Players Have Turnaround in Attitude : Prep football: After a devastating loss, Cerritos Valley Christian has to get into mind-set to play for Division X title.

A near-death experience? Maybe a little melodramatic.

Surreal?

“That sounds about right,” Cerritos Valley Christian quarterback Kirk Saarloos said this week. “It hasn’t really set in yet. It’s weird, but we’re playing in the [Southern Section] finals [tonight]. I know we’re playing, but I still can’t get used to it.”

Can you blame him?

Saarloos and his teammates experienced the most devastating defeat of their careers two weeks ago when they lost to Rosamond, 45-10, in the Southern Section Division X semifinals.

“Everyone was bawling their eyes out,” Saarloos said. “Everyone in the locker room knew we weren’t going to be able to put on the pads again. We were trying to dwell on the positives, but there were none. That was not our team on the field that night.”

Thanks to a Rosamond assistant football coach, Valley Christian players will put on their pads again and have a chance to erase the Rosamond game from their memory. Rosamond was disqualified from the playoffs by the Southern Section when it was learned that the assistant doctored game videotape from Rosamond’s playoff games.

Cerritos Valley Coach Mike Wunderley was at home with walking pneumonia when he learned of his team’s second chance.

“Have you ever been really sick and when people are talking to you you have a hard time concentrating on what they’re saying?” Wunderley said of his conversation with the school’s principal. “When he asked me if we’d be interested in reentering the playoffs, I had to have him repeat it. It blew me out of my socks. I was in the middle of the grieving process and none of this made sense.”

Once Wunderley collected himself, he quickly told his principal, “I think we would.”

Saarloos said only about three of his teammates hesitated when asked about playing Orange Lutheran for the Division X title.

“We were overjoyed,” Saarloos said. “We thought, ‘A second chance. This has never happened before.’ I know people will say we’re not supposed to be here, but we have something to prove. We have to prove that it was not a fluke we beat Orange Lutheran the first time, and we have to prove that it was a fluke we didn’t show up at Rosamond.”

Coming into the Rosamond game, Saarloos had passed for more than 1,800 yards and 19 touchdowns with only one interception. Against Rosamond, Saarloos threw four passes that were intercepted and Valley Christian turned the ball over seven times.

“I can’t pick out one guy who played a good game for us,” Saarloos said. “I know I’ll have bad games. I just have to learn how to come back from them.”

Wunderley said he had the feeling at Monday’s practice that his team was beginning to come back from the dead.

“They’re pretty excited about it,” he said. “They prayed after practice and had a 20-minute team meeting between the seniors. I think by [tonight], they’ll be ready to play again.

“These kids have a new opportunity. They should be playing soccer and basketball or doing homework. Now, they get to practice.”

They also get an opportunity to become only the second Valley

Christian football team to win a section title. Wunderley’s 1986 team beat Carpinteria, 10-7, to win the Inland Conference championship.

“This team doesn’t play as good a defense as that team, but they score a lot more points,” Wunderley said.

The Crusaders were averaging 40 points before the Rosamond game and they had totaled more than 5,000 yards on offense. Orange Lutheran is quite familiar with the Crusaders’ offense. Valley Christian defeated Orange Lutheran, 36-31, in November for the Olympic League title.

After falling behind, 31-29, the Crusaders rallied behind Saarloos, who led his team on an 85-yard drive in the last two minutes.

“Our coach calls it ‘The Drive,’ ” Saarloos said.

Said Wunderley: “Many people have told me it was the greatest high school football game they had ever seen.”

Saarloos expects a similar game tonight.

“I think it will be another shootout,” he said. “I can’t wait. I haven’t been able to get a lot of sleep since I heard about this.”

Wunderley said he half expects someone to tell him the whole thing was a lark.

“To this day, it still is hard to believe,” he said. “I sit in my office putting together a game plan and I’ll catch myself saying, ‘This isn’t real.’ ”