HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : It’s Two for the 2-A Show: Lincoln vs. El Camino for Title : El Camino: The team’s star backs are short on stature, but they make the 12-1 Wildcats long on offense.

It’s been five years since Joe Malek and Brian Madlangbayan sat in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium watching El Camino defeat Chula Vista, 24-17, for the 2-A Section football title.

Back then, as teammates on the local Pop Warner team, they dreamed of growing up and playing for El Camino on that same turf for that same title.

Their dream of growing up hasn’t exactly come true--Malek stands all of 5-feet-2 and Madlangbayan is an imposing 5-6--but they will be on the field at 5 p.m. Saturday when El Camino plays Lincoln for the 2-A title at Jack Murphy Stadium.

And the two “gromits,” as they were nicknamed by teammate Ricky Spears, will be in the starting backfield for the 12-1 Wildcats.

In fact, Madlangbayan’s running and Malek’s passing are major reasons why El Camino is making its first trip to the semifinals since ’84.

Madlangbayan has been the more prolific --running for 1,562 yards and a school-record 26 touchdowns. He was named to the first-team All-Avocado League team. He is within 98 yards of breaking Toussant Tyler’s single-season record.

Malek, though, has been the bigger surprise. He has somehow found a way to throw for 662 yards and seven touchdowns with just two interceptions in 90 attempts. In El Camino’s three playoff games, Malek has completed 19 of 26 passes. He has also rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown.

“I think people knew how good Brian was,” El Camino Coach Herb Meyer said. “But I think Joe running around showing these big people up has surprised some people.”

Malek admits he’d have to be considered one of those people.

“I never really thought I’d be a quarterback at this level,” Malek said.

Listed in the program at 5-4--Malek wrote 5-4 1/2 instead of 5-1 1/2 two years ago--Malek began his football career as a safety on the seventh grade Pop Warner team.

But the next year, Malek got this crazy idea he could play quarterback. And what made it even crazier was the belief that he could beat out Jerry Garrett--a former star quarterback for Oceanside High--for the job.

Incredibly, Malek won the job and moved Garrett to wingback. The rest of the backfield included Madlangbayan at fullback and O.J. Hall, a Rancho Buena Vista tailback who finished fourth in the county in rushing with 1,285 yards. Naturally, the team went undefeated.

Malek said his size has limited his opportunities to pass, but his small stature hasn’t been a big problem. And he has made believers of his teammates

“I’ve had this disability, but I’ve learned to work around it,” said Malek, whose father is 6-0 and mother is all of 4-11. “I belong out there. I have this talent. I play like any other quarterback.”

But even Meyer, maybe Malek’s No. 1 fan, said he had his doubts for a while.

“I always felt he could run the option without any problems, but the big concern was that he limited our passing attack,” Meyer said. “We had to change some things . . . for Joe, but in the second half of the season he’s done a real good job. I think the San Pasqual game is where Joe started to relax.”

Before El Camino’s 27-0 victory over previously undefeated San Pasqual, Meyer said Malek sometimes tried to carry the entire team.

“Joe had a little bit of a superman’s complex,” Meyer said. “He thought he had to do everything himself. I think I was pushing him a little too much, early on, and he didn’t respond to that too well. Joe is also a very intense competitor and a perfectionist.”

Madlangbayan said his best friend has always been that way.

“He gets so emotional because he wants to get every play perfect,” Madlangbayan said. “That’s when I have to be there and get him to relax a little.”

If Malek is the high-strung type, then Madlangbayan is just the opposite. Meyer said Madlangbayan is not a stoic, but he’s close.

“Brian is not a real fireball type of guy,” Meyer said. “No matter how hard he gets hit, he just bounces right back up like nothing happened. That kind of thing is infectious.”

Sometimes though Madlangbayan is too tough for his own good. He played part of last week’s 49-0 victory over Ramona with a concussion.

“I didn’t even remember third and fourth quarter,” he said. “They told me I ran for a two-point conversion, but I don’t remember it.”

He does remember the season and career he’s had at El Camino though. And when he reflects on it, he finds it a little hard to fathom.

“If you’d have told me a couple years ago that I’d break the touchdown record and rush for 1,500 yards, I’d have laughed,” said Madlangbayan, a starter since his ninth game as a sophomore.

But those big linemen aren’t laughing while trying to find, then catch the 5-6, 190-pounder. “I don’t run straight up and I’m so small they can’t really see me,” he said. “So they can’t ever really get a good hit on me.”

Meyer recalled one run in particular against Santana which typified Madlangbayan’s style.

“About the whole team had a shot at him and he cut back across the field about three times and wound up scoring a touchdown,” he said.

“Brian plays about as deep as any back I’ve seen--sometimes nine yards behind the quarterback. But he’s got such great cutback ability and vision that we tell the linemen to hold their blocks an extra second. He’s short in stature, but he plays like a guy 6-1 or 6-2.”