Fanview Lite: November 6, 2009

PHS Stars Charles Hendricks (#10), Aaron Simpson (#4), & Nick Escoe (#21) are CIF Bound!

PHS Stars Charles Hendricks (#10), Aaron Simpson (#4), & Nick Escoe (#21) are CIF Bound!

Good Morning!

I’m certain after a big victory in Burbank you make arrangements to go (or have some) South Street philly cheese steaks…’made with brotherly love’.

I’m also certain after Pasadena’s 45-41 victory over Burbank last night all the B-Bank faithful felt like doing was to make arrangements… The arrangement being a pine box of such and such dimensions and a six-foot hole to climb down into and never be seen again.

On one side of the field the hurt was a beast squeezing out all joy and visions of gridiron prosperity… On the other side it was hallelujah jubilee…

When B-Bank ran wide with an option on fourth and short in the final minutes and was stopped…you got the feeling this game wasn’t over. When Aaron Simpson kept fielding every snap out of the shotgun down around his ankles…you got the feeling this game wasn’t over. When Simpson completed a fourth down pass to Eugene Tripling…you got the feeling this game wasn’t over.

And when Simpson went 45-yards to Andrew Wells…you got the feeling of divine intervention…Burbank got what Miami felt a generation ago when Boston College’s Doug Flutie hooked up with Gerald Phelan…Hence, the reason the B-Bank faithful just wants to crawl into a hole and be left alone. Let Christmas and Thanksgiving, and the rest of the world go away, let the radioactive hurt dissipate and after a millennium they’ll come out again.

Wells made this catch surrounded by three defenders…

As Pasadena took a 30-29 lead at the half I felt like I was in the middle of a Rocky movie with the announcer calling out “It’s Creed, Balboa! Creed! Balboa!”

Been tinkering with the ten best Mid Valley games this decade, this one made the list. It was sheer football…I forgot to breathe for ten minutes…The greatest prep thrill ride I’ve had since Mead beat South at “The Swamp” in 2005…

Are you getting the picture?

Lost in the Simpson to Wells lightening bolt that struck with 1.7 seconds…was Burbank’s Ulises Ochoa’s herculean 72-yard punt return for a touchdown late in the first half. Ochoa broke a tackle, disappeared in a mass of humanity, emerged from a cloud of dust, and took the ball south to paydirt down the eastern sideline.

Lost was Adam Colman’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Sam Bethany which gave Burbank a 29-23 lead. The pass was superior, the catch was perfect as Pasadena defenders delivered a Malachi Crunch on Bethany that popped the helmet off his head but not the ball out of his hands.

Lost was a Pasadena assistant getting in Nick Escoe’s face on the sideline and (If I can paraphrase) encouraging him to run north and south, not east to west. Twelve seconds before the break Escoe went north, 65-yards, for his second touchdown.

While I will say more of Burbank and Pasadena needs to be out to support these teams…the crowd was there in the form of Schurr, Crescenta Valley, Muir, Burroughs, and West Covina.

Last Add Simpson: After handling at least (I welcome the correction) five snaps down around his ankles in the final drive…PHS quarterback Aaron Simpson was clear; “I wasn’t going to give up, there was no way we were going to give up.”

How does this happen? Pasadena was written off early by everyone (Everyone! Because I have a feeling the bandwagon is going to get a little crowded.), head coach Mike McFarland a month ago told me it was essentially a rebuilding year.

The look on Burbank defensive end Zech Crane's face sums up the hurt.

The look on Burbank defensive end Zech Crane's face sums up the hurt.

“Coach,” I asked. “Were you snowing me a month ago?”

“Joe,” he said shaking his head. Elation, exhaustion, his wife and child next to him. “This has been a day by day thing. Day by day.”

Wells’ catch not only lifted Pasadena back into the playoff picture after a year’s absence…It puts Muir on the cusp of missing the post-season dance…after an initial glance at the books… for the first time since prior to 1985. (I can use some help from the Muir faithful on the this…)

Awesome, 718 words, and its not enough…

Stay thirsty my friends…

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