No Hard Feelings

Chris Rix has a variety of motivations to draw on for tonight’s football game, but he said revenge is not among them.

Rix was the quarterback last season for La Puente Bishop Amat, helping the Lancers to the Southern Section Division I semifinals.

Over the summer, he transferred to Santa Margarita. When he left, many thought Bishop Amat would not be as good as last year’s 11-1-1 team. But the Lancers are 5-0 and the division’s top-ranked team coming into their nonleague game against Santa Margarita at Saddleback College.

“This will be the best team we’ve played so far,” Rix said. “Even better than Carlsbad [which beat the Eagles, 40-20, three weeks ago].

“[The game] has always been in the back of my mind since I saw the schedule. But I can’t hide the fact I do think about Bishop Amat a lot. I miss it. I’m very thankful for the time I had there. My girlfriend still goes there. I wish them well.”

Rix and his father, Chris, moved to Costa Mesa after his father took a job in Irvine. Chris wanted to attend either Santa Margarita or Mater Dei, and interviewed at both schools.

He said he’s happy to have wound up at Santa Margarita.

“The school, its academic programs and its football program are the top of the line,” Rix said. “It’s great.”

First-year Bishop Amat Coach Mike DiFiori said his players have been careful not to give Rix any added incentive.

“I expected [his name] to come up in conversation and it has not,” DiFiori said. “Our kids are treating it like a regular game against a good quarterback.”

Bishop Amat has not missed Rix that much because of its excellent running game. Francis Blay-Meisah is the Lancers’ leading rusher with 314 yards and two touchdowns in 51 carries. Donnie McCleskey has 139 yards and two touchdowns in 23 carries, and Joe Hugget has 203 yards and a touchdown in 26 carries.

Bishop Amat quarterback Shane Russell also is an effective runner, with 151 yards and two touchdowns in 18 carries. And Russell’s not a bad passer, either, having completed 24 of 51 attempts for 398 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Rix doesn’t think his former teammates will offer him warm greetings during the game.

“In the back of my mind, I think, yeah, they want a piece of me,” Rix said. “You know they want to hit me hard because they know what I can do.”

Rix had a solid junior season at Bishop Amat, passing for 1,700 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Santa Margarita fans expected similar results this season. After all, Rix was named a preseason high school All-American by a couple of prep magazines and had committed to Florida State, where he will make an official recruiting visit this weekend.

He should single-handedly lead Santa Margarita to a championship, right?

But the Eagles, despite a 4-1 record that includes a forfeit victory over Dana Hills, have struggled from the start, in part because Rix has struggled with the offense. He has had difficulty finding receivers and throwing a catchable pass when they do get open. He has also been quick to leave the pocket if his primary receiver isn’t open.

Rix’s numbers aren’t that bad. He has completed 36 of 71 passes for 461 yards. But he has only one touchdown pass and five interceptions. He also has rushed for 354 yards and four touchdowns in 34 carries.

Mike Marshall, the Eagles’ quarterback coach, said that because of Rix’s size (6 feet 4, 215 pounds), strong arm and reputation, Santa Margarita fans envisioned the second coming of Carson Palmer, who played on the 1996 and ’97 Division V championship teams and is now at USC.

“The comparison to Carson is natural,” Marshall said. “But it’s also unfair. Carson had three years in the system. Chris barely had a summer to start learning.”

Eagle Coach Jim Hartigan said most quarterbacks need at least a year to master his multi-formation offense.

“Once you get our system, it’s easy to run. But there is a multiplicity of formations to learn that takes time,” Hartigan said. “The system is built to handle multiple pressures from a defense, but a quarterback has to read the defense and know what specific formation to go into.”

Hartigan said Rix “looked really comfortable for the first time” in last week’s 38-21 victory over San Diego Rancho Bernardo. He completed 17 of 20 passes for 258 yards and threw his first touchdown pass.

Rix agreed that it was easily his best game at Santa Margarita. “It was the first time I felt like myself after a game. I was very mentally prepared and we executed very well.

“Even when I was struggling early, I never lost confidence. You have to have confidence that it will all come together. Last week, it did.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Featured Game

LA PUENTE BISHOP AMAT VS. SANTA MARGARITA

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: Saddleback College

Records: Bishop Amat is 5-0; Santa Margarita is 4-1.

Rankings: Bishop Amat is ranked No. 1 in Southern Section Division I; Santa Margarita is unranked.

Noteworthy: The Eagles were beaten soundly by Carlsbad, the top team in San Diego, and one of their victories was a forfeit over Dana Hills, which beat them, 37-14, last month but had to forfeit that victory this week because it used an ineligible player. Now the Eagles face the best in the Southern Section, so far. The undefeated Lancers can play it close, as they did against Tustin (17-13), or they can blow teams out, as they did last week against Claremont (42-7). Bishop Amat’s defense is fast and physical; if anyone knows how good it is, it should be quarterback Chris Rix, who practiced against it last year before transferring to Santa Margarita this fall.