Look at Them Now

The most important game for the Fontana High football team this season was the one the Steelers didn’t win.

It was a 3-3 tie with Moreno Valley Canyon Springs in the season opener Sept. 13. The game served as a wake-up call for a squad that may have started believing all the preseason hype about being the No. 1 high school team in the state and one of the best in the nation.

And it was the tie that turned the tide.

Fontana has been dominant since, winning its final nine games and its second consecutive Citrus Belt League title, and reaching the major-division playoffs for the 23rd year in a row, a state record.

The Steelers, ranked No. 2 in the Southland by The Times, will play host to Santa Fe Springs St. Paul in the opening round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs Friday night. They’re the division’s second-seeded team.

“Sometimes disappointments like that [ties] are the best thing that can happen to a team,” said Fontana Coach Dick Bruich, who is in his 20th season with the Steelers and has produced sectional titles in 1987 and ’89. “We knew after the Canyon Springs game that we had a lot more work to do.”

The Steelers had to work quickly. Their second game included a lengthy trip to Fresno to face perennial Central Section power Clovis West. Fontana registered a 37-20 victory.

Fontana was equally impressive the next week, handing Bloomington, the top-seeded team in Division VII, its only loss, 48-0.

“That game with Canyon Springs is the reason we have the record we do now,” said senior running back Art Gipson, who leads the Steeler offense with 1,153 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns. “It brought us back down to the ground.

“We had read all the hype about how good we were and didn’t work and prepare like we should have. We’ve worked our butts off ever since.”

Bruich said the team’s work ethic has always been synonymous with the city of Fontana and its football program, thus the nickname “Steelers.”

“This team has always been very much a reflection of the city,” Bruich said. “We’re a blue-collar team, this is a blue-collar city. We do the best that we can and we don’t worry about what we don’t have.”

Fontana doesn’t have the advantages of other Division I powerhouses such as top-seeded Santa Ana Mater Dei, Loyola and La Puente Bishop Amat, parochial schools that have no enrollment boundaries.

In addition, Bruich had his talent pool cut in half five years ago with the opening of A.B. Miller, the Fontana Unified School District’s second high school.

The program reached a low point in 1993, when the team finished 5-6. That same year, neighboring Rialto Eisenhower went on to win the Division I title.

Things have improved since with Fontana finishing 8-4 in 1994 and 11-1 in ’95.

“We have always made the most of the talent that we’ve had,” Bruich said. “It’s been harder for us in the past few years, but you don’t think about it. You just work harder.”

One problem remains: Fontana’s inability to defeat a parochial school in the playoffs. The Steelers were defeated in 1992 and ’95 by Loyola and in ’94 by Bishop Amat. Their last playoff victories over parochial programs were in 1987 against Encino Crespi and La Canada St. Francis.

It’s one streak the players hope will end Friday against St. Paul.

“Our goal is to practice on Thanksgiving,” said senior linebacker Isaac Vega, who along with linebacker Siona Motufau leads a defense that has given up only 51 points in 10 games.

“I’d like to get another crack at Loyola if we get that far,” said Motufau, who has 107 tackles. “They beat us pretty bad last year.”