Defense Leads the Way : Death of Teammate Proves a Rallying Point for Serra High Football Team : Preps: The unbeaten Cavaliers will face top-seeded Lompoc Saturday for the school’s first CIF championship.

When opposing football teams see the letters D.H. on the sleeves of Serra High defensive players, they probably don’t know what they stand for.

But that’s not important to the players wearing them. They know.

They represent the tragic death of Demar Harper last spring, and it has become a rallying point for the Cavaliers this season.

His death has helped cement a group of young men in a common goal--the school’s first-ever CIF-Southern Section championship. The second-seeded Cavaliers will play top-seeded Lompoc in the Division VII finals at 7:30 Saturday night at El Camino College.

“That’s what it was,” senior safety Clayton Lopez said of Harper’s death. “When you lose one, you have to come closer together to make up for it.”

Harper, a sophomore linebacker who was named to the All-Camino Real League second team last year, was killed in an automobile accident April 12, 1989.

At Serra, a 270-student, all-boys Catholic school in Gardena, the players recognize their need for one another. At the core is a closeness that they compare to the Raiders. And, in a way, they are. Each teammate is family and they consider outsiders with hostility. That helps solidify the team.

The Cavaliers’ dedication of the season to Harper exemplifies the kind of unselfish commitment to one another that sets apart this team.

Senior lineman Louis Laffite said: “When I look back at the season I’ll remember the 30-something players on the team. And I’ll remember that if we didn’t have each one of them, we would have been 0-and-something.”

That unselfish attitude is woven into the philosophy at Serra, and it’s worked.

Serra repeated as league champ this season and compiled a 13-0 record, but maybe more impressive is the defense, which allowed just 136.6 yards per game in 10 regular-season games and has given up 81 points. Their closest game all season was a 32-25 victory over Arroyo Grande in the playoff quarterfinals.

“There’s an aspect of unselfishness that our whole program is built on,” said Coach Leo Hand. “Superstars just don’t last here.”

Listen to the way the players talk:

--Cornerback Chris Cabaong: “Together as a team we can do anything, but everybody has do do his job. If I don’t do my job, someone else can’t do his.”

--Quarterback Alex Marcelin: “We have to help each other out, unselfishly. It doesn’t matter who makes the play, as long as we get it.”

In stark contrast to the protectiveness the players feel for each other is Serra’s bruising defense. The Cavaliers utilize exceptional team speed, sometimes sending eight defenders after the ball carrier.

Lompoc Coach Dick Barrett said he has seen the films and knows what he is up against. “We respect them greatly,” he said.

“Gosh, they send all those guys on blitzes just about every play. That’s got to be the toughest thing for coaches to prepare for. It just gives you headaches.”

Said Marcelin: “Most teams say we’re the most physical team they’ve ever played.”

“It’s like a swarm,” said Lopez, a leader in the secondary with eight interceptions. “We like to hit.”

Comparisons certainly exist between the aggressive head-knocking styles of Houston Oilers Coach Jerry Glanville, Raiders’ owner Al Davis and Hand. It is a style of play for which they are sometimes criticized.

“We’re not a soft defensive team. We’re a nasty, smash-mouth football team. People don’t like us,” said Hand, a pipe-smoking transplanted New Yorker who’s known for his brash style. He had his share of run-ins with booster club members at Servite High in Anaheim before he was fired in 1987 after compiling a 34-11-1 record in four seasons.

“I really don’t know why or what (others) think. I don’t concern myself about what people think. I’m just doing a job.”

Which so far at Serra has been outstanding.

“I just prefer a more aggressive style of defense,” Hand said. “And we have the talent to do that.”

Defensive coordinator Jon Dimolante said: “We have a lot of confidence in our cover people, and the kids who come (on a pass rush) understand the importance of it. They just attack with a burning desire.”

That desire has been ignited by the death of Harper, and that’s what makes a championship seem all that more important for the players at Serra.

“It’s important for a lot of reasons--like Demar,” said Lopez.