Mission Viejo’s Ekdahl Leads List of County Scholar-Athletes

Eric Ekdahl, the state’s leading scorer last season at Mission Viejo High School, heads the list of selections for the Orange County chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame scholar-athletes.

Ekdahl scored 25 touchdowns, kicked 7 field goals and was successful on 41 conversion kicks to total 212 points. He came within 28 points of matching Mickey Cureton’s Southern Section mark of 240 points set in 1966 at Centennial.

Ekdahl is among 25 county high school players and a community college player to be honored Feb. 6 at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel. UC Davis Coach Jim Socher will be guest speaker.

The athletes maintained a minimum 3.3 grade-point average and were selected to their respective all-league football teams. The honored athletes:

Duane Allen (Valencia), Doug Bame (Capistrano Valley), Chris Coons (Estancia), Todd Delnoce (Foothill), Brent Drovin (Tustin), Eric Ekdahl (Mission Viejo), Marcus Garrett (Sonora), Michael Graham (Fullerton), Bill Hahn (El Modena), Greg Hansell (Kennedy), Jim Hastie (Costa Mesa), David Henigan (Fountain Valley), Ernest Johnson (Anaheim) and Kevin Jurkowski (Tustin).

Todd Moe (California Lutheran), Raphael Molle (Irvine), Pete Montera (Kennedy), Ron Monninger (Los Alamitos), Kevin Mullens (Ocean View), Jason Neben (Orange Lutheran), Rick Pallow (Mater Dei), Stan Pasqual (El Modena), Joe Pastorello (Katella), Jim Roberson (University), David Swearingen (El Dorado) and Jason Tarbart (Pacifica).