THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Monroe’s Gagliano Grabs Toehold in Record Book Despite Case of Nerves

Here’s the snap. The ball is down, the kick is up . . . and it’s . . . GOOD!

Stop the presses and roll that tape. Rachel Gagliano, Monroe High’s 5-foot-3 senior kicker, has done it. Never mind that Monroe was routed by Birmingham, 40-7, Friday night. Forget that the Vikings finished 1-7-1 and last in the Mid-Valley League.

Rachel made her point.

With the third-quarter extra point, Gagliano tied the state single-season scoring record for a girl with 11 points--eight PATs and a field goal--this season. And once again she is big news.

Throughout the week, Gagliano had confronted a blitz of newspaper and television reporters, and she was featured on at least one local sportscast. On Friday night, no fewer than six Los Angeles news programs featured her record-tying kick on their late-night newscasts.

When Gagliano trotted onto the field in the first quarter for a 42-yard field-goal attempt, it was lights, camera, action.

“When she walked out onto the field, the whole field lit up from all the television cameras,” Gagliano’s mother Annette said.

Said Coach Dave Lertzman: “We had to make them turn them off. It was blinding everybody.”

Although Gagliano had booted several 40-plus-yard field goals in practice, this time the kick fell a few yards short. It was Gagliano’s only missed kick attempt of the season. She made her only other field-goal try and was eight of eight on extra-point attempts.

But it was not her only unsuccessful try of the evening.

Gagliano also failed in her bid to be crowned homecoming queen during halftime ceremonies. But she has provided a jolt of excitement during a largely uneventful season for Monroe.

A comment, Rachel?

“She’s not here,” her mother said Saturday morning. “She went to Disneyland.”

More good news, considering that Gagliano looked like she was headed for the hospital after the game. Gagliano limped off the field with a piercing abdominal pain, which family and friends originally thought was appendicitis.

As it turns out, it was just nervousness.

“She’s fine,” her mother said. “We didn’t take her to the hospital. I think it was just the pressure and everything that was going on. It was just a really big night. The record, the television cameras, homecoming and it’s the last football game she’ll ever play. . . . She was just wiped out.”

Too bad Gagliano didn’t inform any of the television media of her postgame plans. That would have been a kick too.

“She told me that she was going to Disneyland,” Annette said. “And that’s exactly what she did.”

Sure, but Fantasy Land could never top this.

Add uprights: Canyon’s Chris Wilson also got in his kicks Friday night. Ten of them, to be exact.

Wilson’s 10 extra points in Canyon’s 70-20 laugher over Santa Monica in the first round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs tied a Southern Section record shared by two others and set a playoff record. Steve Dorfman of Montclair Prep in 1984 and Frank Felix of Central in 1987 also kicked 10 extra points.

Of course, Wilson’s 10 extra points also set a school record.

“Wanna know the sad part about it?” Canyon assistant Gary Lindberg said. “The guy who had the old record was my son.”

Ron Lindberg booted eight extra points in a game for Canyon in 1985. “I’ll call him tomorrow and he’ll be tongue-in-cheek about it,” Gary Lindberg said. “He’ll say, ‘Way to go, dad. Why didn’t you take him out when he had seven?”

Playoff payoff: Talk about ultimatums. Kennedy High Coach Bob Francola drew the line with his players before Friday night’s 24-15 North Valley League victory over San Fernando. Either beat San Fernando to earn the league’s third and final playoff berth, the coach demanded, or defer to Chatsworth.

“It made us work real hard in practice,” tailback Ontiwaun Carter said. “We went over plays. We listened. We learned. There was no time for laughing or any bull.”

Kennedy and Chatsworth entered the final week of the regular season tied for third with 2-4 league records. In the event of a tie, City Section rules require an eight-play California tiebreaker to determine the final playoff berth.

But Francola and Chatsworth Coach Myron Gibford had agreed earlier to forgo the tiebreaker in the event of a tie and award the playoff berth to the Chancellors by virtue of their 20-7 victory over Kennedy last week.

Chatsworth lost to Granada Hills, 20-6. But the Golden Cougars met their coach’s challenge.

PLAYOFF PAIRINGS: Match-ups for this week’s Southern Section and City Section football games. C25.