Ricketts Is Culver City’s One-Man Show : Prep football: He runs. He passes. He intercepts. He wins games with last-minute heroics. The quarterback and defensive back has returned from an injury last season to do it all this year.

If Culver City High quarterback and defensive back Dameron Ricketts ever needs to find work outside of football, he can always take a job in a power plant.

He is electrifying.

In a 26-20 victory over Santa Monica this season, the 5-foot-10, 160-pound senior did the following:

* Ran 81 yards for a touchdown.

* Threw a 45-yard scoring pass to his favorite receiver, Tommy Covington.

* Intercepted a pass on a two-point conversion attempt that would have given Santa Monica a 22-17 lead.

* Forced a fumble by a Santa Monica back and recovered it with the score tied, 20-20. That play set up a 49-yard Culver City field-goal attempt that fell short with eight seconds remaining.

* Intercepted a Santa Monica Hail Mary pass on the game’s final play and then scored the winning touchdown on a 55-yard, tackle-breaking return as time ran out.

Small wonder that Coach Lou Lichtl compares Ricketts to Carnell Lake, perhaps the best football player ever at Culver City High. Lake, a running back and linebacker in high school and a linebacker at UCLA, is now a defensive back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ricketts’ performance against Santa Monica was not an aberration.

Against heavily favored Morningside and its standout quarterback, Stais Boseman, Ricketts dashed 81 yards for a touchdown on the game’s third play from scrimmage.

However, Ricketts, who was sacked five times in the game, and his teammates couldn’t overcome Boseman and the Monarchs and lost, 33-13. Boseman rushed for three touchdowns, passed for another and accounted for 261 yards in total offense.

Culver City trailed West Torrance, 21-0, in the first half, but Ricketts helped rally the Centaurs by passing for two touchdowns and running for two others. He scored the winning touchdown on an 11-yard run in the last minute for the 32-31 victory.

In a 32-14 defeat of North Torrance, he threw four touchdown passes, three of them to Covington, including one that covered 80 yards.

Through eight games, Ricketts completed 83 of 167 passes for 1,274 yards (an average of 15.35 yards a completion) and 10 touchdowns. He threw only three interceptions.

He rushed for 568 yards in 96 carries (a 5.9-yard average) and four touchdowns.

He gained 168 yards in nine kickoff returns.

He had 2,010 yards in total offense.

Ricketts might have had similar statistics last year, but he missed five games after he fractured his left wrist in the second game. But when he returned from his injury, he led the Centaurs to their first-ever victory against Santa Monica. He rushed for 221 yards and four touchdowns, including a 97-yarder.

St. Bernard, which beat Culver City, 7-0, to open the season, is the only team that stopped Ricketts. In that game, he was held to 19 rushing yards and 72 passing yards, was sacked four times and was intercepted twice.

But Lichtl took the blame for Ricketts’ off-night, saying that the coaching staff had developed a poor game plan.

“Our game plan was basic and very run-oriented, and we got into a mode where we had to throw the football,” Lichtl said. “(St. Bernard) did a good job of containing him with their defensive ends. They just brought those guys across the line of scrimmage and did not give him any lanes to run to.”

Lichtl said the Centaurs also had six turnovers against St. Bernard and squandered several scoring opportunities.

“That game made us re-evaluate what we were doing and put emphasis on the things that Dameron can do best. Our philosophy now is to pass first and open up the running game.”

NCAA Division I schools such as UCLA, Nebraska and Colorado have taken notice of Ricketts’ multiple talents. In track practice last spring, Ricketts said he was timed at 4.43 seconds for the 40-yard dash. In track, he has run a 10.7 in the 100-meter dash and has a best of 22 feet 4 inches in the long jump.

St. Bernard Coach Tom Strickland said, “Of all the kids we played against, skill-wise, he definitely has the most potential because of his quickness.”

Strickland said that his team tried “to contain him and pretty much force him to run inside the defensive tackles and nose guards. We tried to keep outside containment on him so he would not get outside. But he has been going great guns ever since.

“He is definitely a (NCAA) Division I prospect, possibly as a defensive back or option quarterback. He’s certainly fast, and I’m glad he’s going. He’s a problem I will not have to worry about (again) because he’s graduating.”

North Torrance Coach Joe Austin feels the same way.

“He’s a wonderful athlete,” Austin said. “He can run and move, he throws good enough and he makes good decisions. He seems to be a good leader and runs the team pretty well. And he’s a real competitor.

“He threw for 400 yards against us and beat us by himself. Oh, he did have a couple of good receivers. Division I teams may not think he throws well enough (to play quarterback), but they could use him as a defensive back. He is tremendous and such a good athlete that he could play anywhere. He could even play tailback.”

Ricketts said that he would like to be a wide receiver in college and that he would like to play for a college outside of California because “I want to be on my own and take responsibility for myself.”

In the few games he played last year, Ricketts he didn’t handle the responsibility of making judgments very well.

He said that last year “I wasn’t able to throw the ball like I wanted to, and I really didn’t look to throw the ball when pressure came to me. All I could think of was to run.”

Ricketts has since matured, Lichtl said.

“He is a very humble young man who has become very goal-oriented. He’s not just looking forward to the next game but to what he’ll be doing five or 10 years from now.”

Whatever he’s doing in the 21st Century, whether playing football professionally or working at a 9-to-5 job, it’s a cinch that Ricketts will be doing things quickly.

“You can’t teach speed, and he’s got plenty of that,” Lichtl said.