SAN DIEGO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : 3-A Finalists : Fallbrook: : Warriors Hope Their Tough Road Will Pay Off in a Title

Tom Pack has been coaching football at Fallbrook High School for 16 years, the last nine as head coach.

But no matter how fine a season the Warriors have, it always seems they’re chasing Palomar League rival Vista.

And never quite catching their rivals.

Pack has seen Fallbrook celebrate a victory over Vista only twice in his 16 years--in 1982 and 1983. Which partially explains why Fallbrook is making its first appearance in a San Diego Section football championship game Saturday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

But there is one team in the way of Fallbrook winning its first title. The Vista Panthers.

“Every year our No. 1 goal is to beat Vista,” Pack said. “You have to beat Vista to win the championship.”

As expected, Vista has entered Saturday’s game undefeated. For Fallbrook it has not been as easy.

Before the season started Fallbrook looked as if it would give Vista a battle for the league title. The Warriors were returning their starting quarterback, Scott Barrick, and an All-San Diego County wide receiver, Bill Dunkel.

“During the summer, while we were working out on weights, we were saying, ‘This is the greatest team Coach Pack has ever had,’ ” Barrick said. “It got to our heads a little.”

The team received media attention for building a house and using the profits to fund a season-opening trip to play Maui.

And with a 34-14 victory over Maui, the Warriors seemed right on schedule. But then came a tie against San Marcos (20-20) and, after a victory, Fallbrook lost to Vista (48-21) and San Dieguito (21-12).

“You build a house, you get talked to all the time, you’re on ESPN and they’re in all the newspapers,” Pack said. “I think we started reading our newspaper clippings instead of playing football.”

Said Barrick: “We just had some hard times. There was a lot of individualism on the team. But we had a couple of meetings and that brought us closer together as a team.”

The Warriors rallied to win their final five games and finish the regular season 7-2-1 and in third place in the Palomar League.

In past years third-place teams did not qualify for the playoffs. This season, however, the San Diego Section playoffs were expanded from eight to 12 teams. Besides the first and second place finishers, four at-large berths are awarded.

Fallbrook opened the playoffs with a 55-0 victory over Madison. Then came a 31-23 victory over previously undefeated Sweetwater. Last week, the Warriors capped their drive to the title game with a 34-27 victory over Grossmont League champion Mount Miguel.

“There hasn’t been a week (since the loss to San Dieguito) where we could have lost or our season was over,” Pack said.

And although Fallbrook has had a tough road, Barrick, for one, thinks it has made the Warriors a better team.

“Our team knows that if we don’t work hard and put in good practices, just how bad we can be.”

But Vista remains in Fallbrook’s way--once again.

“It’d be a dream come true,” Barrick said of a victory over Vista. “You couldn’t ask for anything more.”