Mollica Still Riding High on Senior Year : Shrine game: Edison High lineman will get one more shot at prep glory Saturday before heading for University of Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh, where he will be a member of the Panther football team this fall, awaits Lawson Mollica. But first, one last celebration of a successful senior season.

Mollica, an offensive lineman for Edison High School last fall, has already played in the Orange County All-Star game. And Saturday, he’ll play for the South team in the Shrine All-Star game in the Rose Bowl.

College scholarship, all-star football games, awards, a league title--all were part of Mollica’s final high school year.

“I had to do well this year to make up for my junior year,” Mollica said. “That was my worst year. I hated it.”

Actually, 1988 wasn’t all that bad--Mollica did have his health. What he didn’t have was a starting job. He wasn’t even the first guy off the bench at his position.

Mollica looks back on that now and grins. Sitting on the bench may have been difficult to accept, but in the long run, he said it made him a better player.

“I really wanted to prove that I was a good football player,” Mollica said. “I wanted to prove it to the coaches and to my teammates. Most of all, I wanted to prove it to myself.”

He did that, earning a starting position in 1989. He was named team captain and the Chargers’ lineman of the year, and was a second-team all-Orange County selection.

“Lawson had a phenomenal senior year,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “It may have surprised some of the coaches, but not me. I knew how hard he worked during the off-season.”

That determination stemmed from his junior season, which Mollica can’t seem to forget.

“I’ve tried, believe me,” he said. “It was the most frustrating year I’ve ever had.”

What made it so unbearable was that Mollica had always been a star lineman. He began playing organized football at 7 and was a starter every year until his junior year at Edison.

It wasn’t that Mollica wasn’t a good lineman as a junior, it was just that he got caught in a numbers game. Not only did the Chargers have 18 of 22 starters returning in 1988, they also had two quality players at tackle, which is Mollica’s position.

Chris Lippincott and Greg Thurston were returning starters, which left Mollica waiting in the wings. Lippincott is now at California and Thurston is at Orange Coast College.

“I played behind Chris,” Mollica said. “I was 6-foot-4 and maybe 220 and he was 6-7, 270. Who would you rather start? I really couldn’t blame the coaches.”

But that didn’t mean Mollica had to like it.

He played sparingly with the varsity, usually in games that we already decided. Mollica also played on the junior varsity with many of the same players that would start for the Chargers a year later.

Although Mollica didn’t complain, he was never comfortable with the situation.

“The worst feeling in the world is having a coach say, ‘Stay close to me because I’m going to use you tonight,’ before a game,” Mollica said. “Then he puts you in with four seconds left in the game. After the season, I said to myself, ‘Lawson, you’re not a natural athlete. You’re going to have to work for everything you get.’ ”

And work he did. Mollica spent extra time in the weight room during the winter, spring and summer. He also became fanatical about running, something he had never done during the off-season.

As a result, Mollica became faster, stronger and bigger. He added more than 20 pounds before his senior season.

His work also paid off in his other sport, track and field. He won the Southern Section 4-A shotput championship last spring with a throw of 54 feet 3 3/4 inches.

“Lawson was so self-motivated to prove to everybody that he was a great player, that he wouldn’t let up one second,” White said. “He was always a good player when he was a freshman and a sophomore. But he made himself a great player.”

Mollica’s senior season was memorable for many reasons.

The Chargers were co-champions of the Sunset League with Ocean View and reached the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division I playoffs before losing to Fontana, the eventual champion. Edison running back Shane Sherman gained more than 1,500 yards rushing, including one game against St. John Bosco in which he had 308 yards.

“Linemen don’t get a lot of glory, but we felt good after that game,” Mollica said. “Any time a running back has a game like that, the offensive line was doing the job.”

Said White: “St. John Bosco was probably Lawson’s best game. He’s always been a tough kid and it was rewarding to the coaches to see him develop.”

AT A GLANCE

What: 39th North-South Shrine All-Star game, featuring many of the top graduating high school football players in California, including six from Orange County on the South team: Dave Cutrell (El Toro), Tim Manning (Trabuco Hills), Andy Marrone (Dana Hills), Lawson Mollica (Edison), Ryan Motherway (Mater Dei) and Jerrott Willard (Corona del Mar).

When: Saturday, 6 p.m.

Where: Rose Bowl, Pasadena.

Tickets: $8 reserved and $1 general admission. Proceeds will benefit the Shriners’ Hospital in Los Angeles. For information and tickets, call (213) 749-0166.