Two games on the post for tonight...
Like I mentioned above, I was thrown for a loop when Sportbet and 5Dimes listed these two games..... Never mind that the games feature 4 small school programs from Nor CAL (2 of the teams can't get any further north) but there are literally hundreds of games to choose from in Cali as most CIF games like to finish before Thanksgiving.... So why? I'm fairly clueless... But, I'm degenerate enough to bet on these games, so forget about it.
Played 3 units Fall River and Under 59 points.LOSS... Didn't quite work out the way I drew it up .*Both teams come in Ranked #1 (Chester) and #2 (Fall River) in Div 5..... And Ranked #17 (Chester) and #20 (Fall River) in the North Section..however, when looking at Ranking between the two you have to understand that the quality of football in the Div 5 Small Schools deteriorates rapidly after the first 5 or 6 teams, and while most football programs worry day to day about how much time the team got in the weight room or how far down the depth chart they have to go to replace a FB or SS.... These programs are literally one hit away from having to forfeit games or move the Starting TE to QB to finish a game.... I think you get the point. In some respects these athletes go through so much more than athletes and coaches from Bishop Amat or Mater Dei... Most players for these teams play Iron Man football (term used for 2 way starters and special teams)..... Teams in D4 and D5 are lucky to have 1 D1 College athlete as most of the players that have dreams of playing at the next level are bound for a couple of years at the Juco level.
So why am I preaching to the choir and boring you to death? This Chester Volcano team was responsible for dowsing my high school dreams of winning a CIF Crown in the 70's by ending a great undefeated season and a #1 Rank in Small Schools........To this day, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong but suffice it to say that it was the perfect storm, and after scoring a TD on our opening drive and the false appearance of pulling out another yawner, something went terribly wrong and that CIF title melted away as we got flat out-played.....So, when I saw Chester featured on the HSF rotation, it was a kick to the gut....
Like I mentioned, both of these schools come from the great white north of CA.... Most people will have never heard of the teams. Fall River is a small town, originally called Fall River Mills for its heyday in the 60s and 70s when Timber was the game and the town was built around the Mill Factory.....Back in those days, Lumberjacks, Buckers, Sawmill Workers, Logging Truck operators and heavy equipment, etc were a special breed and their offspring were big, burly kids that loved to hit.... As the years went by and logging industry came to a halt (over the "infamous" spotted owl joke) the schools and local economy took a hit as workers were forced to leave to find jobs......Since then, each year for many of these programs is a white knuckle hope as one or two injuries can shut a football team down for the year (in fact, I believe Chester had to forfeit its season in 2015 due to lack of players)
A lot of these programs run Option Offenses or Wing-T......with running the football the number one priority... Fall River averages 206.5 yards per game... The Bulldogs will throw as they average 132.6 through the air..... They average 31.5 points per game.... Defense allows 14.18 ppg...
Chester Volcanos have 1 loss on the year to an out of state opponent... They defeated the Bulldogs to open the season 38-12....the Volcanoes show little interest in passing as they average 318.4 yards per game on the ground.... Sr RB Tony Roger's (5'10 220 lbs) is a load and averages 121.5 ppg.... Their QB, Sr 6'1" 230 lbs, Sawyer Durkin is also averages over 100 yards per game (only throws for 31.4 yards per game)....Team averages 33. 6 ppg while allows 12.63 on D...... They have some decent size on the OL..
Just kind of a rule of thumb that win a team like Fall River loses early in season, they tend to perform fairly well with the knowledge of having seen that opponent before, so expectations are increased... Fall River has 2 losses, Chester has 1....Bulldogs dropped the opener 38-12 to the Volcanoes.... Their second loss was to Rival Modoc (Alturas) 21-20 while Chester beat Modoc 18-15......Both teams share a number of like opponents, but stats can be misleading as several of the teams were obviously functioning on a sputtering offenses and defenses..... I think Bulldogs have a chance to hang with Chester (although my hat is off to Chester's Size... QB Sawyer Durkin and RB Tony Roger's both have significant size for the position.... Hopefully, Fall River will have the Wing-T figured out this time around and make a competitive game out it..... Game is a late start at 7 pm so although weather is fairly clear, there is a chill in the air, so like the total to stay under as well.
Gluck
