HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEWS : New Cast Auditioning for the Leading Roles : Frontier: Departure of the league’s marquee names leaves an empty stage.

By transfer or by diploma, the dashing leading men of the Frontier League’s recent football past are gone.

Among those lost to graduation earlier this year are Santa Paula High’s Dustin Magdaleno, Ventura County’s all-time leading receiver with 138 catches, and Fillmore’s Tory Cabral, the school’s all-time leading rusher who gained 1,045 yards as a senior. Another who has vanished from the Frontier this year is Calabasas’ Damon Riggins, whose bullish running style netted him 1,131 yards in just nine games.

Gone too is Santa Clara’s precocious Lloyd Mix, who transferred to Oxnard after gaining 1,092 yards as a sophomore last season.

Yes, the stage troupe of yesterday has ended its run, leaving coaches with a new act to book and the question: What’s left?

A wide-open stage, that’s what’s left. Coaches across the league sat like stage directors in an empty theater over the summer, watching their fledgling stars read and reread playbooks and searching for the names of tomorrow.

“To borrow from basketball,” Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards said, “it’s kind of like a jump ball for everybody. In one sense or another, every team in the league is rebuilding.”

For league favorite Santa Paula, which won the title last year, Coach Mike Tsoutsouvas must replace prolific passer Ben Fausset, who threw for 1,724 yards last season. Brian Whittaker might match those numbers in 1991. A junior who passed for more than 2,000 yards on the junior varsity last year, Whittaker also runs well, prompting Tsoutsouvas to call him “the Frontier League version of Steve Young.”

The loss of Magdaleno, who now plays at Cal Lutheran, hurts, but senior Eddie Rabago might help ease the pain, Tsoutsouvas said.

“He pulled a hamstring and he’s been out a week,” Tsoutsouvas said. “Other than that, he’s super.”

Perhaps the team that will make the biggest mark this season is Calabasas. The Coyotes, who were 3-7 and suited up just 14 players at one time last year, now boast a roster of 36. Riggins is gone, but look for an understudy, senior tight end Cameron LaBrache, to read his lines right this season and catch passes from new quarterback Iman Mohtashemi.

“We’re not stressing the philosophy of relying on a big-play guy,” Edwards said. “We’re really developing a team attitude, and we have a lot of good players but not really any marquee players.”

Still, Edwards is high on LaBrache, whom he calls one of the team’s most dependable leaders.

Leaders are a scarce commodity at Fillmore. With the graduating class of 1990 went starting quarterback Art Sosa, tailback Cabral and all-league linebacker Anthony Chessani. But Coach Curtis Garner surveys this year’s roster and picks out Rey Garnica, a senior wide receiver-defensive back.

“This kid, I suspect, is gonna be one to watch,” he said.

Santa Clara’s new coach, Tom O’Brien, will miss Mix, one of the league’s top runners last year who has transferred to Oxnard. And while the Saints have what could be called the league’s top returning player in running back Scottie Tripp, who gained 320 yards last year, O’Brien, like the rest, is waiting for a new name to emerge.

He points to the Faalafao twins--David and Andrew, transfers from Channel Islands--as candidates. David, an offensive and defensive tackle “will be a force,” according to O’Brien. Andrew, a fullback, “really fits in with our game plan. He runs straight ahead.”

Nordhoff has not made the playoffs since 1982, but the Rangers are hoping to move into the spotlight. Coach Cliff Farrar boasts a solid player in linebacker Matt Johnson, a returning all-county player who “really steps up and hits you,” Farrar said.

Farrar concedes, while scanning the rest of the league, that this year should hold many surprises.

“You really don’t know the stars off the top of your head,” he said. “Everything is pretty much juniors who were backups and JV kids getting their chance.”

O’Brien concurred.

“Now that you mention it, it’s true,” he said. “It will definitely be an interesting season to see what kind of new names pop up across the league.”

FRONTIER LEAGUE

FINAL 1990 STANDINGS PROJECTED FINISH Santa Paula 8-3, 4-0 Santa Paula Fillmore 8-3, 2-2 Calabasas Santa Clara 3-7, 2-2 Fillmore Nordhoff 4-6, 1-3 Santa Clara Calabasas 3-7, 1-3 Nordhoff

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Player School Pos. Ht Wt Class Rey Garnica Fillmore WR 5-8 168 Sr. Andrew Faalafao Santa Clara FB 6-1 245 Jr. David Faalafao Santa Clara OT/DT 6-1 260 Jr. Matt Johnson Fillmore LB 6-2 230 Sr. Cameron LaBrache Calabasas TE/DE 6-3 190 Sr. Iman Mohtashemi Calabasas QB 5-6 120 Sr. Eddie Rabago Santa Paula RB 5-10 200 Sr. Scottie Tripp Santa Clara RB 5-8 180 Sr. Nacho Vega Nordhoff RB 5-9 175 Sr. Brian Whittaker Santa Paula QB 6-0 175 Jr.