ORANGE COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL : Olsen’s Touchdowns Help El Dorado Improve to 5-0

Life is sweet at El Dorado.

After Thursday’s 38-14 victory over Rowland High School at Bradford Stadium, the Golden Hawks are 5-0 in nonleague play, memories of last year’s 2-8 season are a bad dream and Coach Carl Sweet says his team is ready for the Empire League.

“If we ain’t, we’re in trouble,” Sweet said. His team opens league play next Friday at Katella High.

Senior tailback Chris Olsen seems to be good and ready. Against Rowland, Olsen carried the ball 23 times for 170 yards and scored on runs of 5, 6 and 2 yards. Though his touchdown runs were short, Olsen--who is averaging 6.7 yards per carry--also had romps of 32, 20 and 25 yards to help set up scores.

Junior quarterback David Swearingen also seems ready. When senior Kevin Schula fractured his foot, Swearingen stepped in, eight inches shorter than the starter but full of spunk. Thursday, Swearingen completed 5 of 7 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. Though Schula split time with Swearingen, Sweet says he’s not sure when the senior will be ready to start.

The Golden Hawks dominated the game early, taking the opening kickoff and marching 65 yards on eight plays to score on a 19-yard run by fullback Dave Berman.

El Dorado scored early in the second quarter on a 15-yard pass play from Swearingen to receiver Chris Facione. Then Scott Clausen recovered a fumble by Rowland’s Darren Skinner, the first of four Raider turnovers. Six plays later, Olsen ran five yards for his first touchdown. El Dorado scored again in the first half, on a 47-yard field goal by Phil Nevin (who was 5 for 5 on extra-point attempts) for a 24-0 halftime lead.

Though Rowland managed only 42 yards total offense in the first half, contrasted with 247 for El Dorado, the Raiders looked impressive on a third-quarter drive. They went 80 yards in 13 plays and scored on running back Corey Cougard’s 3-yard touchdown.

Olsen scored for El Dorado in the third quarter and again in the fourth. Rowland’s second touchdown came after the Raiders recovered a fumbled El Dorado snap and Bougard went on to score on a 5-yard run.