A Real Wing-Ding for Bloomington : High school football: Record-setting school ends perfect season with 48-32 victory over La Mirada for Division VIII title.

Fasten your seat belts and make sure your lap trays and chair backs are in their locked and upright position, Bloomington High’s double-wing offense has taken off.

Using the deceivingly simple and archaic-looking offensive formation, Bloomington defeated La Mirada, 48-32, Friday to win the Southern Section Division VIII championship game at La Mirada.

Running back Greg Oliver does the bulk of the work for the Bruin offense, which features two running backs split behind each tight end and a fullback who lines up closely behind the quarterback. Friday was no different as Oliver rushed for 260 yards and four touchdowns for the Bruins (14-0).

The victory completed a seemingly impossible U-turn from last season when the Bruins finished 1-9. But first-year Coach Don Markham brought his unlikely offense before this season, and Bloomington broke the national single-season scoring record last week with a 34-21 semifinal victory over Laguna Hills.

Their 880 points this season break the previous record of 827, set by Big Sandy, Tex., in 14 games in 1975.

“It was a satisfying year because we weren’t supposed to do anything,” Markham said. “It was sort of a Cinderella story. That’s the whole story. Rags to riches.”

It wasn’t easy money, though, in the championship game.

Bloomington, which has beaten teams, 86-8, 84-0 and 72-14, this season with an offense that features only eight running plays and two passing plays, found itself leading by only two points, 34-32, with 2:34 to play in the third quarter after La Mirada’s Hugo Corral ran 34 yards to set up a one-yard touchdown run by Brett Darnell.

Ironically, for run-happy Bloomington, it survived by the pass.

Facing fourth and 11 to start the fourth quarter, Jason Buell threw to Oliver for a 24-yard gain to bring Bloomington to the La Mirada seven-yard line. Three plays later, David Smith scored on a three-yard run to put the Bruins up by 10 points and out of reach of the Matadors.

Markham said the fourth-down play was the key.

“I was thinking we better move the ball here or we’re going to get beat,” Markham said. ‘We won by the pass.”

For La Mirada Coach John Mele, that was the turning point as well.

“If we get some momentum, we go down there and score, it might be a different game,” Mele said.

Bloomington closed out the scoring and got a little closer to its 64-point average with 2:27 to play on a 30-yard run by Cheyane Caldwell.