Playoffs? Well, Morse Is a Force, of Course, of Course : High school football: It’ll take an upset to dislodge the 3-A favorite; Kearny, El Camino are top 2-A contenders.

Where’s Jose Rijo when you need him?

Rijo, the Cincinnati Reds’ unofficial prognosticator, repeatedly proclaimed the regular season and postseasons to be over before they were. For him, the San Diego Section 3-A football playoffs would be easy.

Morse?

“It’s over.”

Rijo would have said that three weeks ago when the Tigers pounded Point Loma, 40-13. That was one of Morse’s toughest games during a marvelous 10-0 season.

Of course, it is not over, but Morse is the overwhelming pick to run away with its second championship in three years.

The Tigers, with two certain all-county players--tailback Gary Taylor and quarterback Teddy Lawrence--in their backfield, have the most prolific offense in the history of California high school football, according to state records compiled by Cal-Hi Magazine. With 489 points, Morse surpassed the state regular-season scoring record by one point. Vallejo High set the old mark in 1954 with Dick Bass running in the offense.

“I can’t imagine anybody beating Morse,” Lincoln Coach Vic Player said. “That’s one of the best teams I’ve seen around here in a long, long time.”

And how does Morse Coach John Shacklett react to the praise being heaped on his team?

“That’s kind of nice,” he said. “Very flattering. But that’s all it is.”

In defense of the top challengers, they all have good ones. Helix, which allowed 2.5 points per game, Chula Vista, 9.0, and Point Loma, 9.3, have the top three scoring defenses in the county. Mira Mesa is sixth at 11.6. Rancho Buena Vista allowed four more points this season than a year ago, when it defeated Morse--the last team to do so--in the 3-A championship game.

There have been bigger upsets should someone like Helix (8-1), Rancho Buena Vista (8-2), Point Loma (8-1), Mira Mesa (8-2) or even Chula Vista (8-2) manage to defeat Morse somewhere along the line. But should any of the other 10 teams in the 3-A playoffs knock off the only unbeaten team in the county . . . well, the Reds swept the A’s.

In the 2-A, it is a completely different story.

Parity dominates both brackets, with no clear-cut favorite in either of them.

Kearny (8-1-1) is a worthy choice but probably can be taken out of its game. Stop Darnay Scott and you likely will have stopped the Komets.

El Camino, the defending 2-A champion, has won six of its last seven, but lost its first three. Its most recent loss was 17-16 to Oceanside (4-4-2).

West Hills, not even picked to win the Grossmont 2-A League at the beginning of the season, is in a position to do what Rancho Buena Vista did two years ago and El Camino in 1976, win a championship in its first season with a senior class. The Wolf Pack (8-2), winner of seven in a row, including three against 3-A teams, was the only team in the county returning its entire starting lineup from last year.

Madison (6-4) won the City Central League in its first year after moving from the City Western. St. Augustine (6-3-1) won the first City Harbor League championship.

La Jolla (8-1-1) tied for the City Western title with Kearny, but missed a chance at the league’s No. 1 position in the playoffs by one foot. After the Vikings had tied Kearny in the regular season, the Komets won the tiebreaker, 8-6. La Jolla’s Steve Alford was stopped at the one-foot line by Scott on a two-point conversion attempt.

And then there are the other non-championship teams, five of them from the Avocado League, where there were six ties this season.

Carlsbad (7-2-1), Ramona (5-5), San Marcos (6-3-1), Escondido (5-5) and Oceanside have all been hot at some point in the season and are all capable of at least advancing to the second round.

Said El Camino Coach Herb Meyer, “Like somebody told me last week, ‘You’ve got to go back and re-win the league.’ ”

Two other teams--Grossmont and Lincoln--should not be counted out, either. Grossmont, which tied Lincoln in the quarterfinals last year but lost on a tiebreaker, again was playing well before going 1-1-1 to end the regular season.

A young Lincoln lost its first five games for the first time since 1969, and most wrote them out of the playoff picture all together. After that, the Hornets changed the offensive personnel around, won four of their last five and sneaked into the playoffs. You can bet La Jolla is not overlooking its first-round opponent from the Central League.

La Jolla-Lincoln, originally scheduled for Saturday, has been moved to 7:30 p.m. Friday at Patrick Henry High.

Should Lincoln win it all, it would finish 8-6, which would stir up the two-year-old argument about having 16 teams in each division.

The San Diego Section expanded to a 12-team draw for each division in the mid-1980s and to 16 teams last year. A few, like Castle Park Coach Jorge Mancillas, felt the honor was missing in going to the playoffs with a .500 record or worse. Mancillas chose not to attend the seeding meeting, which automatically eliminated Castle Park (5-5) and had rippling effects elsewhere in the 3-A pairings.

Sweetwater Coach Andy Sanchez, who played with Mancillas on the 1968 Castle Park team that won the county championship and is still good friends with him, said Castle Park’s absence from the playoffs cost Sweetwater (7-3) a chance at hosting a first-round game.

Instead, the Red Devils will play at Rancho Buena Vista.

Then again, if Morse continues playing as it has, will it really matter?