Charities Winners in This Game

In a return to proper perspective in high school sports, the Whittier Christian football team has found a way to give something back to the community.

The team’s booster club has selected a different charity for each home game at Whittier College and fans are asked to bring an item to donate. For Friday’s game, a 20-6 loss to Rosamond, fans were asked to bring canned foods to benefit area Red Cross homeless shelters.

Here are the charities and items requested for the remaining home games: Oct. 5 vs. Whittier, soap and shower supplies for Salvation Army and homeless shelters; Oct. 11 vs. Sun Valley Village Christian, infant care items and infant foods for Sheepfold Shelter for Abused Homeless Women and Children; Oct. 25 vs. Orange Lutheran, canned or dried foods for the Interfaith Food Center; and Nov. 8, an unwrapped new toy for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots program.

What’s more, each involved charity will benefit from a weekly fund-raising drawing held at each home game. The charity will receive a check for 10% of the amount collected on the sale of raffle tickets.

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Quarterback Greg Cicero’s status for Servite’s home opener against Irvine will be uncertain all week as doctors and coaches evaluate the injury to his right (throwing) hand. Cicero injured his hand Friday in the 24-20 victory against Esperanza; although X-rays showed no break, there is still enough swelling that physicians cannot tell whether there is ligament damage between the first and second fingers.

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Thursday’s Los Amigos-Fountain Valley football game was the first battle for 92708 supremacy.

Los Amigos, which plays in Division VIII, hadn’t played a Division I team (such as Fountain Valley) in, well, quite a few years.

“We played Los Alamitos back in the early ‘80s,” said Los Amigos defensive coordinator David Olson. “But that was before they had a Division I [team].”

The Lobos, Southern Section semifinalists, showed well against the bigger school, piling up 348 yards in offense to make the Barons sweat a 31-17 decision.

“It feels very different,” Lobo fullback/linebacker Shaun Tagatauli said beforehand. “We’ve never had a game like this--it’s like a championship game for us. I think that knowing we were opening with Fountain Valley made us work harder in the preseason.”

The game was played on a one-year contract; both teams happened to have an opening in their schedule. But as competitive as the game was, it might have the makings of an annual affair.

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El Modena football Coach Steve Howard and his players presented the family of Brett Bandel with a helmet and Bandel’s jersey No. 33 during halftime at Friday’s El Modena-Garden Grove game.

Bandel, a Vanguard player in 1993-94, died from injuries in an automobile accident during the summer. He was attending Rancho Santiago College at the time.

The school has since established a scholarship fund in his name; the football team will wear No. 33 on its helmets.

Donations to the fund should be sent to: Brett Bandel Memorial Fund, El Modena Booster Club, 3920 Spring St., Orange, Calif., 92669.

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Laguna Beach senior Marc Ornelas not only took his first snap as a quarterback Friday night, but his first snap as a football player. Nobody would have guessed it by the way Ornelas played in the Artists’ 25-23 loss to Bolsa Grande, though. He completed 16 of 28 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed eight times for 47 yards.

Ornelas has been a standout soccer player throughout his high school career at Laguna Beach.

Contributing to this report were correspondents Ryan T. Blystone, Eric Maddy and Brad Moore and staff writer Mike Terry.