Prep Review : Mission Viejo’s Opening Victory Didn’t Surprise Coaching Staff

Adapt and apply.

Mission Viejo High School’s football team did just that in its 14-7 victory over San Diego Morse Friday night in its season opener.

Mission Viejo was The Times’ fourth-ranked team in Orange County coming into the game. Morse was No. 1 in San Diego County. The Tigers had opened their season a week earlier with a 63-8 victory over St. Anthony’s of Hawaii--an impressive debut that might intimidate an opposing coach.

But not Mission Viejo’s Mike Rush.

During the week before the game, Rush and his staff watched film of the Morse game. Between scenes of Tiger players scoring touchdowns, Rush found a weakness.

“There was a breakdown in their coverage,” Rush said. “Nothing glaring, but their cornerback and safety stayed up short on some plays.”

In the first quarter, Mission Viejo lined up with three wide receivers on the right side, and quarterback Troy Kopp threw deep to Erik Ekdahl for a 33-yard touchdown.

In the second quarter, the Diablos repeated the play. This time Ekdahl scored on a 25-yard pass play from Kopp, who completed 11 of 17 passes for 167 yards.

“When we came out in the triple set, Morse looked a little confused,” Rush said.

Ekdahl, who caught 6 passes for 142 yards, had two other opportunities to catch deep passes but had the ball go through his hands. Still, his two touchdown receptions gave the Diablos enough points for the victory.

“We want to give different looks each week; we don’t want to get caught up in doing one thing all the time,” Rush said. “Our staff spends a lot of time trying to apply certain things that we can take from the other team.”

Adapt and apply.

Two other big games featured four county teams expected to make their marks during the 1988 football season.

Fountain Valley, ranked No. 1, played No. 2 Mater Dei Thursday night in Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium. In the other game, Tustin played cross-town rival Foothill in what school district officials billed as the “Super Bowl” of Tustin on Friday night.

Both games drew capacity crowds, but fans who attended the games saw vastly different performances.

One only needed to check the one-word reviews of the coaches to judge the outcome.

“Ugly,” said Foothill Coach Jerry Howell, after watching his team’s 10-0 victory over Tustin.

“Embarrassing,” said losing Tustin Coach Marijon Ancich, who has more career victories (214) than any other coach in the Southern Section.

“Shocking,” said Fountain Valley Coach Mike Milner after his team played errorless football in a 22-17 victory over Mater Dei.

Fountain Valley lived up to its preseason billing with steady performances by quarterback David Henigan and running back Kedric Powe. Henigan passed for two touchdowns and ran for one, and Powe gained 93 yards in 22 carries.

Fountain Valley had no interceptions or fumbles and was assessed only one major penalty. Milner said it was the school’s best opening game since 1983.

“We had a similar type of game against Mater Dei when (quarterback) Brett Stevens was a senior,” Milner said. “Our entire staff was in shock afterwards when you consider how many inexperienced and backup players we had on the field. Our minds were boggled.”

Ancich watched his team fumble twice in the second quarter, and the turnovers helped Foothill score a field goal and a touchdown in the 10-0 victory.

“It was one of the most embarrassing games I’ve ever coached,” Ancich said. That’s saying a lot when one considers the 25-year veteran has coached 269 high school games.

Who’s No. 1?: Fountain Valley and Santa Ana can make strong cases for the top ranking in the county. Santa Ana avenged a 15-14 loss to Newport Harbor last season with a 28-0 victory Thursday night behind the impressive running of Estrus Crayton, Garner Hicks and Julius Fletcher.

Fountain Valley will likely retain its preseason ranking when the first Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. poll is released Tuesday. But polls can often be misleading.

Fountain Valley opened the 1987 season with four consecutive losses and was never voted among the top 10 teams in county. But the Barons rebounded to win nine consecutive games and reached the Big Five Conference championship game.

“I’m not concerned about the rankings,” Milner said. “I’m more concerned with where we’ll be at the end of the season.”

A Look at the Leagues: Which league had the best record in the first week of the season? Six teams in the Empire League combined for a 4-1-1 record. The South Coast League was right behind with a 4-2 record followed by the Angelus League at 3-2.

The Freeway and Sunset leagues were 3-3 followed by the Orange and Sea View leagues at 2-4. The Garden Grove League was 1-5-2.

Milestone Dept.: Savanna’s 12-9 victory over Garden Grove Friday night stopped an 11-game losing streak. The Rebels’ last victory came in the ninth week of the 1986 season when they beat Magnolia, 17-7.

Bob Johnson earned his 95th victory in 15 seasons at El Toro with a 21-8 victory over Long Beach Jordan. Dick Hill of Santa Ana gained his 185th career victory with the Saints’ 28-0 victory over Newport Harbor.

Laguna Beach allowed six touchdowns in a 42-14 loss to Leuzinger, the second-highest point total the Artists have allowed in three seasons. Costa Mesa had beat Laguna Beach, 49-18, midway through the 1986 season.

Estancia’s 23-13 victory over Costa Mesa was only the fourth victory for the Eagles in the past three seasons. Estancia was 0-10 in 1986 and won only two games last year.

Saturday’s season-opening cross-country meet, the Woodbridge Invitational at Woodbridge High School, provided an interesting preview of the 1988 season.

The surprise of the day came at the end of the day in a girls’ race. Woodbridge, led by Cathi Peck, won the race with 73 points. Yucaipa (78) and Newport Harbor (103) followed. Newport Harbor, the top-ranked team in Southern Section 4-A, edged Woodbridge last season for the State Division II title.

Still, Woodbridge Coach George Varvas wasn’t entirely pleased with his team’s performance, citing the Warriors’ poor conditioning.

“We’re not in good shape; the girls aren’t running as well as they should be,” Varvas said. “But put it this way: I’d rather come to the first meet of the year out of shape and win, than out of shape and lose.”

Add Woodbridge: Two spectators, fatherly-looking sorts, were watching as a large group of runners began to line up for the race.

One spectator provided the other with this commentary: “You can always tell the better runners by the kind of shoes they wear,” he said. “If they race in racing flats, you know they’re serious runners. If they’re wearing regular training shoes, forget it.”

The race was won by South Hills’ Karen Hecox wearing--what else?--heavy-duty training shoes.

In addition to Santa Ana Valley’s Jimmy Rodriguez and Corona del Mar’s Eddie Lavelle, first (14:40) and third (14:58) in the boys medium-schools race, Orange County had several other outstanding individual performances in the Woodbridge meet.

Top boys included: Capistrano Valley’s Bill Gould (14:51); Santa Ana Valley’s Jose Brito (15:10); San Clemente’s Mike Farrell and Laguna Hills’ Steve Frisone (both 15:14). Top girls: Valencia’s Heather Killeen (18:07); University’s Tanja Brix (18:20); Huntington Beach’s Natalie Adam (18:24) and Capistrano Valley’s Terri Skeen (18:38).

While a good portion of the county’s top cross-country teams competed at the Woodbridge Invitational Saturday, Tustin Coach Tom Coffey decided to send his team south.

The Tillers competed at the San Pasqual Invitational, a low-key meet with only nine teams entered.

Though Tustin ran without its top runner Olivia Fields (hip injury), it won the girls’ division with 57 points. Wendy Bassett led the Tillers with a fifth-place finish.

Some New Rules: Look for a six-foot coaching box for basketball coaches to be introduced on a one-year trial basis beginning in the 1988-89 season by the California Interscholastic Federation.

The rule, which is expected to be approved in October, will eliminate the “seat-belt” ruling by the National Federation of State High School Assns. in which coaches are required to be seated at all times during a game with the exception of a timeout or substitution.

Also, county baseball players will given an option of wearing steel cleats in the 1989 season. Players have been required to use rubber or plastic cleats the past two seasons.