Big-Game Cats : With a Defense That First Had to Scratch and Claw, Kennedy Now on the Prowl in the City Section Football Playoffs

For Kennedy High linebacker Alex Sawatzke, who has planted many a ballcarrier in the turf, the half-speed mental playback could be called slow- mow .

In a season that has flown by, there have been moments in which time almost stood still, as motionless as one of the many backs Sawatzke has smacked.

In a midseason game against San Fernando, for instance, the Kennedy senior was on the coverage team during a kickoff. He recalls moving toward the right sideline while the ball was in the air.

Action moved frame by frame, or at least it did for Sawatzke. Brian Brison, the return man who was about to be mowed down, would have a difficult time believing that Sawatzke was operating at anything less than full tilt.

“I remember running down there at regular speed,” Sawatzke said in a half-whisper, recalling the seconds leading up to the collision. “And I saw him break out of the pack. Then my footsteps seemed like they were only about five miles per hour. I saw him cut and turn right into me, so I nailed him.

“It seemed like it took two days.”

It left Brison--and others like him--too dazed. The vicious tackle earned Sawatzke a helmet decal dubbed a “Bad Cat,” awarded by Kennedy coaches for meritorious infliction of mayhem. Sawatzke, a three-year starter, is sporting a school-record 11 decals on his plastic hat.

Cat, of course, refers to the school nickname, although it could just as easily be an abbreviation for Catastrophic. Each decal was earned for chewing up a ballcarrier and spitting him out like a hairball. If ever there was a player designed to play in an attack-style defensive scheme, Sawatzke is the guy.

“It’s fun to be the aggressor, not the aggressee or whatever,” Sawatzke said. “Know what I mean?”

Mean is exactly right. Sawatzke leads a Kennedy defense that is so ornery it has held its last three opponents to negative yardage at halftime.

Sawatzke, the defensive centerpiece at inside linebacker, will be at center stage when Kennedy (11-1) plays host to Banning (11-1) in a City Section 4-A Division semifinal tonight at 7:30.

In a season that started with great expectations, the Cougar defense, installed last season, has been golden and then some.

“They spend all week long trying to figure out what our defense is doing instead of working out their own offense,” said Tom Sams, Kennedy’s defensive coordinator. “Everybody on the defense is taught, from the safeties on down, that the first step is forward.

“This is collision football.”

Sawatzke (6-foot-3, 230 pounds), is the tyrannosaurus of wrecks. He and fellow co-captain Anthony Jones, a three-year starter at cornerback, are the graybeards of a unit that has allowed a scant 116.5 yards a game.

Ten of Kennedy’s defensive starters are seniors, seven of whom started last season. Familiarity has bred trust.

“Over the years we’ve grown into one big family,” Jones said. “We all have faith in each other. We just stick to the game plan and go get ‘em.”

Jones (6-0, 180) and Sawatzke started as sophomores on a team that finished 5-7 and took its lumps, allowing 270 points. Kennedy surrendered an average of 278.2 yards, second-worst among area City teams.

“It made us grow up quick,” said Jones, who bench presses 350 pounds and is expected to play safety in college. “We had to mature fast. We didn’t have time to be rookies.”

No more rooks meant no more pawns. In 1990, Kennedy switched to a less-passive style and allowed 186.8 yards a game, second-best among area City teams. The three-year results speak for themselves: a 278-yard average was cut to 186, then to 116.

“Football is replete with sayings,” said Sams, who at 6-5 and 300 pounds, red beard and brown coaching togs looks like a friar. “They say the best offense is a good defense.

“We took it a step further. We feel the best offense is an offensive-minded defense.”

Not only has the Kennedy defense put the brakes to the opposition, it has been punitive in the process. Kennedy has scored six defensive touchdowns in 1991, three on pass interceptions and three on fumble returns.

Punching loose the pigskin . . . picking off passes . . . swiping the ball in every possible manner. When the defense wrests , it sends everybody into orbit.

“It’s a blast,” said Sams, who graduated in 1973 from San Fernando High where he was a two-way lineman and played as a sophomore with Anthony Davis. “It’s the most fun a guy can have on Friday night.”

The framework for success is basic enough. Kennedy runs a “50 defense,” a variation of the 3-4-4 alignment. In the 50, the outside linebackers often line up on opposite ends of a three-man defensive line. Much of the action is steered inside toward Sawatzke.

Banning presents a considerable obstacle. Kennedy is 0-3 against the Pilots in Coach Bob Francola’s six seasons and absorbed its toughest loss in the quarterfinal round last year. Kennedy fell to the Pilots, 20-10, although the defense allowed just 13 points.

“A lot of people feel we should have won last year,” said Jones, who along with Sawatzke will be starting his 37th consecutive game tonight. “I know I do. We don’t fear Banning.”

Sawatzke realizes that the Pilots--whose lone loss came as a result of a forfeit--will be the toughest team the Golden Cougars have faced. No running back has rushed for 100 yards against the Golden Cougars, but behind Banning’s sizable offensive line, Shayzar Hawkins has rushed for 1,542 yards, 303 in the Pilots’ two playoff victories.

Kennedy’s defensive unit has drawn comparisons to the 1986 team that was perhaps the region’s best of the decade. Defensive players included Dion Lambert (UCLA), Akili Calhoun (Hawaii), Ron Simmons (Brigham Young), George Davidson (Iowa State), Mark McMillan (Alabama) and Tony Brown (Fresno State).

The 1986 unit allowed an almost inconceivable 80.8 yards per game, a school record. Yet because the offense often struggled and the score was usually close, the defensive starters remained on the field most of the game. That has hardly been the case in the latter half of 1991.

Over the past four weeks, Kennedy has outscored the opposition, 198-28, which means garbage time comes early. Along with Sawatzke and Jones, impact defensive players such as cornerback Ronnie Gipson, linebacker Bobby Rodgers and lineman Brian Meza exit fairly early.

“This team is every bit as good or better than the one in ‘86,” said Sams, who has coached at Kennedy for 13 seasons.

Major college recruiters have been visiting Kennedy with increasing regularity. On Monday, a coach from Utah dropped by the campus. Tuesday, it was one from Oregon State. Wednesday, Colorado State Coach Earle Bruce turned up and had to vie for attention because recruiters from Cal, Nevada Las Vegas and Hawaii also had shown up. Thursday, representatives from Arizona, Washington State and Pacific stopped by to view game film.

Despite the team’s success, the atmosphere in the locker room remains relatively sedate. It won’t be confused with the town library, but compared to typical postgame revelry the Golden Cougars are as quiet as church mice.

“After a win, they celebrate for about 60 seconds,” said Craig Raub, an assistant. “There’s no messing around. Football for them isn’t a nonsense game, it’s a physical game.”

Kennedy’s physical maturation has turned more than a few heads. Sawatzke, a menacing looking player with a shock of platinum blond hair, hits like a lead pipe. The last Kennedy blond to generate this kind of electricity was named Marilyn.

Of the Bad Cat badges Sawatzke has earned, his favorite was the one he received for delivering a wicked shot against Granada Hills.

After he lowered the bridge on the Highlander, Sawatzke reportedly picked the player up, wiped the chalk dust from the guy’s backside and said: “Your huddle’s that way. Come back any time.”