PREP FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : CITY 3-A : Fairfax vs. Chatsworth : Tradition Aside, Chancellors Stand in Way of First Lion Championship

Tradition is one element that certainly will be lacking in Thursday’s City 3-A football title game between Chatsworth and Fairfax at 8 p.m. at East Los Angeles College.

Unlike the 4-A, where Banning and Carson have carried on a storied rivalry in championship games, the teams in the 3-A title game have only one championship between them.

That belongs to Chatsworth, which went 12-0 in 1979. This is the first City championship game for Fairfax.

If championship experience is not going to be in evidence, however, defense almost assuredly will be. Fairfax (11-0) has allowed only 51 points all season and has shut out five opponents. Chatsworth (8-2-1) has given up only 95 points, 57 of which came in the first two games, and has not been scored upon in two playoff games.

The teams are fairly even defensively, and pretty much even in terms of size. Each coach says that his team is not very big, but relies on quickness.

Fairfax, whose smallest margin of victory is 14 points, has allowed the fewest points in the City and is also the top scoring team with 355 points in 11 games. After winning the Crosstown League title, Fairfax routed Manual Arts, 35-6, and Locke, 33-0, to advance to the championship game.

“They’ve been able to run the ball real well,” Chatsworth Coach Myron Gibford said. “And their quarterbacks and receivers--they’re unreal. They throw the ball as well as anyone we’ve played.”

The Fairfax offense does, indeed, have many weapons. The Lion offense is powered by the backfield trio of quarterback Rodney Dorsett and running backs Michael Hale and La’Trelle Barnes.

Dorsett has thrown for 1,562 yards and 9 touchdowns and has run for 244 yards and 4 touchdowns. Hale, despite missing three games, has run for 16 touchdowns and has 1,039 yards in 123 carries, an average of almost 8.5 yards a rush.

Fullback Barnes has rushed for 531 yards and 11 touchdowns and has caught passes for 275 more yards. Barnes also plays linebacker and is tied for the team lead in tackles.

“I’ve got three kids who can carry the ball,” Fairfax Coach Denis Furlong said. “And we can throw the ball to at least four different people.

“So far we’ve been fortunate. If something didn’t work, something else did.”

On the other hand, Chatsworth’s offense has been unimpressive, averaging only 14 points a game. It is a different type of offense from the one Gibford won the title with in 1979, a team that averaged only five passes a game. The 1985 Chancellors are a throwing team, relying on sprint-out passes by quarterback Rogelio Vargas.

The Chancellors lost their first two games of the season, to Cleveland and Granada Hills, but have bounced back to go 8-0-1 since then. Still, they have scored more than 20 points only twice all season.

No one has stopped Fairfax, and it is probable, despite Chatsworth’s impressive defensive credentials, that it will not happen in this game.

To win, Chatsworth is probably going to need some turnovers and mistakes by Fairfax. In other words, the Chancellors need the luck that Fairfax has had all year.

“Emotions run high in this kind of game, turnovers can certainly be a factor,” Furlong said. “We’ll never play a perfect game, what we try to do is to try not to let the roof cave in when something happens. Good things are going to happen to us. It’ll all even out.

“In order to win, you have to have a lot of things. You have to be good, and these guys (Fairfax) are good.