They’re One Game Away From Perfection : Prep football: After defeating Loyola, 7-3, for the Southern Section Division I championship, undefeated Bishop Amat will play Sylmar in the first CIF/Reebok Bowl.

It was a goal that seemed destined to some, hoped for by many and not expected by others.

Bishop Amat High’s 7-3 victory over Loyola in the Southern Section Division I football championship at Cerritos College Friday night was also a tribute to its longtime equipment manager Charles (Stan) Stanzione.

The team placed small crosses and the name Stan on the back of its helmets in honor of Stanzione, who died shortly before the season began.

A chorus of “Do it for Stan!” erupted from Bishop Amat players and fans moments after senior linebacker George Guzman recovered a fumbled snap at the Bishop Amat 22-yard line with one minute 19 seconds to play to secure the victory.

Guzman pointed to the sky in remembrance of Stanzione, a practice initiated by senior linemen Chris Gallardo and Willhans Ili after each sack this season. The Lancers also held a moment of silence for Stanzione after the game.

“He was an inspiration and everybody misses him,” said Ili, the Del Rey League’s most valuable player. “Everybody goes wild when you mention his name.”

The Lancers also laid to rest any doubts about their 28-14 victory over Loyola on Nov. 7 to clinch the Del Rey League title and hand the third-seeded Cubs (12-2) their only other loss during the season.

“I expected it to be a lot closer this time,” said Ili, who leads the team with 125 tackles and 10 1/2 sacks. “When you beat a team the first time, they’re always going to be out to get you. When we beat them the second time, we proved it was not luck.”

The title, the fourth in the school’s history, also ended a 21-year drought between championship seasons for top-seeded Bishop Amat (14-0), which had reached three consecutive championship games between 1969-71.

For seventh-year Bishop Amat Coach Mark Paredes, it ended six seasons of frustration.

The Lancers have won a share of seven consecutive league titles under Paredes and have won nine or more games six times during his tenure, only to falter in the playoffs. Bishop Amat, which had fallen in the 1983 and ’88 championship games, was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last season.

“The championship game looked a million miles away and then, all of a sudden, it was there,” Paredes, 40, said. “It’s been a goal of ours for some time. It was just another week and another game. I don’t see a turning point as much as our kids focusing on the opponent at hand.”

Bishop Amat will turn its attention to City 4-A champion Sylmar (13-0) in the first CIF/Reebok Bowl at Anaheim Stadium Friday night at 7:30. The game will be televised live and marks the first meeting between the City and Southern Section champions since the organizations split in 1934.

The prospect of an undefeated season for Bishop Amat, however, did not appear promising in the early weeks of the season. The Lancers won their first two games by a total of five points and narrowly escaped with a 13-12 victory over Damien in the second week.

“I can’t say we expected (the title) or playing in the Reebok Bowl at the beginning of the season,” senior cornerback Paul Shay said. “It was just talk in the locker room and things like that.”

Bishop Amat was sixth in the preseason Southern Section Division I rankings in August but moved into the top spot after beating Loyola in the ninth week of the season.

The Lancers, who have outscored their opponents 377-97, were unchallenged in the playoffs, defeating Mission Viejo, 38-0, Long Beach Wilson, 28-7, and Eisenhower, 28-6, on its way to the final.

“We didn’t really think we could win the whole thing and, to top it off, go undefeated,” said junior running back Rodney Sermons, who has rushed for 1,330 yards and 24 touchdowns this season. “Once we got to the second round, it was an emotional thing to keep on going. Once we got to the (Eisenhower game), I thought we could do it.”

Eisenhower had beaten Bishop Amat in the team’s last three meetings and defeated the Lancers in the first round of the playoffs in 1989 and in the second round three years earlier.

This season’s game, however, was shrouded in controversy.

Southern Section officials required Eisenhower administrators to move the game from Rialto to Mt. San Antonio College because Eisenhower’s stadium was not large enough to hold the anticipated crowd.

The point became academic after Sermons, the Del Rey League’s offensive player of the year, gained 162 yards and scored four touchdowns in the runaway victory.

“Eisenhower was the toughest team we had played at that point and they couldn’t do anything against us,” said senior center Jason Salcido, who played the first half against Loyola Friday despite breaking his left hand on the game’s first play. “That’s when I started thinking (that) if we play that type of football for the rest of the playoffs, nobody can stop us.”

Nobody has. And Sylmar, which defeated Carson, 17-0, in Saturday’s City 4-A final, is the only team left that can. Bishop Amat will also have another opportunity to play at Anaheim Stadium after rains forced the movement of last week’s game to Cerritos College.

“I thought, why play another game because we are on top of the world and the CIF championship seemed to be the peak of our life,” Sermons said. “It will be great to win, but no matter what happens, we’re going to be in the history books. It’s just a game to go out and have fun.”

That’s what the Lancers have been doing all season.