In 1981 . . . : EDISON LOSE? : Servite Got Serious, 14-7 : In Classic Mismatch-Gone-Awry, Friars Snapped Win Streak of Nation’s No. 1 Team at 32 Games

He had played the best football game of his life, in a game that remains the most memorable in a lot of peoples’ lives, and now, in his moment of glory, Dan Honikel could feel only one thing . . . sick.

Honikel was an outside linebacker on the 1981 Servite High School football team. A team he described as, “suffering through a miserable season.”

Servite finished the regular season 6-4, having lost three of its last four games before qualifying for a wild card berth in the playoffs.

“Most people thought we shouldn’t be in the playoffs,” said Doug Butler, the Friars’ starting quarterback. “Once we got there, everyone figured we’d get slaughtered.”

Slaughtered is a nice word for what awaited the Friars. They were assigned Edison in the first round. That’s Edison, as in winner of 32 consecutive games and two straight CIF Southern Section Big Five championships. It was Edison, as in No. 1 in the nation, averaging 35 points a game and hailed as the greatest high school football team from Orange County.

The Chargers had a radio contract, press guide and teen-star Scott Baio joining them in the huddle for a television special. It was a team with enough talent and reputation to fill a Las Vegas marquee.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was EDISON!

Earlier in the 1981 season, Honikel had seen Edison play, and he was dutifully impressed, terrified and relieved as he and Butler watched the Chargers rally to beat Marina, 28-24, in front of 9,000 at Cerritos College.

“We watched Edison for the first quarter without saying much,” he said. “Then, in the second quarter, we looked at each other and said, ‘Thank God we don’t have to play these guys.’ ”

Thirty five days later, on Nov. 21, Honikel was proven wrong. He and the Friars did their stretching exercises on the playing field as 8,000 made their way into LeBard Stadium. As they stretched, the Servite players could see a large banner reading, “Edison lose? Let’s get serious.”

Butler, who went on to play at Princeton, said he got angry when he saw the banner, but not Honikel, who is a behavioral science major at the University of San Diego.

“I thought the sign had a good point,” he said. “Anyways, I wasn’t confident enough to get mad. I just wanted to get through with this thing.”

Before it was over, Honikel would exhaust himself making 17 tackles--10 unassisted. He would even dare allow himself to believe Servite could beat Edison and then, after one glance over his shoulder near game’s end, he collapsed to his knees and pounded his fist in the turf.

The Friars led the Chargers, 14-7, with 30 seconds to go. Edison had the ball with a fourth-and-eight situation on the Servite 20-yard line. Charger quarterback Ken Major, who played the second half with a dislocated shoulder no one knew about until after the game, dropped back and waited. Soon, wide open near the end zone was tight end John O’Callahan. O’Callahan was Honikel’s defensive assignment.

Major threw the ball, Honikel became ill, but the ball fell off O’Callahan’s fingertips.

“He was wide open. In those few seconds, I went from feeling great to being on my knees with this sick feeling in my gut, “ Honikel said.

Butler took one snap, fell on the ball, and the Friars had completed the greatest upset in Orange County prep football. This miserable little team had scored in most improbable ways, an opening kickoff return and a bomb a minute before halftime, and had beaten Edison . . . EDISON!, 14-7.

“All the Servite fans in the stands came out on the field,” Butler said. “I get goose bumps just thinking about it. (Teammate) Eric Andrade picked me up. I was crying. We had to do the Hut Drill after the game. I was the guy who had to yell out the commands, but I couldn’t, because I was sobbing. Coach (Ron) Smeltzer came up to me and said, ‘Why are you crying?’ He was kidding. I could see he had tears in his eyes.”

Smeltzer went on to lead Servite to Big Five championships in 1982 and 1983. He is an assistant with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, the team that won the Grey Cup Championship Sunday. For all those accomplishments, he says nothing compares with what happened in LeBard Stadium Nov. 21, 1981.

“I don’t want to demean my other accomplishments, the Grey Cup or the two CIF championships,” Smeltzer said. “But this was the biggest thrill of my coaching career. I think I’ll always hold it as my fondest memory.”

But while others screamed, celebrated and sobbed, Honikel, back from the dead, was bent over, vomiting.

“I remember they had to drag Dan off the field,” Butler said. “As they were dragging him off, he was dry heaving the whole way. He gave everything he had that game. I guess it caught up with him.

Said Honikel: “All the emotion, all the energy I had put into that game, I was physically drained.”

This is it. Fourth and the season. Major is back to throw, he’s looking, looking, looking, THROWS! It’s off his finger tips! The game is in the refrigerator. Yes, it’s true, mighty Edison has lost!

--Greg Katz, calling Edison’s last play on KWVE-radio

Katz was in his first season of broadcasting Edison games for KWVE, a small, San Clemente-based radio station.

“I think 30 percent of my audience tuned in every week to root for the Chargers to win,” Katz said. “The other 70 percent listened to find out if they would finally lose a game this week.”

He remembered the scene after the game resembling a battle field.

“There were players laying all over the field. Players from Edison and Servite,” he said. “If someone had just walked into the stadium, he would have thought both teams had lost.”

The game was especially difficult for some Edison players who had never lost a game in their prep careers.

“I don’t think some of those guys knew what do,” Butler said. “You could see them, with their hands on their foreheads, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do. A lot of these guys had never lost a game before. They didn’t know how to handle losing.”

The biggest question afterward was not why Servite had won, but how Edison could have lost.

“We were playing a team that outclassed us by far,” Butler said. “We had no business being on the same field with those guys.”

What befell Edison was a series of strange occurrences and unfortunate breaks, before and during the game.

Five Charger players were subpoenaed to testify about an accident they witnessed and did not participate in Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday practices before the game.

Once at the stadium, the Chargers found out that the pictures taken at their Father-Son night, a few weeks before, had not turned out right and would have to be reshot before the game.

“There they were, taking pictures with their parents, and the Servite players are watching the whole thing,” Katz said. “I thought. Geez . . . the Servite players are going to be upset about this. They’re going to figure Edison wasn’t taking them seriously.”

Who could blame the Chargers for not taking the Friars seriously. In 1980, Edison had beaten Servite in the first round of the playoffs, 35-0. That season, Servite had made it to the playoffs with a 3-7 record.

“You could hear snores coming from our locker room before the game,” said Edison Coach Bill Workman, who once again leads Edison against Servite in a Big Five quarterfinal game tonight at Cerritos College.

Workman believes that the 1981 team was the best he’s ever coached. Better than the 1979 and 1980 Big Five champions. Better than the teams that featured players such as running back Kerwin Bell and quarterback Frank Seurer.

“Those other teams had great players at key positions,” Katz said. “The ’81 team had very good players at every position.”

Eighteen players received major college scholarships from the 1981 team. Quarterback Major is at Kansas University, wide receiver Rick DiBernardo at Notre Dame, and running back Dave Geroux signed with USC.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we were the better football team,” Workman said of 1981’s first-round game.

Actually, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Edison was better.

“If they would have stuck to their regular ground game, they would have beaten us,” Honikel said.

Instead, Edison attempted to spread the Servite defense. Workman placed two wide receivers on each side of his offensive line, figuring that with the Friar defensive backs out of the way, the Edison offensive line and Geroux, a Larry Csonka-type runner, could pound the four Servite lineman and three linebackers into submission.

But by halftime, Geroux and tailback Theo Langford had only 40 yards rushing between them, and Geroux had broken his left wrist and could not play the second half.

“Geroux was awesome,” Honikel said. “He was a wrecking crew by himself. It was a big break for our team when he left the game.”

The Friars’ first big break came when Brian Salerno returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

“We had worked on our kicking game a lot before the game,” Smeltzer said. “Somehow we knew that would be important for us to win. When Brian returned the ball, I couldn’t believe it. I looked around, waiting for someone to throw a flag.”

With 1:28 left in the first half, Butler threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Andrade to give the Friars a 14-0 lead at half.

“I think that play stunned us more than it did them,” Butler said. “There wasn’t much time left. We really weren’t looking to score. I remember dropping back and seeing him (Andrade) running away. I thought I overthrew him at first. But he ran under the ball and caught it on his finger tips. He just walked into the end zone.”

Major hit Bret Blanchard with a 16-yard pass to make it 14-7 in the third quarter, but Honikel and the Servite defense shut down Edison from there.

Perhaps the biggest misconception to come out of the game was that Edison had been beaten by a terrible team. It’s easy to forget that Servite went on to the semifinals, losing to eventual champion St. Paul. The core of the 1981 team made up Servite’s 1982 Big Five champion. Steve Beuerlein, who was the quarterback of the 1982 team and leads Notre Dame, was Bulter’s backup.

“I think that game really turned around the program at Servite,” Honikel said. “I mean, the next two seasons they won championships. . . Friday afternoon, we were just this horrible football team that was going to get killed. By Monday, we were heroes.”

The Big Game

Edison vs. Servite

The records--Edison 9-2, Servite, 9-2.

The site--Cerritos College.

The conference--Big Five.

Key to the game--Rushing the passer. The game features a matchup of two of Orange County’s most efficient quarterbacks, and the outcome may be determined by the best protection. Edison’s Mike Angelovic has completed 111 of 181 passes for 1,815 yards and 19 touchdowns. He has thrown five interceptions. Servite’s Tim Rosenkranz has completed 130 of 247 for 2,329 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Consensus--Servite is a slight favorite in what should be an entertaining, high-scoring game. The Friars appear to have the defense to pressure Angelovic, and Rosenkranz is perhaps the most talented quarterback Edison has faced this season.