SAN DIEGO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : 2-A Finalists : Lincoln: : Eric Griffin Can Get His Kicks Out of Just Plain Kicking

Lincoln High School’s most unrecognizable point producer this season is constantly overflowing with enthusiasm.

He’s an excitable sort. But you’ll never see him in the end zone doing a fancy dance.

Check the sidelines. Yes, that’s him, the kid following Coach Vic Player around like Player owes him money or something.

Meet Eric Griffin, the Hornets’ placekicker.

On Lincoln’s high-flying football team, that’s like being Morgan Fairchild’s make-up artist. You’re around, but you’re not really needed.

The Hornets, who meet Oceanside High in the 2-A championship game Saturday night in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, have scored more points this season than any other team in the history of San Diego Section football, averaging more than 40 points a game. So who needs extra points?

“I have to admit that extra points really don’t concern me much,” Player said. “Maybe that’s just my personal prejudice.”

To Griffin, however, kicking extra points is a fun way to spend a Friday night.

“That’s the best way I can contribute to the team,” said Griffin, a junior who also is a reserve defensive back. “I get a big thrill out of seeing the ball fly through the uprights.”

Sometimes, though, Griffin’s watching his kicks in flight cause problems. When he misses, more often than not it’s because he has pulled his head up too soon to watch.

“When I get back to the sidelines after I miss, some of the coaches get on me, but mostly they tease me,” Griffin said. “I don’t mind, really. I have a lot of fun.”

Certainly, at times this season Griffin has brought the fun back into extra-point kicking. He has made 47 of 65 attempts, but when he has missed it has been in bunches. Griffin was 3 for 8 in one game against Morse and 2 for 5 against El Camino.

After one of his kicks in the Morse game was blocked, he jumped up and down in anguish--and turned his ankle.

Everybody thought it was pretty funny, except Griffin.

Although those who saw him kick against Morse may not think so, Griffin has actually been working on his kicking for a long time. When he was 7, he kicked for his Mighty-Might football team. His holder then, as now, was Freddie Stokes, Lincoln’s quarterback.

When this season started, Griffin was not the Hornets’ kicker. Eddie Wilkerson, with the Lincoln junior varsity, started the first game. But when he missed his first two PATs, Player sought Griffin. He made 7 of 7 that night in Lincoln’s 71-0 victory over San Francisco Wilson and he has been the kicker since.

“You know, I think Eric’s has had a heck of a year,” assistant coach Skip Coons said. “How many kids in the county have scored 47 points?”

Not too many kickers, anyway. In fact, The Times’ All-San Diego County kicker, John Ashworth of Poway, scored only 43 points this season. Ashworth, however, did make 12 of 15 field-goal attempts to tie the section record.

Griffin’s field-goal record isn’t as impressive. Lincoln hasn’t attempted a three-pointer this season.

“Believe me, he’s asked me a lot of times,” Player said. “He’ll come up to me on the sideline when it’s fourth down and ask me if he can kick. I tell him to wait a second and watch our fourth-down play. Then we score and I send him in to kick the extra point.”

And, then, the fun begins.