THE BIG GAME / VISTA-MT. CARMEL : Haines Ready to Join Elite : Football: Vista coach tries for 309th victory against formidable foe.

When Dick Haines walks on to the football field tonight at Mt. Carmel High, he might be on a historic path.

Haines is a victory away from being 10th among the all-time winningest high school football coaches. The Vista coach (308-111-11) has had some easy victories and some difficult ones during 41 seasons in Ohio, West Virginia and California, and Mt. Carmel promises to be included among the more difficult games this year.

The Sundevils (3-1-1) possess a big-play offense capable of giving the most physical of teams trouble. Like Vista (4-1), Mt. Carmel is unbeaten in two Palomar League games.

Mt. Carmel has scored 15 touchdowns this season, and nine have been scored from 30 yards or more. Seven touchdowns have come from beyond 40 yards, and five from beyond 50. Quick strike. That’s the Sundevils’ modus operandi . In a 28-10 victory last week over Rancho Buena Vista, the Sundevils scored three touchdowns after only five offensive plays, and their fourth was a 99-yard touchdown pass from Damian Dolin to Anthony Mamaril.

“That’s pleasing,” Mt. Carmel Coach Doug Kamon said. “Now people can’t say all they have to do to beat Mt. Carmel is stop Marlin (running back Marlin Carey). They still have to stop him, but we have other outlets.”

“Our quarterback (Dolin), he’s no longer a sophomore quarterback playing varsity. He’s a seasoned junior and understanding the offense.”

The Sundevils have eight rushing touchdowns, seven passing. Last year, when Dolin and Carey were sophomores, Mt. Carmel was 1-9. The team’s turnaround has been dramatic, bolstered by the return of 16 starters--eight on each side of the line--from that woebegone team of a year ago. That concerns Haines.

“They have good team speed and they play good defense,” Haines said. “Overall, I think our line matches up with theirs in speed. Our running back (Dan Sears) would match up with theirs in speed, but not experience.

“I think we have to play really well to come out of this thing, and I think they would think the same thing.”

Vista lost six all-league players from last year and returned only six starters, but the strength of this Vista group is its fortitude.

“We seem to have great team unity,” Haines said. “When one guy’s down, another guy picks him up. It’s a football team because we don’t have a Tommy Booker or Roger Price (who were section rushing leaders). We’re like that one commercial where they ask, ‘How did you get your money?’ We earn it. We work like hell for it.”

They may have to.

All-Time Top 10

Years Coach W-L-T ‘40-85 Gordon L. Wood 405-88-12 ‘52-90 John McKissick 381-77-13 ‘51-90 Pete Adkins 357-57-4 ‘39-81 Julius “Pinky” Babb 346-86-24 ‘53-90 Willie Varner 338-103-10 ‘40-84 Edward E. Buller 335-78-7 ‘25-77 Pat Panek 328-117-29 ‘43-83 E.B. Etter 324-102-13 ‘52-89 Wayman Creel 315-105-12 ‘36-74 Walter S. Brooks 308* ‘52- Dick Haines 308-111-11

Dick Haines’ Record

Years School W-L-T ‘52-53 Adena, Ohio 11-6-3 ‘54-55 Triadelphia, W.Va. 8-12-0 ‘56-57 Cadiz, Ohio 16-1-2 ‘58-69 Dover, Ohio 90-25-6 ‘70- Vista 183-67-0 Total 308-111-11

*--Losses and ties not available

Note: Records taken from the 1992 National High School Sports Record Book, which is complete through the 1990-91 season, but does not include the fall 1991 season.