Mater Dei Tries Favorite’s Role on for Size : Monarchs’ Huge Offensive Line May Outweigh Opponents’ Strengths

The Angelus League? This is the Angelus league:

Mater Dei has a huge offensive line. Servite has two of the league’s three best players. St. Paul has the other. Bishop Amat is very fast, and Bishop Montgomery is the last team in the league to beat Bishop Amat.

On the other hand . . .

Mater Dei lacks depth. So does Servite. St. Paul lacks consistency, and Bishop Amat lacks a proven running back. Bishop Montgomery will have a hard time winning a league game.

No team figures to be invincible, as Bishop Amat has been the past three seasons, in which their league record is 15-0.

Yet each team, with the exception of Bishop Montgomery, seems to have certain cogs that if healthy and performing up to par, could lead their teams to the league title.

League coaches pick Mater Dei to win the championship. The reason for this is an offensive line straight out of Land of the Giants.

“It’s the biggest high school line I’ve ever seen,” said Miguel Olmedo, St. Paul coach. “They should dominate the league.”

The line averages almost 260 pounds and is so impressive that Super Prep, a national high school football publication, listed it, en masse , as one of the top state’s top players.

Even Chuck Gallo, Mater Dei coach (who picked his team to fight for third . . . cough, cough), admits his team has a chance to be exceptional, if players don’t get hurt.

“We don’t have a lot of depth,” Gallo said. “So if we get into problems with injuries, we could go from an excellent team to a good team very quickly.”

Servite is an interesting mix.

In the backfield stands Derek Brown, an outstanding tailback who would be considered the state’s best if there weren’t a guy named Russell White at Crespi. The problem for Servite is that Brown will be running behind an offensive line that has only one returning starter.

Servite has the league’s best defensive player in linebacker Garrett Greedy, but it also has the memory of allowing an average of 20.8 points in league games.

Everyone seems to think that Bishop Amat’s winning streak in league play will come to an end this season. This seems a safe bet, considering the Lancers lost most of their offensive starters from last season’s team. But the Lancers, as they have been in the past, are exceptionally fast.

“You’re never going to have a down year when you have that kind of speed,” Gallo said.

St. Paul has the league’s best quarterback. Greg Willig is 6-feet 6-inches, 210 pounds, one of the biggest quarterbacks in the state.

According to Olmedo, Willig has improved a lot during the summer. That could be bad news for other teams, since Willig was regarded by coaches as the best in the league last season.

But, even with Willig, St. Paul must overcome inconsistency. Consider that with Willig leading the way, St. Paul dominated Servite, 31-21, last season. Then the Swordsmen turned around and lost to Bishop Montgomery, 14-12.

And what about Bishop Montgomery? Well, the Angelus League hasn’t been very good for the Knights. They’ve won only four games in the past three seasons, and half of those have come against St. Bernard, which has fled to the Camino Real League.

Of course, one of the victories came against Bishop Amat in 1984. It was Bishop Amat’s homecoming game and the last time it lost a league game. And the Knights did stun St. Paul last season, so you just never know.

BISHOP AMAT--The league has been Bishop Amat’s domain the past three seasons. They’ve run right over opponents with such running backs as Mazio Royster (1,704 in 1987). Royster is at USC now, but his blocking back from last season, Roger Adams, is the starting tailback this season.

Is this a problem? Well, considering Bishop Amat turns out running backs--Pernell Taylor (formerly of Notre Dame), Randy Tanner (formely USC) and Eric Bienemy (Colorado)--the way lizards regenerate tails, no.

Brian Harmon takes over for J.R. Phillips at quarterback and figures to be looking a lot toward wide receiver Jeremy Smith, whom coach Mark Parades calls, “a jet.”

Parades hopes that Harmon, who Parades says is very effective throwing medium-range passes, will add a dimension to the Lancers’ offense, which has been firmly entrenched on the ground the past few years.

The Lancers are in good shape on defensive, with six returning starters.

BISHOP MONTGOMERY--The Knights will have to replace quarterback Niu Sale, who graduated.

“You don’t replace a kid like that,” said Andy Szabatura, Bishop Montgomery coach.

Oh.

True enough, in the five games Sale played last season, Bishop Montgomery won four. In the five games he missed because of injury, the Knights lost four.

“He was worth 14 to 21 points a game,” Szabatura said.

Scott Altenberg will take over at quarterback, but look for running back Richard Jones to take on a heavy part of the offensive load. Jones rushed for 280 yards in three games last season.

On defense, Bishop Montgomery’s strength is its four linebackers--Pete Ortiz, Lee Geans, Tom Matter and Mike Hall. Szabatura says Hall, a sophomore, reminds him a lot of Garrett Greedy at the same age. Also returning on defense is all-league noseguard Eric Griffin.

Szabatura, in his fifth season at the school, was the first coach to win an Angelus League game there. Before that, Bishop Montgomery had gone five straight seasons without a win in league play. Szabatura doesn’t expect any miracles, but his team was competitive with Bishop Amat (21-14), beat St. Paul and scored 26 points against Servite.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” he said.

MATER DEI--”Everyone’s going ga-ga about the size of those kids,” said Gallo, referring to his offensive line. “But the important thing with them is their experience.”

All five offensive linemen have at least one year experience. Three of them--center Rick Pallow (6-3, 240), guard Brian Turk (6-5, 265) and tackle Bryan Ducote (6-3, 265)--are all seniors and have been starters since they were sophomores.

“We bit the bullet with them back then and went 5-5,” Gallo said, referring to their inexperience. “But we were looking down the road, we knew we had something with these kids.”

The other two members of the line are guard Ryan Motherway (6-4, 245), a junior who started last season, and tackle Bob Arne (6-5, 275), a senior who started last season.

Gallo says size doesn’t guarantee success, pointing to a Westminster team several years ago that was touted as No. 1 in Orange County because of the size of its players and failed to make the playoffs.

Still, with this offensive line and a defensive line that includes the outstanding talents of nose guard Lua Pola (5-11, 255) and Jason Uhl (6-4, 240)--seniors who have started since they were sophomores--it’s hard not to like Mater Dei’s chances.

Danny O’Neil, a transfer from Corona del Mar, will start at quarterback. A junior, O’Neil has never played a down of varsity football.

“He’s very intelligent,” Gallo said. “We’ll have to see how he reacts, but he appears to have a tremendous amount of poise.”

Returning at running back is Robert Clifford, who, as a sophomore, rushed for more than 700 yards in eight games.

ST. PAUL--The Swordsmen have been inflicting a killer schedule upon themselves season after season, lately. Playing a killer non-league schedule before diving into one of the state’s most brutal leagues. This season, as it did last season, St. Paul will play Loyola (11-1, last season), Santa Monica (9-2) and Fontana (14-0), before entering league play.

“Our biggest concern playing that schedule is the injury factor,” Olmedo said.

In fact, by its fourth game last season, St. Paul had every running back out with injuries. Of course, some good came out of that. Defensive back Gene Valdez was moved to running back and gained 555 yards in 6 games. Valdez will start at running back this season.

But St. Paul will live and die with Willig. He has the size and talent to dominate a game by himself. He also has a couple of speedy receivers in juniors Steven Corpus and Bruno Serrano, who Olmedo says is the team’s fastest player.

Just as the offense will depend on Willig, the defense will depend on linebacker Chuck Ortega. Ortega will receive some help from sophomore defensive tackle Ramon Estrada, who helped lead St. Paul’s freshman team to the league title.

SERVITE--Brown is Orange County’s best running back. As a junior he gained 1,080 yards. In a memorable playoff game last season against Crespi, Brown and Russell White combined for 470 yards rushing and 7 touchdowns. Brown rushed for 217 yards in that game and 4 touchdowns, but Servite lost, 45-38.

One of this season’s most eagerly awaited games will be the rematch between those teams Oct. 1 at Orange Coast College.

“Russell presents a personal challenge to Derek,” said Jerry Person, Servite’s first-year coach. “We take the attitude around here that we take one game at a time. But there has been a lot of talk about that game around here.”

Person took over less than a month ago for Leo Hand, who resigned. He inherits a program strong on tradition and with several outstanding players--Brown, Greedy at linebacker and Darren Galloway on the defensive line.

But there is only one returning starter on the offensive line, center Eric Bowman (5-11, 225).

“We’re very inexperienced up front,” Person said.

Depth is a problem. Servite has a relatively small team with 42 players.

Chris Johnson, who played defensive back last season, will play quarterback. Johnson, a left-hander, played quarterback on the Servite sophomore team a couple of years ago.

Greedy, who was somewhat overshadowed last season by the flamboyant Mike Petko, is regarded as one of the best linebackers in the state. He has dropped 15 pounds. He’s now 6-3, 215, and has improved his quickness and mobility.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEWS

ANGELUS LEAGUE

1987 Overall, League Records in Parenthesis

SCHOOL ’88 COMMENT Bishop Amat (11-1, 5-0) Quality skilled position players have graduated Mater Dei (7-4, 3-2) Veteran offensive line averages almost 260 Servite (8-3-1, 3-2) Tailback Derek Brown among state’s best Bishop Montgomery (4-6, 2-3) Four league wins in past three years St. Paul (3-7, 2-3) Quarterback Greg Willig best in the league St. Bernard (3-7, 0-5) Moves to Camino Real League