Garden Grove Elects to Forfeit Four League Games

The Garden Grove High football team has forfeited four Garden Grove League victories for using an ineligible player, said Bill Clark, Southern Section administrator in charge of football.

“I spoke with the Garden Grove principal (Peggy Mahfood), and she informed me they forfeited the games against Bolsa Grande, La Quinta, Santiago and Kennedy,” Clark said Friday.

Garden Grove Coach Jeff Buenafe said the ineligibility was caused by a clerical error.

“We found in game films that the boy had played in four of our six (league) games,” Buenafe said. “He played one down in one game and on a couple of special teams in the others.”

The Argonauts, the defending league champions, were in second place in league play with a 5-1 record (7-2 overall) going into Friday’s game against Pacifica. The forfeits dropped Garden Grove to 2-5 and 4-6 (after Friday’s victory over Pacifica), which seemingly would eliminate them from contention for a berth in the section Division VII playoffs, which begin next week. But Buenafe said his team still had a chance.

“I know that the league has the right to vote the teams it deems most representative into the playoffs,” he said. “Nothing will be official until (Saturday) morning at 8:30 (when the vote is announced).”

After losing their first league game to Rancho Alamitos, 43-13, the Argonauts had won their last five, defeating Kennedy, 33-0; La Quinta, 35-11; Santiago, 28-0; Los Amigos, 21-7, and Bolsa Grande, 31-0. The ineligible player did not play against Los Amigos.

The forfeit victory moved Kennedy into second place behind Rancho Alamitos and breaks a 16-game losing streak for Bolsa Grande, at least on paper.