Orange Glen Does More Than Talk a Good Game

The team that talks together stalks together.

Orange Glen High School is competing in the San Diego Section football finals Saturday against Morse.

Not Helix. Not Rancho Buena Vista.

Orange Glen.

All bark, all bite.

Credit their attitude.

The Patriots have plenty of it.

They weren’t the best team in the Palomar League this season, but they are the only team right now. They are an improbable foe for the county’s top-ranked team. Just call the Patriots the little third-place team that could.

They were a bigger longshot than Buster Douglas in Tokyo, but the Patriots landed devastating blows to two of the county’s best teams. Could undefeated Morse be next?

“Basically, all of our coaches feel strongly about positive thinking and verbalizing it, talking each other up,” Orange Glen Coach Rob Gilster said. “That filters down to the kids.”

And so the Patriots (9-4) enter the championship game with a reputation. They are the team with the big mouth, the team whose words have gotten plenty of attention. They are Cassius Clay in his heyday, Joe Namath in his splendor. They’ve been stinging like bees ever since the league season ended with a 23-12 loss that dropped them into third place.

The unlikely odyssey that ends Saturday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium took Orange Glen to the South Bay for a first round playoff victory over Southwest, 21-12.

After the game, linebacker Andy Buh was asked about Southwest running back Riley Washington, who had scored 18 touchdowns in a four-game stretch.

Said Buh: “We played against (RBV’s) Markeith Ross. There isn’t a back in the county that we can’t stop.”

Strong words.

Orange Glen then defeated No. 2 Helix, 15-14, with 12 fourth-quarter points. Helix had the county’s best defense, allowing just 23 points all season and shutting out seven opponents. It was the second year in a row the unseeded Patriots beat the Highlanders. In 1989, the Patriots were the fifth-place team from the Palomar League and the Highlanders were Grossmont 3-A champions.

The postgame comment, this time from Gilster: “The best team won tonight. . . . It was like he (Helix Coach Jim Arnaiz) didn’t think the best team won last year.”

Sarcastic words.

An even bigger battle awaited last weekend. Rancho Buena Vista, though seeded No. 3, was a popular choice to advance to the championship game, and for good reason. RBV had won 22 straight league games, three league titles and two section championships--the 2-A in 1988, the 3-A in 1989--and nine consecutive playoff games.

Dave Woessner, a Patriot senior and the team’s free spirit, wasn’t concerned. In a midweek interview, he said: “I want the satisfaction of finally beating them before I leave . . . They took away our league title two years ago when they came into the league. Last week, we won the Grossmont League by beating their champion. Now we want to win our league title, too.”

Fightin’ words.

Orange Glen not only beat RBV, but it dominated in a 24-7 victory. Now the Patriots have a chance to win something more than the City Eastern League title Morse holds. They have a chance to win their first section title since 1967.

“People are having fun with the papers, but that all comes with the game and with winning,” Buh said. “As a team, we talk, but we’ve also shown. It’s not like we have big mouths, but some of the guys just get tired of hearing that Orange Glen won’t win this week.”

For three weeks, the Patriots have heard they don’t have a chance. They have heard the term underdog more often that Sweet Polly Purebred.

“I thought our kids were in line with what they said (in the newspapers),” Gilster explained. “They weren’t downgrading anybody. They’re just saying that we believe in ourselves and we’re going to win. If an opposing coach wants to put those comments on his bulletin board, the ones that say Orange Glen thinks it can win, that can do more harm to his own players; they start believing that Orange Glen can win.

“Basically, that’s what we’re trying to teach here--that if they can be positive thinkers, the sky’s the limit.”

Gilster was the offensive coordinator in 1987 when Dave Lay, now San Diego State’s offensive coordinator, became the Patriots’ head coach and inspired this grand dose of confidence.

“The first thing he said when he got here was that we were going to beat Vista,” Gilster said. “Our guys heard it for so long, they really believed it. Of course, there was tremendous preparation, but half the battle is getting your kids to believe they can do something.”

Orange Glen did beat Vista that season and reached the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. It set the tone for 1988, when the Patriots were 12-0 before losing to Morse in the section finals, 31-28.

That was also the year 6-foot-6 quarterback Cree Morris, now at SDSU, threw for a school-record 3,245 yards. Second in Orange Glen history is this year’s smaller version, 5-8 junior Omar Navarro, who has completed 187 of 317 passes for 2,623 yards, 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

“We feel confident about what we can do,” Navarro said. “We had to work hard to get where we’ve gotten. We play with a lot of confidence. When we’re at our best, we feel we can compete with anyone.” Gilster calls Navarro “The Little Commander.”

“Omar’s not the best quarterback in the world,” Gilster said, “but the kids can see in his eyes that he wants to win badly.”

Sometimes that can be as critical as talent, and the Patriots do have some unheralded talent.

Complementing Navarro’s right arm are the hands of his receivers: Kris Plash (61 receptions for 852 yards, two touchdowns), Brian Kooiman (59 for 636, seven touchdowns), Gavin McQueen (22 for 314, two touchdowns) or Randy Boozer (17 for 659, five touchdowns). Boozer averages 38.7 yards per catch.

That Patriot finesse is balanced by Noel Toloumu, who has rushed 227 times for 1,257 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Buh is the only Patriot who played in the 1988 championship game against Morse. He started at defensive tackle and, perhaps as much as anyone, exhibits Orange Glen’s trademark attitude.

“We’re determined,” he said. “All along, we’ve been underdogs, ever since the playoffs started. We knew inside that we could beat these teams.”

But never has Morse been mistaken for any of the other teams.

“Any team can beat any team,” Buh said. “We all put our pants on the same way. But you’ve got to believe before you can win.”

True words.