THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Westlake Coach Devised Unique Flight Pattern

Anyone who says Jim Benkert had his head in the clouds when he devised Westlake High’s bizarre double-forward pass play is absolutely correct.

He was 30,000 feet up in the air at the time, on a flight to San Francisco.

“I had a rule book and decided to read it on the flight,” Benkert said. “I saw a rule that interested me, sat back and thought how I could make it work for us.”

Benkert’s flight of fancy resulted in a 60-yard touchdown against Oxnard on Thursday night, a first-class ticket to the end zone thanks to the whim of a coach traveling coach.

He had uncovered an obscure rule that applies only to high school football, a rule that allows for unlimited forward passes on a single play--provided they are thrown from behind the line of scrimmage.

This is a departure from college and professional rules, which allow only one forward pass per play.

Against Oxnard, quarterback Todd Preston took a deep drop and lofted a pass to wide receiver Seamus Gibbons, who stood a few steps behind the line of scrimmage with blockers in front of him. Gibbons then fired downfield to flanker Erik Holcomb, who was 10 yards from the nearest defender.

“I’ve seen a double pass with a wide receiver, but I’ve never seen it beginning with a blatant forward pass,” Benkert said.

The play was marvelously effective for two reasons:

* It begins as a regular screen pass, developing far more slowly than a traditional double pass. Defenders initially backpedal, thinking pass, then shift gears and charge forward when the quarterback passes to the receiver. Only then does the first receiver cut loose with the bomb to the second receiver.

* Preston’s pass to Gibbons travels forward about 10 yards, giving the appearance that the receiver already had crossed the line of scrimmage. The second pass astonishes defenders, many of whom think it’s illegal.

The officials, who tend to study the rule book more than coaches, rightly kept their yellow flags folded and tucked.

“We were aware of the rule, and we were aware of the play because the coach let us know about it before the game,” said Pete Rogalsky, the referee in the Westlake-Oxnard game.

Impartiality does not prohibit admiring originality.

“It was well-designed,” Rogalsky said. “Lots of teams have a double pass, but I’ve never seen this particular play.”

The lesson? The play was conceived by a coach who took time to read the rule book. And that is an exception to the rule.

Double-double defense: The studious coach also might find buried in the rule book an effective defense against Westlake’s double whammy.

Pass interference can only be called on the first pass, according to Rogalsky.

As the first receiver’s long pass is sailing through the air, the prudent defender can blast the second receiver, effectively grounding the second half of a team’s connecting flight.

Zero hour: Area teams were involved in 11 shutouts Friday night. Among them:

* St. Francis (2-0) and Fillmore (2-0) each registered their second consecutive shutouts.

* Oak Park was shut out by Fillmore after beating Leffingwell Christian, 63-0, last week.

* Burroughs was a 63-0 victim of Quartz Hill, marking the second week in a row the Indians have been shut out.

* Grant blanked Verdugo Hills, 2-0, on a punt snap that sailed through the end zone.

Wrong-way Rodgers: Had Bobby Rodgers’ uniform been equipped with a compass, there would have been an even dozen shutouts.

The Kennedy junior, playing in his first varsity game, lived every defensive player’s nightmare Friday night: He intercepted a pass and sprinted 82 yards to the end zone, the wrong way.

“Like the referee told me, ‘You hear about it, but you don’t believe it until you see it,’ ” Rodgers said Saturday.

Kennedy led Narbonne, 36-0, in the fourth quarter when a deflected pass flew into the arms of Rodgers, a 6-foot, 180-pound starting outside linebacker.

“I got hit two times and spun around,” Rodgers said. “When I stopped spinning, I was so excited, my first varsity game, I just ran . . . “

. .. the wrong way.

“It didn’t hit me until I got to the sideline,” Rodgers said. “I felt real bad but guys came over and said I did a good job. The coach said, ‘It happens, it happens.’ That made me feel real good.”

Narbonne was awarded a safety, which cost Kennedy a shutout. But the Golden Cougars were more concerned with the well-being of their misdirected teammate.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ ” said Tyrone Allen, who plays alongside Rodgers at linebacker. “At first I wanted to take my helmet off and throw it at him. But he got caught up in the crowd and all.

“It was just one of those amazing things.”

While Rodgers was streaking down the field, Kennedy quarterback Michael McMullen was screaming at him from the sidelines to turn around.

“I couldn’t believe it,” McMullen said. “Unbelievable. It doesn’t happen. But after a minute or so, we laughed about it. Everybody told him, ‘That’s OK.’ ”

Despite the embarrassment, Rodgers doesn’t want the play forgotten.

“I’m hoping the coach gives me a copy of the film,” he said.

Will he be able to laugh about it in a few years?

“Hopefully, sooner,” he said.