Weekend Playbook/Week 4: Just seven undefeated teams left in District

Perfection is a difficult level to reach, as three more Stanislaus District teams were reminded of Friday night. The ranks of the unbeaten dropped to seven Friday night, as Patterson, Argonaut and Delhi were toppled.

Patterson lost 14-7 to defending state champ Escalon, while Delhi fell 40-21 to Amador, and Argonaut lost 33-19 to Ripon — none should be called an upset, not considering the caliber of their competition.

It leaves us with a Lucky 7 — Buhach Colony, Pitman, Oakdale, Manteca, Escalon, Ripon and Le Grand. The CCC, VOL and TVL have two unbeatens each, and Le Grand is the runaway SL favorite.

There's a strong possibility that we could have three league games featuring perfect teams late this season: Escalon at Ripon Oct. 7, BC at Pitman Oct. 14 and Manteca at Oakdale on Oct. 28. BC and Escalon are ranked No. 1 in The Bee's large- and small-school rankings, respectively, and CalHi Sports has them No. 1 in Northern California in their divisions.

Here are the chances that these seven teams will go unbeaten in the regular season, with a little bit of playoff projections thrown in:

• Le Grand: The seven teams left on its schedule are 5-16, and there isn't one that should get within 21 points of the Bulldogs. There's no one in the Division 5 playoffs who will challenge Le Grand, either, so the 'Dogs look headed to 12-0 — which would put them in the mix for the state Division 4 Bowl in Carson.

• Ripon or Escalon: Hard not to go with the defending state champ, particularly after its impressive win over large-school Patterson and its ferocious defense. Cougars might be better on defense than a year ago, but Ripon might have its best team ... perhaps ever? Ripon has just one section title, beating Mariposa 31-14 in 1996, but has lost in the final four times.

• Buhach Colony or Pitman: BC was an offensive juggernaut and made the section D2 semifinal last year, but it's got a crushing defense this fall. That's going to make for a big game, because Pitman's strength is a four-headed running scheme that also includes QB AJ Derr.

• Manteca or Oakdale: These two always are preparing for a battle. Oakdale has at least a piece of six of the last seven VOL titles, while Manteca has three in six years. Oakdale is 106-29-1 since the start of 2000, Manteca is 101-27-2: Only Central Catholic (124) and Escalon (121) have more wins in that span.

• MUSTANGS RUN WILD — After disposing of its second non-section foe in two weeks, Oakdale appears ready for Friday's league opener with Sierra. Marcus Hernandez hit the middle for 140 yards and four TDs, giving him nine TDs in the last two games, in a 51-20 rout of Rancho Cotate — the score was 45-7 after three quarters.

The Mustangs forced five turnovers, including a pick that Bastion Jimenez ran back 65 yards for a TD, and Justin Martin's 42-yard field goal got things going.

• MISSING THE POINT — Enochs has struggled on PATs since the start of last season, when it misfired on three 2-point attempts in a 20-18 loss to Buhach Colony — which went 12-0 before losing. The Eagles went 0-for-3 in last week's 32-18 loss to Hilmar, and it was 2-for-5 on kicks Friday — and again, it cost the Eagles a victory.

The missed opportunities were enough to allow Bishop O'Dowd to steal a 41-40 win, despite a career night by new QB Trey Cooper. He passed for 122 yards and ran for 183 and two TDs in his first start.

• CENTRAL'S SCARE — Down 12-0 in the first half, Central Catholic road the broad shoulders of Craig Jones to 42 straight points and a 42-12 win at Chavez. Special teams put Central up 14-12 at halftime: Ray Lomas returned a kickoff 75 yards and Sterling Shaw blocked a punt and returned it for a score.