Looking Into the Prep Crystal Football for Predictions

I’m looking into my crystal ball, and here are some football predictions for the upcoming season:

• It’s going to be a good year for quarterbacks with Harvard-Westlake’s Chad Kanoff, Campbell Hall’s R.J. Gordon and North Hollywood’s Javonte Matthews. Kanoff, a junior, won the starting job by the end of last season, and this year he is going to pass for a lot of yards. Gordon, a three-year starter at Campbell Hall, is going to make his father proud – head coach Russell Gordon. Matthews, a 6-foot-4 basketball convert, will evolve into one of the East Valley League’s most exciting players.

• A Harvard-Westlake fan is going to blink at the wrong time and miss an 80-yard touchdown run by Jamias Jones, who is blazing fast and has shaken off an injury that limited the speedy tailback last season.

• Harvard-Westlake’s muscular, 6-foot-8  defensive lineman Dave Winfield is going to be so intimidating that if you look closely, you’ll see an opposing blocker literally shaking in his cleats.

• Gordon, Campbell Hall’s quarterback, is going to feel like he’s at a fancy buffet because he has three terrific receivers in 6-foot-3 returnees Dustin Drai and Josh Ross plus impact transfer Christian Bradley from Montclair Prep.

• The big issue for Campbell Hall will be trying to step up against small-school powers Sierra Canyon and Paraclete in the Alpha League. There’s no way the Vikings will defeat them both, but this time they’ll be a lot more competitive than last season when they lost by 25 points to Sierra Canyon and by 41 to the Spirits.

• After winning its last three games last season following an 0-6 start, North Hollywood will shock heavily favored El Camino Real with a season-opening win Sept. 1 to make it four wins in a row – and school historians like Steve Miller will begin scrambling to figure out the Huskies’ longest winning streak of all-time.

• Speaking of Miller, the longtime vet again will do a great job as North Hollywood’s PA announcer – he’s one of the only ones who do play-by-play over the loud speakers – but it won’t be an easy job because of names like Ilya Petrosyan and Gio Urquieta.

• And speaking of Petrosyan, he is going to score three touchdowns of 50 yards or more  in the same game – one on a reception, another on an interception return and a third on a kick return.

• Harvard-Westlake will prove brains over brawn can work in high school football.

• North Hollywood’s most famous football graduate, renowned radio/TV personality Adam Corolla, will get caught up in the excitement, and he’ll pump the Huskies on his massively popular podcasts whenever he gets the chance.

• After playing its first four games of the season on the road, Campbell Hall will break into a version of the Motley Crue classic “Home Sweet Home” by the time the home opener rolls around Oct. 6 against visiting Paraclete.

• North Hollywood again will get hot at the end of season by winning its last three against Sun Valley, Verdugo Hills and Monroe.

• For yet another season, there won’t be a punter at Campbell Hall that an out-kick coach Russell Gordon, a former JC All-American who still has a good leg after all these years.