THE HIGH SCHOOLS : El Camino Real’s Dream Turns Into Granada Hills’ Nightmare

Talk about a dream game.

El Camino Real co-Coach Mike Maio can talk about dream games. Four of them, to be exact.

During the Thanksgiving break, Maio had four dreams about his team’s playoff game against Granada Hills on Friday. The outcome was identical in each: El Camino Real won by a field goal.

When he met with his team last Monday, Maio made a proclamation.

“Hey, we’re 4-1,’ ” he deadpanned. “We got a chance.”

Maio’s “four” referred to the dream wins; “one” referred to an all-too-real 21-0 loss that El Camino Real suffered against the Highlanders earlier this year.

In perhaps the biggest upset of the season in the Valley, the Conquistadores knocked off Granada Hills, 16-9, to advance to the City Section 4-A Division semifinals against Dorsey.

El Camino Real, which ended a 24-game winless streak two years ago, is 6-5. Granada Hills, seeded second in the playoffs, finished 10-1.

Maio took a postgame ribbing from his players over his premonition. “They were teasing me,” he said. “ ‘Have more dreams,’ and stuff like that.”

The game was also a dream for Granada Hills running back Brett Washington. A really bad one. He was limited to 25 yards rushing.

“It was like sadness and crying,” Washington said. “I told my buddies to pinch me just to tell me it was real. I couldn’t believe we lost.”

Rooted to the ground: The Conquistadores won despite having a one-dimensional attack. Jamal Anderson gained 159 of El Camino Real’s 222 yards on the ground. Quarterback Tony Bordwell failed to complete any of his three attempts.

Granada Hills quarterback Bryan Martin passed for 214 yards--26 more than Bordwell’s season total.

Braced for Big Benn: If only Chris Foster could have emerged from games as unscathed as his state-of-the-art knee brace. While the Thousand Oaks fullback routinely creaked around the house after Friday night warfare, Foster’s neoprene-covered brace sat neatly in a satchel at the foot of his bed, always, it seemed, ready for further punishment.

After all, the thing ought to be indestructible--it cost $500.

Perhaps the condition of the brace Friday night was a testament to the type of vicious hits that occurred in Thousand Oaks’ 9-3 overtime loss to Muir. At game’s end, the twisted hunk of metal looked less like an unscathed protective device and more like a Salvador Dali painting.

“It’s a doctor’s brace,” Foster explained. “It’s supposed to fit my leg. I looked after the game and it was just totaled.”

Or, as his father, Steve, succinctly noted, “It was all bent to hell.”

Chris attributes the warping to a second-half play in which Muir tackle Orlando Benn, who is listed at 308 pounds, fell on him in a pile. At 5-foot-9, 215 pounds, Foster is no Don Knotts. Still, Benn was a load.

“It’s like a ton of bricks coming down,” he said. “It’s like getting smothered.”

Wonder how the brace felt.

Que Serra, Serra: Greg Andrachick makes a mistake on the football field about as often as one of those ultra-accurate atomic clocks loses a second.

Andrachick, Notre Dame’s quarterback, and center Joe Vanek have bobbled one exchange in four years. By his recollection, he has never fumbled an exchange with a running back.

How ironic, then, that Andrachick would commit two costly errors Friday against Serra, a game that proved to be the last of his high school career. Notre Dame lost, 12-3.

First, his errant pitch on the Serra four-yard line was snagged by a defensive lineman. Later, Andrachick fumbled the ball away on the Serra goal line on a one-yard sneak.

The miscues were particularly excruciating to Andrachick, who barely slept the night after the game. “Dropping the ball will stay with me a lot,” he said. “If you give me the ball, I’m going to score. I’m not going to hurt you and that hurts.

“I know that Serra knows that we should have beat them and that hurts. At least I know we were there. And I don’t think anyone could stop us and that’s a shame.”

Out cold: Strike up the band, Marshall Fundamental, victim of a 54-0 bashing by Montclair Prep. Let’s hear it, Brethren, which encountered a similar fate, 61-0. How about your 55-0 run-in with the Mounties, Maranatha?

Tehachapi ended the Mounties’ season Friday for the third time in the 1980s with a 7-0 victory.

Running back Derek Sparks is well aware that most coaches in the Valley were probably less than brokenhearted when they opened Saturday’s sports page and learned of Montclair’s demise.

“A lot of people were against Montclair Prep, but that’s how it’s going to be when you’re the No. 1 team and you have this much talent,” Sparks said. “A lot of people pulling different ways.”

A factor in the loss was the second-quarter injury to quarterback Leland Sparks, Derek’s cousin. Leland, who suffered a sprained ankle, was replaced by seldom-used Michael Lincavage.

“When you lose that one piece to the puzzle, you have to go with something you weren’t planning to go to,” Derek said. “Leland was the missing piece.”

Not a banner night: At the end of halftime Friday with their team trailing Orange, 28-6, Agoura cheerleaders held up a large hoop covered with poster paper for the players to run through. The banner read, “Finals Here We Come.”

Maybe it should have read “Final.” Despite rallying in the second half, the Chargers fell, 35-22.

All Carson’s show: For the past three seasons, Kennedy’s season has been ended by Carson, each time by shutout. In four games this decade, Carson has outscored the Golden Cougars, 153-0.

Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle was hardly surprised at the lopsidedness of Friday’s 31-0 win. “I knew we’d win and I was pretty sure it’d be a shutout,” Vollnogle said. “Our kids are just too big and too fast for them.”