Football: It’s showdown time

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Los Angeles Valley College will be the site Friday night for a game that should bring out the fans en masse. Los Angeles Loyola (3-0) will take on Bellflower St. John Bosco (3-0) in a game that pits a pair of second-year head coaches who were hired to get their programs back on the winning path.

Loyola’s Mike Christensen and St. John Bosco’s Jason Negro appear to be doing just that. Each team shut out their opponent on Friday night, Loyola blanking Newport Harbor and St. John Bosco beating Santa Fe. Now comes the final exam time.

Loyola’s success can be traced to the emergence of junior running back Wyatt Bradford giving the Cubs a consistent ground attack to open the way for quarterback Nick Cotton to get the ball to Kodi Whitfield and others.

On Friday, junior quarterback Patrick Finnegan, filling in for the injured Cotton, completed 10 of 13 passes and had TD pass to Whifield.

St. John Bosco also has come up with a balanced offense. Quarterback Rene Medina passed for 246 yards in a 51-0 win over Santa Fe.

This game will get both schools ready for the brutal schedule they’re going to face in the Serra and Trinity leagues, respectively.

But it should be a fun night at Valley College, with the alumni doing some trash talking and the players pumped up.

Now I have to figure out who wins.

-- Eric Sondheimer