High school football: After dodging heat, blackouts and smoke, football teams ready to battle

Sep. 9—In a week of changes and disruptions, it's looking like there will be high school football tonight.

Fingers crossed.

With a heat wave keeping people indoors all week, blackouts shutting down practice field lights, and wildfire smoke creeping in, it's been a struggle for local teams to practice and plan for tonight's games.

Lodi High, which faces Franklin of Elk Grove tonight at Cosumnes Oaks High, has been practicing at night to avoid the heat. So has Tokay, which faces West Park in Roseville tonight.

Both teams fell victim to Wednesday night's blackout that affected most of the city. Tokay's Collin Rhoads said his team's practice ended at 8 p.m. when it was scheduled to go another hour, while Lodi's George Duenas was able to get a little creative.

"We've been practicing at night, under the lights. Last night, dealing with the rolling blackouts, 7:30 or 8 p.m., boom," Duenas said. "We had to go into the gym and practice. Somehow the Meehleis gym was on a different grid."

Farther north, Galt High has a bye week, but Liberty Ranch is shuffling things around. The Hawks were scheduled to play at Bear River in Grass Valley, but smoke from the Mosquito Fire is choking that area, so the game has been moved to Liberty Ranch, where kickoff will be at 8 p.m. due to the heat.

"Just in the past few days, our administrators contacted their administrators and worked that out, and they were gracious enough to move the game down here," Liberty Ranch coach Warren Schroeder said. "It's still a home game for them, we're going to wear our away jerseys. We'll split the gate with them to make sure we are as accommodating to them as they have been to us."

Schroeder's Hawks have spent most of the week practicing indoors, with one practice on the field on Wednesday morning.

"I've been around the block. I know for me, 100 degrees is too hot to be on the field," Schroeder said. "That's always been a marker for me, and even in the upper 90s, I've tried to do different things. Obviously, you prefer to be on the field, but to keep the kids healthy and safe, you make those accommodations."

On Thursday, Schroeder was monitoring smoke maps of Northern California, hoping the smoke from the wildfires don't creep down to disrupt games on the valley floor.

"Looking at this map here and there, it seems to be clearing out, but this morning I woke up and smelled it and said, 'Here we go,' " Schroeder said. "I feel for the teams up in the hills. It's tough, these kids want to play, and they've prepared for so long."

With all that going on, there's still football to prepare for. Schroeder said matchups between Liberty Ranch (3-0) and Bear River (1-1) have always been tough games.

"They'll never quit. They run a similar offense as us, the Wing-T," Schroeder said. "They do it well, and we feel they will be challenge for us on both sides the ball."

Tonight will be Lodi's second trip to Elk Grove this season. The Flames opened the season with a 36-6 victory over Pleasant Grove. Franklin is 0-3, but that may be a deceiving record.

"They've got some good size, some speed. Definitely, they're really good," Duenas said. "They went up against a couple of really good offensive teams, but they play physical and fast. I believe this is going to be the biggest test defensively so far for us."

Lodi (3-0) is coming off of an easy win over Chavez, and will face a different animal tonight.

"We're going to need our offensive line to have a big game," Duenas said. "I expect our backfield to make some plays, but if we can stop their penetration and take it to them, with them being overly aggressive, we'll have some big plays."

Tokay (3-0) will also have a test on its hands after a 36-0 shutout win over Kennedy last week. West Park is a new school fielding its first class of seniors, but the Panthers went 6-5 with a playoff spot last year, with just juniors and sophomores, and are 2-0 this year.

"You can definitely see on film they are well coached," Rhoads said. "They play fast, they play sound, they do the little things right. This will be our biggest test of the year so far."

With quarterback Develle Barksdale running an option offense, Tokay's defensive front seven will have their hands full.

"They run a lot of different plays on offense that we have to prepare for, and definitely they do relatively a lot of the things we prepare for on a week to week basis, but their offense does a lot," Rhoads said. "A lot of RPOs (run-pass options), their quarterback's an athlete, he moves well, he can run out of the pocket, he can throw."

VOLLEYBALL

Varsity — Bear Creek 3, Tokay 1

The Tigers dropped to a 2-2 record with Wednesday's 25-22, 24-26, 25-18, 25-20 loss.

Karina Ochoa racked up 10 kills, 3 aces and 18 digs, Maggie Burford had 24 assists, 6 aces and 5 digs, Mya Okoreeh had 7 kills, 6 digs and 3 blocks, Hannah Okoreeh had 6 kills, 6 blocks and 3 digs, and Bella Breech had 16 digs.

JV — Bear Creek 2, Tokay 0

Olivia Hunt had 3 aces and 3 digs, and Adrianna Kiegley had 4 kills as Tokay dropped to 2-2 with a 25-22, 25-23 loss.

Freshmen — Bear Creek 2, Tokay 1

Tokay dropped to 0-2 with Wednesday's 25-11, 21-25, 15-11 loss.