DAILY UPDATE.

COLLEGES

Antelope Valley College

With the emergence of 5-foot-7, 185-pound Jerome Mitchell, the football team established an effective running game Saturday in its 51-32 Foothill Conference loss to visiting Southwestern.

Mitchell, an Antelope Valley High graduate, rushed for 75 yards on 15 carries as the Marauders (1-4, 1-2) totaled a season-high 158 yards on the ground.

``On the offensive side of the ball we had some good performances,'' coach Brent Carder said. ``We ran the ball well against a pretty good defense.''

Mitchell figures to get a majority of the carries Saturday against visiting San Diego Mesa at 3 p.m.

- Sean Ceglinsky

HIGH SCHOOLS

Antelope Valley

The football team will be going up against a former assistant coach when the Antelopes play Highland on Friday. Highland coach Sam Vaiana was an assistant for Antelope Valley in 1994, then an administrator at Antelope Valley, and again an assistant from 1997 to 1999. Vaiana took over as head coach for the Bulldogs this season and has led Highland to a 4-1 start.

``Sam has done a great job with Highland,'' Antelope Valley offensive coordinator Brandon Newcomb said. ``It's going to be tough going against him. He has the defense playing well.''

- Matthew Kredell

Highland

The girls' volleyball team improved from a poor performance last week - when it had trouble beating Antelope Valley in the Golden League opener Oct. 8 - by beating Palmdale on Thursday.

The Bulldogs, who played host to Littlerock on Tuesday, saw Deseray Pisotchi rebound from a hand injury - which occurred Oct. 2 while goofing around with her friends - by recording 10 kills against Palmdale.

``We played (bad) against A.V.,'' coach Rick Phillips said. ``We improved a lot against Palmdale, and we hope this week we can improve on that as well.''

The Bulldogs (5-4, 2-0) travel to Lancaster on Thursday.

- Julio Cortez

Lancaster

Two of the Golden League's top singles players meet Thursday when the Eagles play host to Highland in a girls' tennis match at 3:15 p.m. Senior Karen Zimmerman leads the Eagles against Highland and its No. 1 singles player Diana Georgescu.

The team that wins will gain an edge in the league race. Both are trying to catch Quartz Hill for the title.

Lancaster and Highland meet again in the final week of the regular season at Highland.

- Heather Gripp

Littlerock

The cross country team will host the second Golden League meet of the season at 3 p.m. today at Pear Blossom Park.

The Lobos competed over the weekend at the Santa Clarita Invitational but had to field a reduced team because of SATs. Senior Paul Sparks finished fourth overall in 15 minutes, 28 seconds. Sophomore Ciera Bateson was the top girls' finisher in 69th place. Junior Nils Jenner, an exchange student from Germany, medaled in the junior-varsity race, finishing 28th in 19:19.

- Ross Siler

Palmdale

Being a starter doesn't mean much for the football team, since coach Jeff Williams rotates players every series. It takes more depth than most prep teams possess, but it works for Palmdale.

The Falcons had seven different players score touchdowns in Friday's 49-15 victory over Locke. Kwincy Edwards, Sean Edwards, JaVonte Holmes, Adrian Jenkins, Jarrett Lacy, LaRon McIntyre and Justin Shaw all scored. QB Jacob McCravey threw the touchdown that went to Shaw. The rest came on runs.

- Matthew Kredell

Paraclete

The football team's consecutive losses (on the heels of a 28-game winning streak) dropped the Spirits to third in the latest Southern Section Division XI poll that could be further shuffled before the end of the regular season.

Paraclete's new league, the Olympic, should be one of the most competitive in Division XI. Though Paraclete figures to get past Paramount in its final nonleague game this week, the rest of the schedule offers few gimmes.

After the league opener at Village Christian of Sun Valley on Oct. 26, the other three Olympic League opponents are in the Division XI Top 10: No. 5 Montclair Prep of Van Nuys, No. 10 Kilpatrick of Malibu and No. 2 Valley Christian of Cerritos.

- Chris Cocoles

Quartz Hill

The freshman B football team gets only one chance to do things right against Lancaster. Although they face the rest of the Golden League teams twice, today's game is the only meeting of the season between the Rebels and Eagles. The game is at 4:30 p.m. at Quartz Hill.

- Heather Gripp