The first religious holiday of the fall has the football teams at Royal and Simi Valley highs operating on a short practice week.

With Rosh Hashanah being observed between sundown on Wednesday and sundown on Thursday, the Simi Valley Unified School District will not permit the two programs to stage any practice on Thursday.

"It's pretty tough, because that's the last practice before the game and that makes it important," said Royal athletic director Jim Wilbur. "It's our last walkthrough, so we're more concerned about potential injuries than anything else. But we'll do what we're told to do."

The district originally planned to allow the two programs to practice after 7:08 p.m., or sundown, on Thursday. By Wednesday afternoon, school officials were told no practice would take place.

Simi Valley travels to Pacifica on Friday night. Royal will play at Oak Park.

Other Marmonte League programs are practicing as normal.

Newbury Park coach George Hurley said Conejo Valley schools can practice, but only after obtaining written authorization from the school principal.

He also noted the other holidays will also be affected.

"If we're fortunate enough to be playing at that time, we will also need permission to practice on Thanksgiving," said Hurley. "It's not only religious holidays."

Lecari honored: Camarillo will honor former head coach Jack Lercari in a ceremony before tonight's game against Agoura.

Lercari, the school's second football coach, had a 51-49-3 record in 11 seasons, from 1958 to 1968. After stepping down as head coach, Lercari remained with the football program until 1985.

His 1961 team won the Frontier League title and advanced to a rain-soaked CIF-Southern Section 2A quarterfinal game against Arroyo Grande. The two teams played to a scoreless tie. Arroyo Grande advanced on first downs. Tackle Tom Shearer was an All-CIF first-team selection.

Former Camarillo coach Carl Thompson and former Simi Valley coach George Ragsdale will be among the those attending the ceremony, said Camarillo booster club president Jeff Hahn.

Members of the 2007 Camarillo team will shake hands with Lercari after the presentation.

"We didn't want young people to forget the history of the program," said Hahn.

Five of Lercari's teams had runner-up finishes.

Blackout, the sequel: The power outage that forced Simi Valley to reschedule its season opener with Buena from last Friday to Saturday rekindled memories of one of the most bizarre moments in the Simi Valley-Royal rivalry.

The 1996 game played at Moorpark College was minutes away from kickoff when the entire stadium was plunged into darkness. It seems that an auto accident nearby had taken out a power pole and blacked out sections of Moorpark.

School officials and coaches first had to find each other in total darkness before they could make plans. Eventually, Simi Valley coach Roger McCamy and Royal coach Gene Uebelhardt decided to play the game the next day at 10 a.m. at Simi Valley High.

"It looked like the game was going to be canceled, but Gene and I felt that it had to be played," said McCamy. "We ended up going the next morning."

Simi Valley won, 21-6.

Reading time: For its season-opening game against Oak Park, Cathedral required its offensive players to have the team's plays either on arm bands or waist pads.

Before each play in Cathedral's no-huddle offense, the Phantom players simultaneously searched their carry-on items to make sure of what was being called from the sidelines.

It must not have been easy reading.

Cathedral drew delay-of-game penalties more than a half-dozen times.

Cathedral players weren't the only ones seemingly confused.

Game officials waved off penalties and stopped the clock to confer on several occasions. One official threw a flag against Cathedral for having too many players on the field. A recount by all the officials discovered no violation.

No flags on us: After being one of the most heavily penalized teams in Ventura County for years, St. Bonaventure has been flagged only once in its first two games.

That flag, for unsportsmanship conduct, came after a St. Bonaventure touchdown.

Long day: St. Genevieve, which will be on the road Saturday at 2 p.m. at Santa Clara, scored 60 points in its season-opening win over Animo.

And it was just barely enough.

Animo made the most of 844 all-purpose to score 54 points.

Animo had 222 yards rushing, 265 passing, 327 in kickoff returns and had a 30-yard interception return. Special teams also blocked a field-goal attempt.

At least one Ventura County school is quite familiar with the Animo football program. Santa Paula beat Animo in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Faces on the sidelines: Ken Benefield was walking the sidelines during last Friday's game with Santa Paula at Channel Islands. The Raiders stadium is named after Benefield, a longtime coach, athletic director and principal. Channel Islands has had some outstanding athletic teams over the years, but Benefield was shaking his head at the "green" Raiders. Santa Paula coach Eddie Gomez watched his team lose 14 in a row until they celebrated by handing Channel Islands its sixth straight loss.

Channel Islands principal Rocky Valles is the son of Oxnard Union High School District board member Robert Valles. Father and son were in attendance along with board president Dick Jaquez, who was the co-coach of the 1980 Rio Mesa High CIF-Southern Section championship baseball team. Dick's son, Richard, a baseball player on the 28-0-1 team in 1980, was also on the Cal State Northridge Wold Series championship team. The elder Jaquez said his son has been teaching and coaching for 18 years. Richard is the baseball coach at Camarillo High.

All over the field: Christopher Potter has been a busy man for Oaks Christian.

Potter handled his quarterback duties well. The replacement for departed Jimmy Clausen has completed 10 of 16 passes for 206 yards and four TDs and carried seven times for 57 yards and three TDs.

He has also returned one kickoff for 24 yards and two punts for 50.

Tough task: While Grace Brethren had an easy time in its opener last week, shutting out Kilpatrick 48-0, the Lancers know things won't be as easy tonight against Big Bear.

Big Bear won the CIF-SS Central Division last season and is 2-0 this season, scoring 69 points while allowing 18.

"We'll have our work cut out for us," said Grace Brethren coach Mark Hoefler.