Double Trouble

The entrance to the locker room at L.A. Loyola High is bedecked with a blue-and-white sign that reads: “Through these halls pass the finest prep athletes in the state.”

Matt Ware was not the inspiration for that statement, but he could have been.

Ware, a sinewy 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior, is the multitalented quarterback for the unbeaten Cubs (6-0), who face their biggest test of the season Saturday night in a nonleague game against Mater Dei (5-1) at Glendale High.

Ware is also regarded as one of the nation’s top defensive backs--even though he didn’t make his first start in the secondary until Loyola’s fifth game of the season.

“He’s probably the best athlete I’ve ever had playing quarterback,” said Steve Grady, who is in his 25th season as Loyola’s coach. “We made a decision that we needed to keep Matt healthy through the first part of the season so he would be ready for our league schedule.

“I think he was frustrated at the beginning of the year by not starting on defense.”

Ware, 17, finally started both ways two weeks ago against Newhall Hart, rallying the Cubs to a 24-16 victory.

There is no doubt Loyola, which plays in the Del Rey League, is a legitimate challenger for the Southern Section Division I title, which the Cubs last won in 1990.

Before Loyola’s game against Hart, Ware, who has already committed to UCLA, had been forced to settle for hitting receivers with passes and crashing into opposing defenders when he runs the ball.

“He is very difficult to defend because he can do so many things,” Hart Coach Mike Herrington said before the Indians’ game against Loyola.

Against Hart, Ware rushed for 117 yards in 15 carries, passed for 75 yards, intercepted a pass that he returned for 45 yards and simply refused to let his team quit after trailing, 16-3, at halftime.

“Loyola didn’t beat us--Matt Ware beat us,” Herrington said afterward.

On the season, Ware has completed 37 of 53 pass attempts for 496 yards and four touchdowns, with two interceptions. He has carried the ball 56 times for 490 yards (8.1 average) and six touchdowns.

Not surprisingly, he plays offense with a defensive player’s mind-set.

“If you’re coming after me, I’m coming after you,” said Ware, who lives in Malibu. “If I’m running with the ball, there is going to be a collision. I can hear Coach Grady yelling, ‘Get out of bounds! What are you doing?’ but that’s not my mentality.”

Loyola lineman Keith Ornelas, who has committed to California, said the Cubs feed off Ware’s aggressiveness on offense.

“He just doesn’t go down on a first hit,” Ornelas said. ‘He gets up after he’s finally been tackled as if he made the hit.”

Ware has been leading by example on the football field since enrolling at Loyola in 1997. He was a quarterback and safety for Loyola’s freshman team, then moved up to the varsity as a sophomore and played defense exclusively. He began his junior season as a safety, wide receiver and kick returner and became the quarterback when starter Eric McClenahan was injured in midseason.

Ware kept the job and passed for 786 yards, rushed for 346 yards and had 200 yards in receptions as Loyola advanced to the Division I quarterfinals. The Cubs lost to Los Alamitos, 30-23, in double overtime after a 60-yard field goal by Los Alamitos’ Chris Kluwe sent the game into overtime.

Ware’s only consolation was that he would one day be teammates with Kluwe at UCLA. Ware’s father, Bernard, and mother, Julie, both attended UCLA. So when he participated in a Bruin football camp the summer before his junior season, Ware was intent on making an impression.

“I was lining up against receivers and doing a pretty good job of shutting them down,” Ware said. “I saw Coach [Bob] Toledo standing over there. It seemed like everywhere I went, he was standing over there watching me. I was like, ‘Maybe I’m getting a look right now.’ ”

UCLA offered Ware a scholarship after last season. He committed to the Bruins without a second thought.

“I was raised going to UCLA basketball games and the Rose Bowl,” Ware said. “I know all about Kenny Easley and the tradition of great safeties. I would have committed to UCLA when I was 5 or 6 if I could have.”

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Staff writer Eric Sondheimer contributed to this story.