Gondos Football Looks to Rebound

After back-to-back tough losses to highly-ranked Southern Section opponents, the Venice High football team is thirsting for a big victory to get back on track.

The Gondos face another huge challenge Friday night when they host Helix of La Mesa, which went 11-2 last season and lost to Oceanside in the San Diego Section Division 2 semifinals.

The Highlanders (2-1) are piloted by longtime Woodland Hills Taft coach Troy Starr and all but three of their 48 varsity players are seniors or juniors. They enter this intersectional contest with momentum, having won two straight, including a 48-14 drubbing of San Diego Cathedral Catholic Sept. 16. Helix will be rested after a bye last week.

"They might be the best team we've faced best so far," Venice Coach Angelo Gasca said in evaluating Helix. "From what I see they are the most balanced team we've played. They are big and strong and tough. They play with a lot of physicality. They run the ball well but are also very proficent passing. This team lines up in the Pistol formation and they can also spread you out."  

Venice (1-2) came off its bye week to battle La Canada St. Francis in its home opener last Friday and the Gondos led most of the game before losing 27-17. Knowing that next week his team will host La Puente Bishop Amat, currently ranked No. 6 in the Southern Section's top division (Pac-5), Gasca stressed how important it is for the Gondos to play well Friday, win or lose.

"Players are resilient," Gasca said. "They might be down after a tough loss like last week, they may question what we're doing, but it only takes one game to turn it around. he good thing is that we're healthier. We have almost everybody back except for [middle linebacker] Daniel Magallanes."

Playing all but one of the same teams as this year, the Gondos lost four of their first five games last season, but rebounded to go 7-1 the rest of the way. To avoid another 1-4 start, they must limit their turnovers, which proved costly in each of their last two games.  

"There were a lot of things I liked about what we did last week but I was disappointed that we didn't finish the job," Gasca said. "We were in control for most of the game, but we gave them some extra possessions and we were deep in the red zone three times and only got 10 points. We were better prepared and we played better than we did against Chaminade, just not quite good enough."

Gasca said senior quarterback Dean Sarabia will again play mostly at middle linebacker filling in for Magallanes, meaning sophomore Alex Diamont will likely get most of the snaps at quarterback. 

"They [Helix] may be more ready to win than us at this point, but they lost a game too so it's not as if they're unbeatable," Gasca said. "It's still about matchups and teams match up better against certain teams than others. I want to come out of [nonleague] injury free and whatever our record shows these games will make us better down the road. Yes, going 1-4 in our nonleague games is a possibility, but so is 3-2."

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday and Gasca wants his defense to be stout, especially against the run.

"Things have a way of evening out as the season goes along," Gasca said. "Our first game [against Harvard-Westlake] we didn't play well and maybe should've lost it, but we won. Then you look at last week's game and say we probably should've won, but we lost," he said. "There were parts in each of the last two games where they had success running right at us and that's something we will have to correct if we want to be a really good team."