By Mario Villegas, Exclusive to EGP

One of the most storied high school football rivalries will reach a milestone Friday night when Garfield and Roosevelt meet for the 75th time in the East Los Angeles Classic before another expected crowd of more than 20,000 at East L.A. College.

Kickoff is at 7:30 and follows the frosh-soph game at 4 p.m.

There is much at stake in this year’s anniversary meetings besides neighborhood bragging rights.

Roosevelt is having a memorable season and with a victory against Garfield can clinch a tie for the Eastern League championship. The Rough Riders are 6-1 overall and 4-0 in league.

Roosevelt is led by quarterback-wide receiver Manny Ayon, quarterback Brandon Sifuentes, running backs Jesse Lira and Elgin Rosales, linebackers Ronny Lazo and Steven German and defensive back Jonathan Mariscal.

Garfield has struggled to a 4-4 record. The Bulldogs, however, have played well recently and have won consecutive games to improve to 2-2 in league.

The cliché “throw out the records” is heard most often when it comes to matchups between rivals and Garfield-Roosevelt is no exception.

“Roosevelt-Garfield is the most unpredictable game of the year,” insists Roosevelt Coach Javier Cid. “Garfield is much better than their record. I’ve been watching a lot of film on them and they have a great team. I would be a big fan of theirs, if I wasn’t coaching at Roosevelt.”

But the Bulldogs have been plagued by turnovers and penalties mostly in the red zone and the miscues were very evident in close losses to Paso Robles (8-7) Jordan (7-0) and Bell (13-7).

“We’ve got a young team and our inexperience has hurt us,” Garfield Coach Lorenzo said. “We do a get job moving the ball, but then we get into the red zone and it’s one mistake after another.”

Garfield is led by running backs Jonathan Lopez and Danny Vargas, quarterback Leonardo Vaal, wide receiver-defensive back Bobby Vargas and linebackers Hector Cazales and Moises Saucedo.

Source: EGPNews.com