Foothill, Las Vegas square off in battle of 4A heavyweights

Adam Candee

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003 | 10:16 a.m.

He likes what he sees from his team this week, so naturally, Foothill coach Ray Fenton wants his Falcons to come out sluggish and unmotivated in today's practice.

Huh?

"The last time we had a great week of practice, it was against Coronado. I'm hoping we might have some problems (today) and break the omen," Fenton joked.

The Falcons (SE-2, 9-1) suffered their only loss of the year against Coronado, one that relegated them to the Southeast Division's second seed and an unenviable Friday Sunrise Region semifinal date at Las Vegas (NE-1, 10-0).

Plenty of good came from that loss, though, both for the Falcons and the prep football community. The latter good is the championship-caliber semifinal matchup of the Wildcats and Falcons, ranked No. 1 and No. 3 respectively in the final Sun Statewide Top 10, with a trip to the 4A State Tournament on the line.

The first positive is the awakening Foothill received in a 16-12 defeat against upstart Coronado. Touted from the preseason as favorites to head to the 4A State Tournament, Foothill came crashing back to earth as its seemingly preordained division title slipped away.

But just three days after the stunning defeat, Fenton saw something that made him happy at practice -- a whole lot of hard hits and scrappy play.

"That Monday, it was strange from my standpoint to see how (angry) the kids were," Fenton said.

Foothill responded by beating Basic and Silverado to solidify its second seed, then whipped Rancho, 50-22, to open the playoffs. Standout freshman tailback DeAngelo Jones rushed for three touchdowns against the Rams and the Falcons' running game may get a boost from the return of senior tailback John Crowley this week. Crowley has been out since midseason with a knee injury.

Whoever is running the ball for Foothill will be well-protected by a mammoth line, the strength of the Falcons. The line strength mirrors that of Las Vegas, a team that looks remarkably similar to Foothill in its philosophy of building outward from the trenches.

"It's very, very similar with one exception -- we've never beat them," Fenton said.

Regardless of history, Las Vegas coach Kris Cinkovich concedes that Foothill will be the toughest opponent his squad has seen.

"They present a great challenge because they're strong up front," Cinkovich said.

The Wildcats relied on their own strength to wear down Basic in a thrilling 40-34 quarterfinal victory. After hard weeks of practice to accommodate lots of new starters and new plays in response to injuries to starting quarterback Chris Gifford and starting tailback Eric Jordan in the past three weeks, Cinkovich sensed that his team needed some rest.

"We're working on doing that this week," Cinkovich said. "We backed quite a ways down."

Las Vegas successfully leaned on two sophomores (QB Jeremy Craddock and RB Jamal Lomax) and a junior (WR Christian Vidal) to get through last week's battle. That revamped offense challenges the preparation of Fenton, who has just last week's game film as a source of information.

"The tendencies can be thrown out the window because of the personnel changes," Fenton said.

Cinkovich acknowledged that his play-calling dramatically changed last week and will probably have to do so again with a team able to stuff the run and pressure the quarterback like Foothill can.

"We're a different team in some aspects than we were before," Cinkovich said.

The winner of Friday's game faces either Coronado or Desert Pines next week in an anti-climatic Sunrise final.