In Search of: Top Competition : El Toro Opens Today Against Whitehall in Pennsylvania

History will be in the making tonight when El Toro High School meets Whitehall of Allentown, Pa., to kick off the 1986 high school football season.

El Toro is the first high school team from California to play in Pennsylvania, an area that is considered one of the nation’s hotbeds of prep football.

Whitehall is perennially one of the top teams in the state, having won or tied for the East 10 Conference in four of the past six seasons.

The 10-day excursion is also serving as a history lesson for Charger players, coaches, parents and cheerleaders.

The group of 80 has visited the Statue of Liberty and Gettysburg and after the game will spend three days in Washington, D.C., where sight-seeing tours of the Ford Theater, the White House, Arlington Cemetery and the Washington and Lincoln monuments are also planned.

“We wanted to take a trip, but we also wanted to have the players learn something about our country,” said Bob Johnson, El Toro coach. “I thought a trip to the East Coast would be ideal.”

Al Jones, a tennis instructor at El Toro who films the games for the football team, suggested a game against his alma mater, Whitehall. Johnson contacted the school and the game was scheduled.

Each player paid $680 for the trip, and a total of $36,000 was raised primarily through a weight-lifting fund raiser and a dinner-dance.

The Chargers, who have won five league titles in the past six years, have 10 starters returning from a team that finished 9-4. Scott Spalding, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 250-pound tackle, has been named by USA Today as one of the top 25 players in the nation.

“There will be coaches from Notre Dame and Penn State in the stands to watch Scott,” Johnson said. “He’s received a lot of national recognition, and the East Coast colleges want to get a first-hand look.”

El Toro figures to pass more this season with the pass-catch combination of Bret Johnson and Scott Miller returning. Johnson completed 136 of 246 passes for 2,078 yards and 14 touchdowns as a sophomore. Miller caught 51 passes for 834 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Whitehall, which slumped to 3-8 last year, will counter with a ground-oriented attack, utilizing a full-house backfield.

Halfback Shaun O’Boyle rushed for nearly 1,000 yards as a sophomore and quarterback Mark Beidleman returns to run the offense. Whitehall has 10 returning starters.

In other games tonight:

Edison vs. St. Anthony in Maui: Dave White, who replaced Bill Workman as coach, makes his debut with only five starters from last season’s Southern Section Big Five Conference co-champion.

Kaleaph Carter, 6-0, 200-pound junior running back, rushed for 927 yards last season. Also returning are Mike Henderson, who will move from wide receiver to quarterback, linebacker Marc Hartman and nose guard Bruce DeBois.

Henderson has no varsity experience at quarterback, but White said he’s one of the best athletes on the team. Henderson, a starter on Edison’s basketball team, played quarterback on the freshman and sophomore teams.

Carter, a bruising fullback with breakaway speed, is one of the county’s best. He finished second in the State shotput competition last year. The defense should be strong, especially against the run, behind Hartman and linebacker Bernie Colacchio.

On Friday night:

Brea-Olinda vs. Baldwin in Maui: The Wildcats have only four starters returning from last year’s team, which finished 5-6 and was eliminated in the first round of the Central Conference playoffs by La Habra, 33-0.

Wildcat Coach Bill Brown is concerned about his team’s lack of experience and size. Only one player weighs more than 200 pounds.

“I tell ya, if we don’t get better soon, we may be tempted to spend the season in Hawaii,” Brown said. “We may never come home.”

As usual, Brea will run its wishbone offense, but Brown said he isn’t sure who will start at quarterback. Senior Rich Palacios, the No. 3 varsity quarterback last year, and junior Shon Riley, junior varsity quarterback last year, are competing for the position.

Steve Teran, one of the Wildcats’ leading receivers in 1985, will move to running back. Mike Oziminski, who rushed for about 500 yards last year, also returns in the backfield.

Tustin vs. Kapaa in Kauai: The teams met last year in Southern California with Tustin gaining a 14-6 victory. Tiller quarterback George Menges, who passed for nine touchdowns as a sophomore, returns along with running backs Tim Hollinger (5-10, 190) and Chris Gankema (5-9, 185).

Tustin Coach Marijon Ancich will be going for his 199th career victory spanning 19 seasons at St. Paul and the past two years at Tustin, where his teams have been 10-10. Ancich has 19 returning starters from last year’s 4-6 team.

Kapaa opened its season last week with a 28-13 victory over Kalani in Honolulu. The Warriors finished second in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation and return quarterback Dawson Carvalho and two-way starter Neil Fagarang.