{"id":59946,"date":"2017-07-06T18:11:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=59946"},"modified":"2017-07-06T21:51:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T04:51:51","slug":"an-early-look-at-the-almont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=59946","title":{"rendered":"An Early Look at the Almont"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Can HC Pete Gonzalez (right), DC Jason Carlin (left) and the Oilers repeat in the Almont?<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

Who’s going to win the Almont? Some say Montebello wins it going away while others say Schurr is ready to unseat the Oilers as league champs. We know that Bell Gardens will be better and we’re hearing good things out of Alhambra. Here’s an early look:<\/p>\n

Montebello:\u00a0<\/strong>Until somebody knocks off the champions, they’re still the champions.\u00a0That’s the way it is for the Oilers right now.\u00a0Gabriel Tapia returns\u00a0at quarterback and looks bigger and better than ever.\u00a0The offense revolves around Tapia\u00a0who threw for\u00a02000 yards and rushed for 674 as well.\u00a0Michael Vital provides some punch to the running attack as well.\u00a0Linebacker Kris Rodriguez, who had 72 total tackles a year ago, is back to anchor the defense. The Oilers could be beat, make no mistake,\u00a0but right now, they’re the team to beat.<\/p>\n

Schurr:<\/strong> If there’s anybody that can take down Montebello it’s Schurr.\u00a0The Spartans went 4-1 in league last year and looks much improved.\u00a0Quarterback Miguel Aguero and receiver Lance Babb\u00a0both return in what could be the most dangerous duo in the Almont.\u00a0Add to that mix wide out Jeremiah Hartfield who has been lights out this summer.\u00a0Francisco Remigio, who had over\u00a0800 yards in 2016, returns as well.\u00a0The passing attack\u00a0has been clicking as evidenced by the Spartans run to the semi finals at the SGV Shootout. We know the offense is there, and if\u00a0the Schurr defense, which is traditionally solid,\u00a0can keep opponents at bay, the Spartans are going to be tough to beat.<\/p>\n

Bell Gardens:<\/strong> If nothing else, it’s Margarito Beltran’s\u00a0second year at the helm,\u00a0so the Lancers will be better. BG was very young a year ago\u00a0and all of the those players are\u00a0a year older and\u00a0a year more experienced. Augustin Velasquez Jr. is back behind center as is running back Braham Rodriguez.\u00a0The Lancers have been active on the passing circuit and\u00a0improving every week.\u00a0Can BG crack the top two? Probably not. But\u00a0they could\u00a0upset somebody’s apple cart somewhere along the way.<\/p>\n

Alhambra:\u00a0<\/strong>The Moors finished 5-6 overall last year including\u00a0a 3-2\u00a0league record\u00a0and a trip to the CIF playoffs.\u00a0Alhambra has shown\u00a0improvement each year under head coach\u00a0Eric Bergstrom and this year should be no different. Salman Gurung, who rushed for\u00a01045 yards and 13 touchdowns a year ago, is set for a big senior year.\u00a0Julien Garcia,\u00a0the back\u00a0up last year, should get the nod at quarterback.\u00a0Third place and a possible playoff berth should come down to Bell Gardens at Alhambra on October 20.\u00a0Right now it’s a toss up.<\/p>\n

San Gabriel:<\/strong>\u00a0The Matadors have a new head coach\u00a0in Kevin\u00a0Encinas\u00a0which could be a good thing (new beginning) or a bad thing (starting all over from scratch.) Either way it’s going to be a struggle for\u00a0the Mats as they try to rise from the ashes. Last year their only league win was over Keppel, and they were outscored by Schurr and Montebello by the combined score\u00a0of 108-7. One\u00a0day San Gabriel will compete in league. It just won’t be this year.<\/p>\n

Keppel:<\/strong> The Aztecs actually forfeited a game last year because they didn’t have enough\u00a0healthy players to field a team.\u00a0But slowly and surely\u00a0Keppel is trying to get off the floor.\u00a0John\u00a0Tuttle is still at the helm as HC\u00a0and brings a wealth of experience to the position.\u00a0With consistency in the coaching staff, the hope is that\u00a0eventually the players will come out and Keppel will get on track. Is there hope?\u00a0Absolutely. Will it happen in 2017? No.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson Who’s going to win the Almont? Some say Montebello wins it going away while others say Schurr is ready to unseat the Oilers as league champs. We know that Bell Gardens will be better and we’re hearing good things out of Alhambra. Here’s an early look:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816],"tags":[6794,7009,7376,7322,8021,6741,3126],"class_list":["post-59946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","tag-alhambra-football","tag-almont-league","tag-bell-gardens-football","tag-keppel-football","tag-montebello-football","tag-san-gabriel-football","tag-schurr-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59946"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59955,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59946\/revisions\/59955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}