Northwood football team enters PCL play with best record and high hopes

Northwood football coach Pete Mitchell addresses his team Thursday night.

Northwood’s football team is heading into Pacific Coast League action Friday night with plenty of momentum and high spirits.

“I think we’ve proved at least that we’re getting better,” said Northwood Coach Pete Mitchell after the Timberwolves’ 51-20 victory over Cerritos Thursday night. “That’s been our goal is to get a little better each game and I think we’re doing that.”

Northwood (4-1) plays at University (1-4) Friday night in the league opener.

It’s been a great start for a program that wound up 2-8 last year and struggled in the opening weeks. The Timberwolves are ranked No. 8 in this week’s CIF Division 12 poll.

This year, the start has been fast and the hopes are up.

“We lost our first three and ended up 2-8,” Mitchell said. “Those seniors are the building block. You got to start somewhere. We started to see a little bit of growth last year. Hopefully we continue to get better.”

The coaching staff includes Mitchell’s son, also named Pete Mitchell and former Northwood quarterback Dan Selway, who runs the offense.

“They’re doing a great job on the offense and I’m fortunate enough to have Dean Toohey, a great defensive coordinator (helping with the defense),” the head coach said. “I’m very blessed to have a very good coaching staff.

“We’re excited. We have fun. We have a bunch of young kids and they’re excited. We haven’t been winning that much so every one is fun. The kids work hard, they really do.”

Two of the Northwood opponents Los Osos (3-2) and Santa Ana Valley (3-2) have winning records. Los Osos, a Division 5 team, handed Northwood its only loss of the season in week two, 45-7.

Two of the wins came against Saddleback Valley Christian (1-5) 21-8 and Bolsa Grande (1-4) 49-7.

Another victory came last week against Cerritos, which was 3-2 going into the game with Northwood.

“This team was 3-2 and they’ve blown some people out,” Mitchell said after the Timberwolves win over Cerritos.

“So I don’t know. We will find out in league. We got Uni to start off with. Our sights are now on league and trying to do well in league. We’re Northwood and we have to prove ourselves every week.

“We don’t take offense to anything. We’re up to the challenge and hopefully we get better.”

Multi-purpose player Seth Locke believes the Timberwolves can have a successful season.

“Going into every week with a strong week of practice and going into that game on Friday night, I think we should be solid,” Locke said. “I don’t think we have too much to worry about this year. We have a group of good group of guys who are young and ready to play.

“If we just practice hard and everyone is holding each other accountable then I think we will be good during league.”

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE FOOTBALL RACE COULD BE UP FOR GRABS