much talk there has been about Atascadero beating Paso Robles and being an unstoppable team in league. Whats funny to see is that once they did get stopped, and not by Paso Robles, all the talk about "the beast" has all of a suddenly stopped and there hasn't been anything said about them this whole weekend. Still, i cant wait until the big game to come. GO BEARCATS!

Anonymous said...

What was really sad this weekend was the face that Paso had more fans in AG than the Eagles did! No wonder there team plays with no heart and pride!
Loved to see that Atascadero lost this weekend! Look for them to roll over Lompoc! The big game on November 9th just got a lot bigger! Paso doesn't want to share anything with the mud hounds from the mud hole of atascadero!!! Go Bearcats! News flash atascadero... Paso defense is a whole lot better than Righetti! You got some work to do!!!
Also find it funny that someone is already pointing out the play calling for atascadero! I thought Cooper was a god over there in the mud!
GO BEARCATS!

Anonymous said...

Seriously.....Hounds fans can't even talk about it. Notice they have abandoned this blog. Come on A-town, get over it and play ball. This loss would not be a big dealif you hadn't ran your mouths off so bad. Eat your humble pie and get on with life.

Again. Go Beracats.......

Anonymous said...

Do the Bearcats have the linemen to match up with Righetti? Or did Paso win with quick passes of five yards or so? Righetti beat Atascadero because their brand of kids are similar to Atascadero's brand of kids.

Anonymous said...

I have been reading the blogs
Atown stop talking trash Paso beat Righetti by 26 you lost get over it you are not men among boys

And as far as Morro Bay being better than paso Yeah right Morro bays schedule is a bunch of cupcake schools they would get it handed to them in the Pac 7 they wouldnt be able to beat SLO, Paso, Atown, Or Righetti when they got hit in the chin a few times they would realize it you cant beat the big boys with two good players it takes an entire team
Paso has the full package passing running special teams and defense they can beat anyone if their talent plays up to their abilities for a full game

GO BEARCATS!

Anonymous said...

Paso's offensive line played a great game vs Righetti! The offensive line hasn't had a bad game all year. I do not think that Paso has a junior starting on the offensive line...all seniors... good size and play as one unit! Paso's mixture of run and pass was too much for righetti to handle. Righetti is a good team don't get me wrong... but when you are as one dimentional as Atascadero you are simply doing the defense a favor. Vic Cooper didn't want to bwe forced to pass the ball because his qb can not connect on the short passes!
See you in two weeks in Paso! Go Bearcats!

Anonymous said...

It sucks atown lost.....but there's alot of good to come out of it.....atown was a strong 75% team as because of their rushing obviously.......but both SLO and Righetti weren't going to let it be that easy anymore so they stacked up on the D line and stopped the only thing atown's been doing this year......which is good coaching.....but after watching the little passing atown did on Friday it was nice to see that we have fast receivers that get wide open...unfortunately the quarterback is just slightly off...he has nice location but just over throws....there were 5 over throws that should have resulted in touchdowns because the defenders were beat huge down field (and it wasn't because the receivers were slow getting down down field, because they were running their routs great)....when atown plays teams that stack up the line the QB, running backs, and receivers need to adjust to throw quick strikes....also atown needs to do some QB keepers...fake the pass and run.

Good thing is Coach Coop is a good coach and he will change it up!

Expect to see Atown throw huge against Lompoc.

And it's nice to know that people EXPECT paso to win and think Atown is the underdog now going into the big rivalry, because the pressure is going to be on Paso....and if paso loses I can reassure that we won't see any of these PASO FANS on here anymore....Atown will own this board! :)

Anonymous said...

The real story at Morro Bay is their defense. Look at the numbers. 55 points allowed, and 22 of those were by Carpinteria in the 4th quarter against the 2nd string. Defense wins games.

Anonymous said...

Hounds. Do practice the pass game against Lompoc. Don't just run over them. You could easily do that. Paso still hasn't played anyone as good as the Hounds. Righetti is actually a very good team. If SLO hadn't snuck by them they would be in the hunt. They just exposed a weakness, they are not better then you. This we beat them so we are better then you stuff is stupid. How come SLO beats Righetti, Atas beats SLo then Righetti beats Atas? It just High School football. In the end not only will the Hounds beat Paso. they will walk on them...

Anonymous said...

What happened to all of those Atrashcadero Folks who had their dogs sweeping through the PAC-7?Thinking their tough schedule showed that they were a class above everyone else in the league.Welcome back to reality Folks.....

Anonymous said...

I hate to rub it in but Atrashcadero just doesn't understand that Paso is a whole lot better than Righetti in all areas! Paso needs to focus on SLO first! Can you imagine how good Paso would be if Brina Leweling (slo'd best running back and db) was still at paso?! He left after his sophmore year because of poor coaching and poor talent evaluation by the coaching staff at the jv and varsity level! Schimke is a moron for letting this kid get away! Great kid comes from a great family! His dad is a strength coaching god! In one summer he got my bench press from a 230 lbs to a 315 lbs! I hope paso wins.. but it sure would be nice to see Brian run well and make schimke realize he is an idiot!
Go Bearcats!

Anonymous said...

"What happened to all of those Atrashcadero Folks who had their dogs sweeping through the PAC-7?Thinking their tough schedule showed that they were a class above everyone else in the league.Welcome back to reality Folks....."

....ok here's a response to your stupid comment....like I said earlier....

It's nice to know that people EXPECT paso to win and think Atown is the underdog now going into the big rivalry, because the pressure is going to be on Paso....and if paso loses I can reassure that we won't see any of these PASO FANS on here anymore....Atown will own this board! :)

Anonymous said...

Thats why so nice about high school football, you really dont know what to expect until they play the game, lets just see what happens on gameday. Playing not just for a league title but for bragging rights. Im sure whoever can handle complacency and whoever can keep the best discipline the best will come out on top. I say from the looks of it, both Paso and Atas are both equal in that level in that theyre both dependent on the team, not just one or two good players. Whoever does come out on top, it will still be nice to see which team has the "better" team by score.

Anonymous said...

I don't know much about this North County rivalry. What I want to know is what will be the scores in next weeks games. I mean Atas/Lompoc and Paso/SLO? Those of us south of the County line would like your expert opinion. Since the season is over and it is between Atas and Paso. Which of those 2 teams will have the bigger win this week? You know, if they win, by how much. I actually wonder if Atascadero can even beat Lompoc. Looks like they can't score now that evryone knows they can't pass.

Anonymous said...

It's funny that all these Paso fans (or is it one person with a lot of comments becuase they all have similar language) are commenting how Atascadero fans stopped talking trash..but now the Paso fans are talking trash. Wait until the big game and the players will decide who is the better team. A lot of the "trash talking" wasn't even by the Atascadero fans and not many people were talking about Paso because we truly believe Atascadero is a better team. Paso shouldn't get over zealous about going into the A-town/Paso rivalry undefeated because they haven't beaten SLO yet....someone said "sharing the title with A-town," it might come down to a battle of the two teams with one loss. I'm from Atascadero, but this week I'm a Tiger fan. GO Tigers and as always GO HOUNDS! Unti we are dethroned at the end of a season, still the defending PAC 7 Champs.

Anonymous said...

people keep bashing mb and their league, idk what people think but the los padres league isn't a cupcake league. there was a time where the los padres league was a lot better then the pac 7, a few years ago actually. yes the pac 7 has more talent then the lost padres league, but that doesn't mean that a few teams from the los padres leauge couldn't compete with the pac 7. i think st joe's and mb could both compete in the pac 7. i mean cmon mb has allowed 4 points over the last 3 games. i dont care what league your in, thats impressive. also mb is ranked #2 in the state for their division, when your ranked that high, your obviously good. its like saying mission isn't good in basketball because they play in a weak division, yet mission is perennially the best team in slo county. idk how it would have been years before, but this year give mb its dues, their a good team and they deserve the credit, and they would be able to hang with those pac 7 teams.

Anonymous said...

Point well taken. Atascadero is the current Champs. And if they win out aren't they 2007 champs? If the 2 top teams end up with the same record, Atas would win a tie breaker right? Does anyone know about tie breakers?

Anonymous said...

If Atascadero wins out, the Hounds would share the league title with either Paso or SLO (Paso if they beat SLO, or SLO if they beat Paso and AG). But Atascadero would have the head-to-head tiebreaker by beating both those teams.

Anonymous said...

If Atas wins the head-to-head tiebreaker then why do they only get a share of the league title?

Anonymous said...

Yes Morro Bay is a great team. And Yes they will have a chance to prove it in the playoffs. Be patient, don't worry about getting credit yet. Let evryone say what they will. Be patient grasshopper.

Anonymous said...

This is in response to the thread of the Morro Bay fan that keeps popping up....

I believe Morro Bay is a great team, but until they play the schools that PAC 7 plays in the preseason then they won't get the same recognition that PAC 7 schools will get....but if Morro Bay wins CIF or gets far in CIF then I'm sure they'll get plenty of attention.....also the playoffs will also determine if your point is valid because morro bay will then play stronger teams.

If you want to find out why your school isn't playing PAC 7 schools then go to your school and ask!

Anonymous said...

The last time there was a tie for first place in a local league it was also a three way tie between Paso, Morro Bay and Santa Ynez.(in the old LPL) The ruling back then was that CIF gave the top seed from the league to the team that had not won the league the longest. It was handed to morro bay! I do not know if this rule still applies today but that is what happened in 1998. Look at this website for more info...http://www.lospadrescounty.net/et/foot1998.html
The site states "Congratulations to Morro Bay for winning their first Los Padres League Championship since 1971, sharing the title with Santa Ynez and Paso Robles. Breaking the 3-way tie to be the #1 seed in the playoffs, was that Morro Bay had gone longest without winning a league title."
So according to this web site SLO would get the #1 seed out of the Pac-7. I am not sure how they work the number two seeding but i am pretty sure that Paso gets it and Atascadero would get the 3rd seed because they have won league the most recent.
All of this can be solved really easily... Bearcats need to beat SLO and A-town!
GO BEARCATS!

Anonymous said...

The "longest since winning the league title" thing was a league-specific rule. Each league decides placement and tiebreakers however it wants to and then sends that info to the CIF as in who finished first, second and third and the CIF goes from there. In 1998, all three schoold shared the league title (look in Paso's gym and you'll see "1998" listed on the banner for football league championships) but Morro Bay got the league's top playoff spot because of that tiebreaker. the PAC 7 draws numbers before the start of the season to break ties.

As for share of the league title... if two teams finish with one league loss, but one beat the other head-to-head, both would share the title for finishing with identical records, and the winner of the head-to-head matchup gets the better playoff spot. That could mean the difference between a home game to start the playoffs or four hours in a cramped school bus for a road game.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your clarification. Do you happen do know how the preseason draw went this year? Who will get the top seed in a three way tie?

Anonymous said...

In the PAC-7 a three way tie is only possible if Atas is beaten by Lompoc and SLO beats Paso and Righetti lost to AG this week followed by a SLO loss to AG and Atas beating Paso. Now if Righetti beats AG this week followed by the mentioned last week victories we would have 4 teams at 3-2. We know Atas will beat Lompoc. Paso will be playing a 2nd varsity start sophomore against a brutal front D-line in SLO. We will see if he lasts until half time. So whoever wins Paso/SLO will be the 2nd team for league champs. Atas will beat Paso in their game and end up 4-1 with the tie breaker for playoffs.

Anonymous said...

Another scenario is Paso winning out to take the league title, SLO beating AG and losing to Paso, Righetti beating AG (Righetti has a bye in the last week) and Atascadero beating Lompoc and losing to Paso. That would leave Paso alone in first, and three teams tied for second with only two available playoff spots between them. The odd team out cannot petition for an at-large playoff spot because there aren't any at-large spots in this division's bracket. All 16 spots are guaranteed to top-three teams already (top-four from the Marmonte League, which has eight teams).

Anonymous said...

That's a complicated scenario. Not likely. In PAC-7 league play this year no team has won a game after playing SLO. So it is highly unlikely that Paso will beat both SLO and Atascadero. If they survive SLO they will be to beat up to survive Atascadero.
Go Hounds.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Yeah Yeah.... Righetti was supposed to get killed by Atascadero's run game and beasty defense! That didn't happen! Look for the Bearcats to run the table and the Hounds to be crossing their fingers that they get into the playoffs!
GO BEARCATS!

Anonymous said...

I did hear that the PAC 7 draws numbers to see who will win in a tie breaker. I don't think they look at who won the head to head battle. Scrawg dawg, can you verify. I believe A-town will win the tie breaker then Paso comes in second then SLO? I'm not sure but I remember reading that somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Here's hoping you will get this Friday's picks out earlier, so we can have more discussion before the post-mortem.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Yeah Yeah......SLO was supposed to get killed by Paso's O-line and beasty defense. That didn't happen! Look for the Tigers to run the table and the Bearcats to be crossing their fingers that they get into the playoffs!

Go Hounds.

Atascadero ends 4-1
Paso ends 3-2
SLO ends 4-1
Righetti ends 3-2 and beats Paso for the 3rd playoff spot due to the preseason draw.

Playoff teams this year
Atascadero
SLO
Righetti

Now make your calls...........

Anonymous said...

Who cares about all the stats lets let the players figure out who is the best next friday night
Paso will be ready for SLO they hait them
and ATown everyone knows that will be the best game of the year

Anonymous said...

Does Paso HATE everyone? We just have rivalry's around here but no hate. So the HATE has been coming from Paso all along. Wow, when I vote for a North County team from now on it will be Atascadero. They are much more professional and don't HATE. They just play hard.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Atown is definitely cool with SLO!

Joshua D. Scroggin said...

I'll find out about the draw. I don't know off the top of my head, so I'll have to call some ADs.

My picks will be up tonight barring any emergency situations.

Anonymous said...

I do know that if it comes out to a three-way tie between Righetti, SLO and Atascadero, SLO has the best number, Righetti the middle and Atascadero the worst, meaning Atascadero would be out of the playoffs. I'm not sure what number Paso has.

Anonymous said...

Paso doesnt "hate" anyone. if you look at some comments atown fans left you should see that they say they hate paso so paso isnt the only team that "hates" anyone. just as slo hates ag and visa versa. I know that slo and paso has been the longest, ongoing game to date back in time, so its definitely an important game for them. paso is cool with ag, righetti, and lompoc, just not as well with atown because of all the trash talk going on in between, and slo because they have been playing them the longest.

Anonymous said...

As a SLO Dad I know we don't hate Paso. In fact our 2 teams have many ties between the players. In youth football we had Kai Sanpei and Paso had Brian Lewelling. I am thrilled to see Kai having a healthy and successfull year. His teammates too. I want them all to stay healthy and play hard. I do however want to see SLO win on the field. No claims or predictions here, all our team can do is play hard and not make mistakes. The Tigers played hard against A-town but fell short. We hope to give Paso a good game.

Anonymous said...

Logan Budd is wiser then any other player.

Hmmm. Budd Wiser

Excuse me I have to go to the fridge.

Anonymous said...

Scroggs..............
Save us, where's you picks?

Joshua D. Scroggin said...

Hey, in Sports Reporter Land, the night is still young.

I had to get clear of my duties for the print edition of the paper before I got crackin' on the blog.

But don't worry picks are coming.

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Anonymous said...

950 am, well looks like you just dont know what your talking about either, what was with this whole rara about atascadero being the best and now have to right to get a playoff birth? looks like irony