Northwood football team looks for one more home victory and another trip to CIF finals

Northwood’s Adam Harper breaks loose for a gain against Grand Terrace in the quarterfinals. (Photo courtesy Mark Bausman).

Some followers of the Northwood High School football program may have been caught off guard when the Timberwolves, the champions of the Pacific Coast League, received a first round road game in the CIF Division 8 playoffs against another league champion, Monrovia.

Head coach JC Clarke didn’t make a big deal about it though, noting the Timberwolves received a first round home game last year on their way to the CIF Division 11 title.

It’s all worked out fairly well for Northwood. First, the Timberwolves defeated Monrovia 63-58, then Friday night they got past Grand Terrace 17-14 in the quarterfinals on a last second field goal by Karim Towkeem to advance into Friday’s semifinal against No. 2-seeded Vista Del Lago at Irvine Stadium.

If Northwood wins Friday, it could also play the championship game at home if Rancho Verde (5-7) defeats Lakewood (7-5) in the other semifinal, Clarke said. Rancho Verde, like Northwood will have had two home games, but Northwood won the coin flip. If Lakewood wins Friday, the game would be at Lakewood since the Lancers have only one home game in the playoffs.

“We love being home,” Clarke said Wednesday.

“We are home if Rancho Verde wins and at Lakewood if they win,” Northwood’s co-athletic director Brandon Emery added this week.

But no one, including Clarke, will take Vista Del Lago lightly.

“They are big and fast and will not overlook us,” Clarke said, adding that Vista Del Lago has two linemen more than 300 pounds. “We had a good and clean game last year and expect the same this year.”

Northwood defeated Vista Del Lago 16-12 in the Division 11 semifinals last year in Moreno Valley before going on to defeat Long Beach Jordan 37-14 in the championship game.

Northwood (11-1) has picked up where it left off last year with a nine game winning streak. The Timberwolves only loss came to Laguna Beach 35-31 on Friday, Sept. 2 at Laguna Beach.

The Timberwolves have been led by a solid offensive line which had to be reshaped because of injuries, quarterback Eugene Miyata and standout running back/free safety/linebacker Adam Harper, who rarely comes off the field.

Harper, the county’s leading rusher, has rushed for more than 2,000 yards and 26 touchdowns. He’s also completed 4 of 6 passes for 68 yards and four touchdowns.

“And he leads our team in tackles,” Clarke added.

Harper had 64 yards on 15 carries and hauled in five catches for 59 yards last week.

“These are two back to back really good games, the shoot-out last week and this was more of a defensive game,” said Harper after last week’s win. “Both showed us that we have heart and we’re battling and we’re going to keep doing that in the playoffs. They brought it; we had them in the first half, but we knew they were going to come at us hard in the second and that’s what they did, but we were able to hold on in the every end and get a good defensive stop, get the ball back and trust in our offense and we went down the field, got us in good field range to win this game.

“Whoever we play, we’re going to give them a fight.”

Vista Del Lago (9-3) opened the playoffs with a 26-20 victory over JW North before defeating Crean Lutheran 26-21 last week. It will be Vista Del Lago’s second straight trip to Irvine for the playoffs.

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—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com