Fairfax Football is Ready to Step Up

After winning the City Section Division II football championship last season, is up with the big boys.

The Lions have been promoted to Division I, and their season finally starts Friday at 7 p.m. with an intersectional showdown at Harvard-Westlake in North Hollywood.

“We’re excited about being in Division I,” said Coach Shane Cox, in his 13th year. “It’s a whole new thing for us, and we have a lot of new faces. I think we’re going to be good, but we only have 25 players, so we don’t have the depth. But when it’s all said and done, I think we’re going to have the best 25-man team in Los Angeles. They’re an extremely tough group of kids but there's just not a lot of them.”

Fairfax had to bid farewell to star running back Matt Bowen, who has graduated and moved on to College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita after a huge senior season that included 2,391 yards rushing and 31 touchdowns.

“He was something else,” Cox said of Bowen.

The heir  is Eric Pugh, a senior who is not as big and powerful as Bowen, but possesses breakaway speed. Cox is expecting a big year after Pugh totaled 264 yards and two touchdowns as Bowen’s understudy last season.

“Eric is super fast. He probably runs a 4.4 40-yard dash,” Cox said. “In our opening scrimmage, he had three runs of 80 yards or longer. He runs very hard.”

Quarterback Joe Floyd returns, and his presence should help a lot. As a junior, he completed 54.1 percent of his passes for 1,049 yards and 13 touchdowns, and most important, he is a proven winner.

“He has had a great summer, and he’s done really well,” Cox said. “I’m really excited about him.”

Some of Fairfax’s other top players are offensive lineman Marcus Manley, linebacker John Bingham and safety Marquis Smith. Manley is 6-foot-2 and 270 pounds, and Cox calls him “one of the better players in the City Section.”

Bingham is a three-year starter who had 77 tackles, 3.5 sacks and three fumble recoveries last season. Smith had 26 tackles last year, and Cox expects a breakout season.

“He’s 5-8, 190 pounds, so he's built like Matt Bowen, a big, muscular kid who is a hitter,” Cox said.

Fairfax (10-3-1 last season) has advanced to the section semifinals or better three years in a row.

Friday's opener at Harvard-Westlake figures to be a tough test. The teams tied 14-14 last year, and Harvard-Westlake has many of its key players back, including quarterback Chad Kanoff and running back Jamias Jones.

Plus, Harvard-Westlake has the advantage of having already played a game, losing 34-27 to Venice last week in a defeat that saw the host Wolverines blow a big lead.

“Historically, we’ve been known as a pretty small team, but I think we’re pretty talented,” Cox said.

2011 FAIRFAX HIGH VARSITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 9 -- at Harvard Westlake, 7 p.m.
Sep 16 -- at Canoga Park, 7 p.m.
Sep 23 -- at Reseda, 7 p.m.
Sep 30 -- Marshall, 7 p.m.
Oct. 6 -- at Wilson, 7 p.m.
Oct. 13 -- Venice, 7 p.m.*
Oct. 21 -- at University, 7 p.m.*
Oct. 27 -- Palisades, 7 p.m.*
Nov. 3 -- Hamilton, 7 p.m.*
Nov. 10 -- at Westchester, 7 p.m.*

* Western League game