By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
WILLOWS - Axes and bells are rather inexpensive items 364 days of the year, but on one Friday in the fall, they’re the most prized possession in the county.
High school football is a game filled with pageantry, passion and drama, and no matchups bring out those qualities more than the small-town rivalries that pit neighboring towns, and often family members, against each other on a cool autumn night.
An excellent example of small-town rivalries can be found in Glenn County in Northern California. On Friday, the Willows Honkers hosted the Orland Trojans in the 85th meeting in the Battle for the Axe. The annual Little-Big Game, so named after the Big Game pitting bitter rivals Stanford and Cal, has been played nearly every year since 1921 and perhaps no small town rivalry has been more closely contested. The Honkers held a 42-41-1 edge going into Friday night’s game with the Trojans having the chance to tie the series with a victory.
It was not to be, however, as the Honkers took a 32-0 halftime lead and held on for a 46-7 win.
The scene Friday night was typical of many small-town rivalries across the state. Orland and Willows are separated by just 16 miles in Glenn County. Families sometimes have to split their allegiances between the two towns. Orland assistant coach Victor Perry, for instance, has nephews who play on the Willows junior varsity squad. “We sit on the Willows side, but we cheer for Orland,” said his sister prior to the game.
Similarly, brothers Jim and John Romano stood near the sidelines Friday with Jim wearing a Willows cap and John sporting the Trojan blue and white. The two brothers played for Orland in the Little-Big Game in the 1960s, but Jim’s sons were star quarterbacks for the Honkers, each leading Willows to a section championship. John’s sons were standouts for the Trojans.
Willows has one of the more storied histories in the Northern Section. The winningest team in Northern Section history with 491 all-time wins, no section team has more league titles or undefeated seasons than the Honkers. Additionally, no team in California won more games than the Honkers did during the 1950s. Orland, meanwhile, ranks seventh on the section list with 408 all-time wins.
For close to 60 years, the annual county battle between the two teams often determined the league championship. In fact, from 1933 to 1977, the two teams combined for 31 league titles, including 1955 when both teams were 8-0-1 and fittingly tied 13-13 in what is the only tie in the all-time series.
The Honkers held a huge lead in the series, but Orland began to chip away at the advantage during the 1980s and 1990s under coach Dave Cato, a Brawley native who grew up experiencing one of the state’s great rivalries – El Centro Central vs. Brawley. In fact no two teams epitomize small-town rivalries like El Centro and Brawley. The two schools have played each other 156 times since 1921 with Brawley holding a 75-71-10 edge. According to the Cal-Hi Sports Almanac, no two California teams have played each other more often than Brawley and Central.
“I remember being in seventh grade and going to the games and wanting to play against Central,” said Cato, who coached for 36 years at Orland. “The two teams would pack the stadiums. We would have 10,000 people at our games.”
The towns of Brawley and El Centro are located 13 miles apart in the Imperial Valley at the edge of Death Valley near the California-Mexico border. Each year they play for The Bell. Dave’s brothers Tom, Art, Jack and Steve all played in the game with Steve eventually becoming head coach of the Wildcats.
“The Bell Game brings our family together,” said Steve. “I was coach in 1983 to 1989. You could feel people breathing down your neck. We won the Bell Game one year in the last 48 seconds and I was carried off the field by the players. I have never experienced that feeling again.”
Steve Cato said that the Bell Game has grown over the years.
“We had the San Diego CIF Commissioner visit our game two or three years ago. He went back to San Diego and invited everyone to attend the Bell Game to see high school rivalry at its finest.”
Dave Cato said that like the Orland-Willows game, families in Brawley and El Centro are often pitted against each other.
“I had cousins that played for El Centro,” he said. “I also had friends who played on that team. One of them, Randy Palomino, joined me as an assistant coach when I got the job in Orland.”
For close to 20 years, Cato found himself looking across the field at an old friend – Ed Zuckerman – every time the Trojans took on the Honkers. Cato's college teammate and the godfather of his daughter, Zuckerman was the Willows coach from 1974 to 1995.
“We were rivals all of that time, but we were still friends,” said Cato. “He drove all the way from Santa Barbara to come to my retirement party. I’ll never forget that.”
While Cato and Zuckerman have since retired from coaching football, Jake Petersen is the new head coach at Orland High School. In his second year with the Trojans, Petersen was also witness to the rivalry between schools like Brawley and El Centro since he was a coach at Southwest High School in El Centro before arriving in Orland.
“The rivalries between here and down there are very similar. The communities rally around the event and it gives a year’s worth of pride to the winner,” said Petersen.
Petersen and the Trojans are trying to rebound from an 0-10 season in 2007 and they have already erased those memories with an opening-season win over Durham in week one. Willows, meanwhile, is in its first year under former Honker standout and longtime assistant coach Jim Ward. He takes over for highly successful Curtis Parks, who won two section titles in his tenure as coach, but stepped down following the death of his son during the 2006 season.
Ward’s Honkers (3-0) are the favorites in the Sacramento Valley League this year, and they showed why in the first half Friday night against Orland. Behind the rushing of Fabian Gutierrez and the acrobatic catches of Cody Pastorino, the Honkers opened a 32-0 lead by halftime.
Pastorino had touchdown receptions for 31 and 25 yards in the first half while Gutierrez scored on runs of 11 and 2 yards. Ricardo Mata also kicked two field goals from 30 and 26 yards.
Gutierrez finished with 102 yards on 13 carries while Pastorino caught four passes for 74 yards.
Willows scored twice in the second half on runs of 2 yards by Tyler Kormos and 1 yard by John Semisi. Orland’s only touchdown came in the final minute on a 10-yard run by Edgar Alvarado.
With the victory, the Honkers were able to celebrate the win as many Little Big Game victors have celebrated before – with a victory lap around the field holding aloft the valuable Axe.
Results of other rivalry games played last week in Northern California
Tehama County Shootout – Red Bluff 47, Corning 7 – Zack Schwabauer ran 19 times for 272 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Spartans to the win.
Rice Bowl – Williams 8, Pierce 0 – The Yellowjackets won the 81st annual Rice Bowl on an 11-yard pass from David Covarrubias to Humberto Guzman.
Victory Bell – Oroville 29, Las Plumas 6 – Tigers get first win of the season in battle between two Oroville schools.
Big-Little Game – Marysville 28, Yuba City 21 – Indians scored 21 points in final quarter to beat the Honkers in the first Big-Little Game played between the neighboring towns since 1986.
