The Peterson Principle 10/8/12

Tim Peterson

It finally happened and it happened convincingly. For the first time in 21 years El Monte knocked off Arroyo. It wasn’t close. El Monte jumped out to a 26-7 halftime lead and it was 32-7 as the Lions coasted from there.

 

It wasn’t exactly the way you expected Arroyo to go down but this Brandon Martinez guy…yeah he’s something special. He threw for 375 yards and six touchdowns. On the year he has 22 touchdown passes and 2265 yards through the air in just six games. By the time the season is over he could be described as the best quarterback in El Monte history.

Joel Sanchez probably summed it up best after the game. “Brandon is Brandon. I don’t need to sit here and tell you how great he is,” Sanchez said.

While Martinez was the best player on the field the best line of the night belonged to Arroyo HC Jim Singiser following the defeat. “You want me to bake them a cake?” he said.

To give you an idea of how long ago it was since the Lions tasted victory over the Knights…In 1990 George Bush was the president – Senior not junior. General Manuel Noriega surrendered in Panama and South Africa freed Nelson Mandela after he was imprisoned for 27 years. Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait setting off the Persian Gulf War and Margaret Thatcher resigned as British Prime Minister. The U.S Appeals Court overturned Oliver North’s Iran-Contra conviction and the median household income was $29,943. Unemployment was at 5.6 % and the cost of the first class postage stamp was 25 cents.

San Francisco won the Super Bowl, Cincinnati took the World Series and Detroit won the NBA title. UNLV beat Duke to win the NCAA Basketball championship and in college football are you ready for this? Colorado…yeah Colorado was the AP Champion with a record of 11-1. Georgia Tech (11-0-1) won the UPI poll. Yes the Associated Press and United Press International still had a say in the champions of college football. Driving Miss Daisy won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Oh, and El Monte beat Arroyo 30-0. Yeah it’s been awhile.

 

Hacienda Hysteria

Bonita started the season 0-3 but is now 2-0 in the Hacienda League. Two time defending CIF Southeast Champion West Covina loses to Los Altos last week 17-14. Okay, well Los Altos is dominant right? Well actually no. The Conquerors lost to Diamond Bar 40-3 the week before they stunned WestCo and followed up the big win by losing to Rowland 28-13. Diamond Ranch hammered  D-Bar Saturday night 50-22 but fell to the Bulldogs two weeks ago. So is Rowland right there with Bonita? Um, not really. The Raiders were routed by the Bearcats 57-16 two weeks ago.

The only sure thing right now is that Walnut won’t be a factor. The Mustangs are 0-2, 1-5 overall, and have been outscored 77-14 in league play.

This week has Diamond Ranch at Los Altos, Bonita at West Covina and Rowland at Walnut.

 

Is Bassett Back?

No, the Olympians aren’t necessarily back but they are much improved. There is an entire new coaching staff in place  with Hector Spathias as HC and Jerry Urias at OC. Bassett jumped out to a 9-0 lead on undefeated Gladstone last Thursday night and was only down 23-22 at the half. G-Stone went on to win by three touchdowns but Gladiator Head Coach Albert Sanchez was impressed.

‘They came out and punched us. Give credit to Bassett,” he said.

Urias is doing a great job with the offense and has had to start basically from scratch. Most of the players weren’t even sure how to run proper routes.

Bassett is 2-5 overall and 1-1 in the Montview league, including an impressive 41-14 win over Workman last week.

 

Gardens Party

Bell Gardens 30-13 win over Alhambra was impressive but the thing that really stood out Friday night was the size of the crowd. I had to hike in three blocks after finally finding a parking place. The place was packed for Homecoming and with the crowd roaring you got the sense that the home field advantage really did come into play when the Lancers turned it on in the fourth quarter. And Jorge Remigio, well there’s a moratorium on the word “beast”, so I’ll just say he’s really really good.

That’s my principle.

Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com.

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