PREP FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : CENTRAL : Saddleback vs. La Quinta : A Game of Firsts to Decide First Place

The Central Conference high school football championship game will record several firsts before the teams even take the field Friday night at 7:30 at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

For Saddleback of Santa Ana and La Quinta of Westminster, this game marks the first time that either has advanced to the championship round.

It is also the first time that Saddleback (12-1), co-champion of the Sea View League and La Quinta (11-2), winner of the Garden Grove League, have ever met in football.

Further, it is also the first time that either team has played at Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium, an 8,000-seat facility considered to be among the best in Orange County.

That’s something of an oddity for Saddleback because the Roadrunners’ Santa Ana campus is only 10 minutes from Orange Coast College. In addition, several of their league rivals occasionally use LeBard Stadium as a home field, but it has never worked out that the Roadrunners have played there.

Despite the recent rains, the field is in reasonably good condition, which should make both teams happy, considering that both have relied heavily on their running games to make it to the championship game.

For La Quinta’s Joe Zeno, this will be his third coaching appearance in a Southern Section championship game. Zeno coached Paso Robles to 1-A championships in 1972 and 1974, and his seven-year record at La Quinta is 41-21.

Doug France, former Los Angeles Ram offensive tackle, is an assistant to Zeno, helping to fashion a running attack largely responsible for a 41-point scoring average for the Aztecs against their first three playoff opponents.

Eric Zeno, the coach’s 6-foot 2-inch, 215-pound son, began the season as the Aztecs’ quarterback, but sat out most of the season with a broken bone in his leg, then returned in November and was moved to tight end. That gave the Aztecs a two-tight end offense, allowing them to run to either side of the line.

Tailback Bart Recktenwald leads La Quinta’s rushing attack, and Derek Debbs has been an able replacement at quarterback.

The elder Zeno is pleased that the game will be played under the bright lights at OCC instead of the darker high school fields that the Aztecs ordinarily play on.

“For the first time this season, our kids will actually be able to see the football when they’re playing,” he joked.

Saddleback counters with tailback Glenn Campbell and quarterback Myron Butler, a converted flanker who has passed for 1,500 yards and 16 touchdowns.

The Roadrunners’ only loss was to Newport Harbor of Newport Beach in the regular season, 24-21. La Quinta beat Newport Harbor, the conference’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs, in a semifinal game last week, 42-29.

Saddleback coach Jerry Witte is concerned about stopping La Quinta’s strong rushing game, but in consecutive weeks his team’s defense has stymied two of the better backs in the conference.

In a second-round game, Saddleback slowed Ray Pallares, the Southern Section’s all-time leading rusher from Valencia.

And in last week’s semifinal against La Habra, the Roadrunners stopped Chuck Weatherspoon, a highly recruited tailback whose brother, Anthony, is a running back at the University of Colorado.

“When you get to the finals, there aren’t very many teams you play that don’t have a good running back,” Witte said.

“The backs might get the glory, but it’s still the line that determines whether you win or lose. Their line against our line will decide it.”