The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Marquez Does Bit of Give and Take on the Center Snap for Los Altos

Quick-change artist: Randy Marquez of Hacienda Heights Los Altos always played center in football, until he quarterbacked the junior varsity to a 9-1 record last season, and his versatility became obvious.

So, playing with the varsity this season, he has done both for a team that is 7-1 and among the best in the Eastern Conference.

As the starting center, he has big shoulder pads and wears uniform No. 58.

As the backup quarterback to David Olson, Marquez wears smaller pads and No. 12. He has completed 4 of 9 passes for 20 yards and a touchdown in 4 games.

Nothing like a change in mid-game to liven things up.

“I do kind of get confused after so many plays,” he said. “You have to know the quarterback and line assignments for both.”

Marquez also volunteered to play wide receiver on the scout team, but Coach Dwayne DeSpain turned him down, figuring that the work load was heavy enough as it was. But Marquez should be used to the switching off. In baseball, his favorite sport, he was third-team all-league last season while playing pitcher and catcher.

Most City football teams are experiencing depth problems this season, but Carson s not one of them. The Colts (6-0) appear to be a lock for the 4-A championship. If there were anything better than unbeatable, they would fit that, too. In fact, the problem is finding someone to take the No. 2 spot.

Granada Hills, because of quarterback Jeremy Leach, wide receiver Kyle Jan and tight end Sean Brown, looks to be the second-best team, and the Highlanders are 3-3. San Fernando, previously No. 2, was tied by winless Woodland Hills El Camino Real last Friday, Gardena was whipped by Carson, and Banning has been inconsistent most of the year.

If ever there was a year for a playoff game between the City 4-A titlist and the Big Five or Southern Conference winner from the Southern Section, this is it.

Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle, long a proponent of such a game, has a simple way of making sure the Colts, who have outscored opponents, 255-14, don’t get over-confident.

“He yells at us,” quarterback George Malauulu said. “We have noon talks and he always says, ‘Watch the big heads, watch the big heads, or you’re going to fall.’ ”

Prep Notes

Prime Ticket will show the Santa Monica-Beverly Hills football game next Monday at 8:30 p.m., three days after the Ocean League showdown will have been played at Santa Monica College. The game features two of the top running backs in the Southern Section, Glyn Milburn of Santa Monica and Willie Crawford of Beverly Hills. . . . Tracy Hudson, who won three Southern Section girls’ badminton titles for Garden Grove in the last four years, was killed in a single-car accident Oct. 18 outside Tempe, Ariz., where she was a freshman at Arizona State. According to a highway patrol report, Hudson veered off the road at 1:30 a.m., struck a metal highway reflector pole that penetrated the car’s floor and struck her in the foot. She then lost control of the car, which rolled onto its roof. Besides her accomplishments at Garden Grove, Hudson, 18, won the junior national championship triple crown--singles, doubles and mixed doubles--last spring.

When San Fernando, then No. 2 in the City, was tied by El Camino Real, 26-26, in a Valley League game, the Tigers missed one extra-point kick and a pair of two-point conversion tries. San Fernando, which led in the third quarter, 26-12, is 5-0-1 overall and 1-0-1 in league play. El Camino Real is 0-4-2 and 0-0-2. . . . The ninth annual Kinney cross-country meet, the only national championship event for high schools, will be held Dec. 12 at Balboa Park in San Diego. . . . Reseda finally played its first home game last Friday, a 34-6 victory over North Hollywood five weeks into the season. The Regents (5-0) opened on the road against Van Nuys Birmingham, had a home game with Sepulveda Monroe canceled because of the earthquake Oct. 1 and then played at Westchester, Venice and Sylmar.

Getting defensive: Woodland Hills Taft (5-1) has recorded three straight shutouts and allowed seven and six points in two other games, with the only breakdown a 44-0 loss to Encino Crespi. Pasadena Muir (7-1) has three consecutive shutouts and four this season, and has given up seven and three points in two other victories. Panorama City St. Genevieve (5-3) has three straight shutouts and four in the last five games.

Times’ Prep Polls SOUTHERN SECTION

No. School, League Record 1. Fontana, Citrus Belt 8-0-0 2. Crespi, Del Rey 7-0-1 3. Loyola, Del Rey 8-0-0 4. Capistrano Valley, South Coast 8-0-0 5. Bishop Amat, Angelus 8-0-0 6. Santa Monica, Ocean 7-0-0 7. Eisenhower, Citrus Belt 7-1-0 8. Palmdale, Golden 7-1-0 9. Hart, Foothill 7-1-0 10. Santa Ana, Century 7-1-0 11. Mission Viejo, South Coast 7-1-0 12. Lynwood, San Gabriel Valley 7-1-0 13. Mater Dei, Angelus 7-1-0 14. Los Alamitos, Empire 7-1-0 15. Ventura, Channel 8-0-0

CITY

No. School, League Record 1. Carson, Pacific 6-0-0 2. Granada Hills, Valley 3-3-0 3. Gardena, Pacific 4-2-0 4. San Fernando, Valley 5-0-1 5. Palisades, Crosstown 4-2-0 6. Reseda, Pac-8 5-0-0 7. Taft, Sunset 5-1-0 8. San Pedro, Freeway 4-2-0 9. Dorsey, Pacific 4-2-0 10. Franklin, Freeway 4-1-0