Miller Passes the Muster for Venice

Receivers B.J. Vickers and Antwuan Giddens are large and physical targets who give the Venice football team big-play potential on nearly every down.

But neither throws the ball to the other. It’s Eddie Miller’s job to get it to them, and the Gondolier signal-caller does it with amazing proficiency.

Miller has thrown for a City Section-best 3,665 yards and 32 touchdowns, leading fourth-seeded Venice into a semifinal showdown against top-seeded Woodland Hills Taft on Friday night.

It is the Gondoliers’ first appearance in a Championship Division semifinal, and the senior is eagerly awaiting a matchup between the section’s most prolific offenses.

“I’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to play against them,” Miller said. “We hear so much about them and that whole offense. They have some great players.

“Looking at them is kind of like looking in a mirror, at ourselves.”

College recruiters were at the Venice campus Monday, no doubt to watch the 6-foot-3 Vickers and 6-4 Giddens.

Vickers, a natural physical specimen at 215 pounds, already has several Division I offers. Giddens, a raw talent who is flourishing in the pass-happy system, figures to pick up a lot of recruiting action in the coming weeks. They have combined for 121 receptions and 18 touchdowns.

Miller, at 5-11, doesn’t get as many calls or visits. He knows those numbers -- 5-11 -- don’t go over well when recruiters have to answer to their head coaches.

“They don’t bring it up but I know what they’re thinking,” he said with a wry smile. “That’s all right.”

Miller is what Coach Angelo Gasca calls the “point guard” in his intricate offense.

“We work a lot on spacing,” Gasca said. “A lot of our patterns are done in triangles. Eddie has to find the open guy.”

He usually finds them with deadly accuracy and rarely makes a bad decision. Only six of his 263 attempts have been intercepted, while 72% have been completed.

Miller’s performance in playoff victories over Fremont and Roosevelt have garnered rave reviews. He completed 31 of 43 passes for 551 yards and six touchdowns in the two games.

“There’s no question that he’s played his best two games in the last two weeks,” Gasca said. “But we need him to play better this week.”

Gasca, a former standout quarterback at Venice, is building a quarterback legacy at his school that he hopes one day will rival those at Taft and Newhall Hart. J.P. Losman, a disciple of Gasca’s when he was offensive coordinator, starts at Tulane. Anton Clarkson is a freshman at Oregon State.

Now there’s Miller. But is Miller’s success a product of his abilities or the result of the system?

“It’s not fair to say he’s doing great because he’s just got great receivers,” Gasca said. “The receivers benefit from the passes that he hits them with and he benefits from their ability to turn them into big plays. It works hand-in-hand. No matter how many receivers you have, you need someone to pull the trigger.”

At one time, Miller was the backup to Long Beach Poly quarterback Leon Jackson when both were at Beverly Hills. Since coming to Venice before his junior year, Miller has led the Gondoliers to a 17-7 record.

But he also knows his most important game is Friday night, when he will have a chance to prove himself against the section’s only undefeated team and title favorite.

“I love adversity,” Miller said. “I’ve loved when people said I can’t do something. Every step of the way, I’ve proven somebody wrong.”

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The contributions of the four quarterbacks in the Championship Division semifinals will be a determining factor in who plays in the Coliseum for the title on Dec. 13.

Miller’s counterpart, Cary Dove, has made Taft go all season. Dove has the numbers -- 2,839 yards and 29 touchdown passes -- but he has also grown this season in terms of field presence and decision-making ability.

In the other semifinal, Gardena’s and Birmingham’s quarterbacks are a study in contrasts. Birmingham has a stalwart in Ryan Lombardo, and Gardena’s LaFerrell Payne is the section’s top running quarterback and powers the Panthers’ option offense.

Lombardo has completed 140 of 245 passes for 2,909 yards and 27 touchdowns. Payne has 941 yards and 10 touchdowns in 114 carries, doing his best work late with game-winning runs against Wilmington Banning and Sylmar in the last minute of play.

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Taft receiver Steve Smith has 252 receptions in his three-year varsity career, which is only 17 behind record-holder Leodes Van Buren of Newbury Park (1990-93).