Santa Margarita’s 5-foot-4 running back Elijah Robinson is full of energy

You can’t miss sophomore running back Elijah Robinson of Santa Margarita. He’s always the smallest player on any field at 5 feet 4, 160 pounds.

Just don’t underrestimate what he’s capable of doing in his role of carrying a football. He knows how to find holes, pick his spots and turn on the speed.

He showed all that last week in a scrimmage against Chaminade and will be ready to go on Saturday when Santa Margarita opens its season at Mission Viejo.

“He’s got a feistiness to him,” coach Anthony Rouzier said.

There’s also a fearless quality playing in the Trinity League with his lack of size. Teammates get excited when they see him succeed.

Game change

Crenshaw and Fairfax have moved their scheduled game on Friday to Sept. 20 when both have byes. It will allow Crenshaw to keep adding players to its roster. Earlier this month, the Cougars had only 12 to 15 players cleared to play. It means Crenshaw’s season opener will be against Gardena on Aug. 29.

Transfer rush

The rush is on for schools trying to clear transfers to play this week in zero-week games. They need to finalize transfer paperwork and get final approval from the City Section and Southern Section.

The importance of being thorough can’t be overstated. Teams will forfeit games if a player is determined to be ineligible later. Last season, Nogales decided to play a player still under review, resulting in forfeits when he was declared ineligible.

Players who transfer without moving in football have to sit out games until Sept. 30 in the Southern Section and Sept. 27 in the City Section.

Travel success

It was a good week for most teams traveling to Hawaii. Mission Viejo, Sierra Canyon, Viewpoint, Beaumont all won. Redlands was the only Southern California team beaten.

Among the statistics, Dane Dunn rushed for 135 yards and Madden Riordan had three interceptions for Sierra Canyon. Jeremiah Duhu of Beaumont completed 11 of 17 passes for two touchdowns.

Simi Valley won in Reno, with running back Brice Hawkins rushing for 156 yards and three touchdowns.

Flag football rules

Flag football rules will be written by the National Federation of State High School Assns. for the 2025-26 season, it was announced Monday. The rules will be for boys and girls.

There are 12 state associations with sanctioned girls flag football this season and 19 others running pilot programs.

California has seen a large growth in girls flag football teams. In Southern California, the Southern Section will hold its first divisional championships in November.