THE BIG GAME : Chula Vista Has a Tough Road Ahead Getting Past Pointers’ Stingy Defense : Football: Point Loma has given up more than one touchdown in only one game going into tonight’s Section 3-A semifinal.

Football coaches’ wits don’t get drier than George Ohnesorgen’s, whose Chula Vista Spartans play Point Loma in the Section 3-A semifinals at 7:30 tonight at Southwestern College.

“For a while I wanted to call Bennie (Point Loma Coach Bennie Edens) and see if he wouldn’t mind playing with a JV clock,” Ohnesorgen said. “They only play eight-minute quarters. That way we wouldn’t be so beat up at the end of the game. But I don’t think the commissioner would go for that.”

So Chula Vista will have to go the full 48 minutes against the section’s second-ranked defense.

En route to closing the season with nine consecutive victories, Point Loma (11-1) allowed only one team--Las Vegas Rancho--to score more than a touchdown, and Rancho managed only two. During their streak, the Pointers yielded an average of five points per game.

One reason Point Loma’s defense has been able to dominate is superior size. How big are the Pointers? There are lineman La’Roi Glover (6-foot-3, 276 pounds), linebacker Pico Gonzales (6-3, 234), defensive back Michael Driver (6-3 1/2, 185), defensive ends David Cunningham (6-1, 200 pounds) and Franklin Hirakawa (5-10, 233).

“Some people are going to laugh when they see us line up against them,” Ohnesorgen said.

But Edens insists size is only part of the reason for his defense’s success. Another is its mean-spirited disposition.

“They are extremely aggressive kids,” Edens said. “And they punish their opponents pretty well.”

The punishment will be something new for Chula Vista (12-2), which spent the season casting its shadow over the the Metro Conference, which doesn’t exactly stand tall against the rest of the county.

“Not to bad-mouth the South Bay,” Ohnesorgen said, “but we’re not in the same caliber league as the other 3-A teams in the county.”

Ohnesorgen is not simply trying to instill overconfidence in his opponents by spewing psychological rhetoric.

Even Edens is not shy about breaking football’s pregame code of subtle diplomacy. He openly discusses his team’s athletic superiority.

“I don’t think they (the Spartans) have faced quite the caliber of kids we have got overall,” he said.

At the forefront of Chula Vista’s efforts to negate Point Loma’s size advantage will be offensive linemen Edgar Ramirez (6-2, 191) and Larry Edwards (5-10, 211).

Ohnesorgen insists they are more than capable and one need look no further than the county rushing leaders to find why.

Chula Vista’s offensive line created enough holes for running back LaMar Bailey during the season that Bailey finished sixth in the county in rushing yards (1,392).

Bailey’s main concern tonight won’t be piling up big numbers, however. He’ll have to concentrate on simply holding onto the ball because one of Point Loma’s best offensive weapons is turnovers created by its defense.

Last week in the quarterfinals Point Loma forced six fumbles from Helix. They directly led to a 21-0 victory.

“Our defense creates turnovers,” Edens said. “We put a lot of pressure on our opponents. We have outstanding athletes who really hit hard.”

The defense has made up for an offense which has struggled to move the ball since star running back Alex Gresham was injured early in the season.

“Our defense has given us extremely good field position all year,” Edens said. “And our offense is good enough to score when our defense gives us a short enough field.”