By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor The unofficial start of the 2017 football season starts Saturday at La Salle High School at 2:30. The second annual ‘Light It Up’ Tournament, is a 12-team competition that features reigning CIF and State champion Paraclete and Sierra Canyon, as well as Angelus League rivals St. Francis and La Salle. […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
The unofficial start of the 2017 football season starts Saturday at La Salle High School at 2:30.
The second annual ‘Light It Up’ Tournament, is a 12-team competition that features reigning CIF and State champion Paraclete and Sierra Canyon, as well as Angelus League rivals St. Francis and La Salle.
Pasadena and Muir will also take part in Saturday’s action.
There are four pools of three teams.
The next round is bracket play and from there on out, it’s single elimination.
The final round is expected to start at approximately 7:30 p.m.
CJ Rettig, who literally just got off the volleyball court Thursday night in the playoffs, will trade series’ with Chris Wilson.
The Lancers backfield will feature completely different players from last season’s record year, in which they won their first Angelus League game(s) and earned a first playoff victory in nine years.
“This is the first day of our season,” La Salle coach Russell Gordon said. “The quality of the talent that will be here is really impressive. We have two CIF/State champions in Paraclete and Sierra Canyon and St. Francis is one of the most respected programs around.”
Gordon doesn’t put too much stock into Saturday’s all-day tournament, but he knows there is a lot of work to be done before their August 25th opener with Arcadia, and it all starts on Saturday.
“We’re replacing 22 seniors that we leaned on for so much over the last few years, and it’s a good way to start the process of seeing what we have and the area’s in which we need to get stronger,” Gordon said. “We’re just excited to get back out of the field.”
** St. Francis’ offense is looking to replace Michael Bonds at quarterback and starting tomorrow, three guys are vying for that position.
Erik Zimmerman, Darius Perrantes and Greg Dulcich will all see action Saturday.
The Golden Knights’ Jim Bonds is one of the most respected and creative coaches in California and you can almost sense the excitement he has in the challenge of putting together another lethal offense, and almost from scratch.
St. Francis finished second to Cathedral in the Angelus League, and despite losing many stars, the offense does return one of the area’s most durable two-way players in running back Elijah Washington, as well as Bobby Gazmarian, Greg Dulcich and Gabriel Grbavac.
Grbavac was one of the area’s most effective and disruptive defensive players up front last season.
“I told our guys this morning at practice, it is never our goal to be passing league champs. Our goal is to try to get better. It’s our first time going against other teams this off season. and see who likes to compete. To work on our pass offense and pass defense against someone other than ourselves. We still have many questions about our team.”
Others taking part in Saturday’s tournament include Campbell Hall, Palmdale, Brentwood, Oxnard, Brentwood, Westchester and Canyon.
