Hey, boys, let’s just hurry up and win

The warning comes over the headsets, from high above in the football stadium press box to the coaches on the sideline below.

“They’re going to speed it up right now,” the defensive coordinator barks.

And, true to the call, players from the Corona Centennial High offense scramble to their feet after one play and quickly line up for the next, making sure they are ready to go just as soon as the game officials are.

The referee sets the ball down . . . tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . tick and off the Huskies go again.

Plenty of teams run no-huddle, hurry-up offenses out of the shotgun formation when certain situations call for it. Corona Centennial, The Times’ No. 2-ranked high school football team in the Southland, runs it any time for any reason.

Runs it faster, runs it well.

Runs it so efficiently that the next play starts, by average, four seconds after the referee sets the line of scrimmage by setting the ball down.

Runs it well enough to have won four Southern Section championships and 10 league titles, including one this year.

Said Coach Matt Logan: “I want to do offensively everything I hated to see as a defensive coordinator. I want it so that your life is miserable trying to defend it.”

Consider it done. The Huskies have made teams feel miserable 10 consecutive times this season, seven in the Big VIII League. They play host to Yucaipa (5-5) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the first round of the Inland Division Playoffs. They have 4,535 yards and 398 points, highest in the league.

And this is supposed to be an off year, with one returning starter on the offensive line, a senior quarterback in his first year in the program and a first-year starting running back. In five other seasons -- 2000, 2002-04 and 2007 -- the Huskies racked up more than 5,000 yards and 500 points.

Opponents do what they can, but rarely is it enough.

Riverside Poly stacked defenders within a few yards of scrimmage . . . and lost, 56-6.

Santa Ana Mater Dei shifted up on defensive schemes and looks trying to confuse the Huskies . . . and lost, 47-35.

That offense is trouble, Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said, because, “They have the speed and they have the athletes. You have to take away multiple weapons.”

Rollinson is lucky. His team played Centennial in a nonleague game this year but usually only needs to worry about the Huskies during the playoffs.

Corona Santiago faces Centennial every season, and Coach Steve Mitchell says simply, “They’re very good at what they do.”

In his team’s recent loss to Centennial, Mitchell witnessed the end of one hurry-up drive by the Huskies this way:

* Running back Arthur Burns runs for 10 yards to the Santiago 24.

Tick, tick, tick, tick . . .

* Burns gets the ball again, bursts through a huge hole up the middle and sprints untouched into the end zone.

The drive: seven plays, 65 yards in 1 minute 28 seconds of game time -- and only 3:05 in real time.

By halftime, the score was 35-3.

When Centennial is in high gear, the Huskies can suck the air right out of a defense.

It looks as if it would be tiring for the offense too, but Burns said, “When we’re on those longer drives, I may get thirsty, but I’m never tired.”

Possibly because he and his teammates are used to being on the clock.

The coaching staff seems to have everything figured out by the minute. On a Wednesday, the team is stretching by 5 p.m. and the offense is honing footwork by 5:10, working on blocking or ball handling by 5:15 and, by 5:20, is scrimmaging against the defense.

If the players get thirsty, they try to steal a swig of something between reps. If that isn’t enough for them, they’re advised not to play football.

“When we’re driving down the field,” wide receiver Ricky Marvray said, “there are no water breaks.”

And, considering how quickly players are expected to line up and figure out their role in the next play, preparing the mind is as key as conditioning the body.

Each player on the offense has five sets of 36 two-sided cards which, once strapped into a wristband, essentially becomes a portable playbook. Depending on what is relayed in from the sideline, they might quickly refer to their cards while hustling between plays. At the same time, they are trained to notice where the referee places the ball. If it is on a hash mark, three receivers go to the wide side of the field. If the ball is between hash marks, the four receivers split two to a side.

“It’s almost like you go to another country and you suddenly become immersed in the language,” receivers coach Jeremy Gaines said of the team’s offense. “You start to speak [fluently] out of necessity.”

Each week, players receive a DVD of the previous week’s game and one of the upcoming opponent. They are expected to study to the point where games seem to play out in slow motion.

It’s an effort that goes beyond the team.

Four students and three parents use three cameras to film games from different vantage points, providing a wide shot from the sideline, a zoomed-in view from the same location and a wide shot from the end zone on each play. They then spend six hours the next day editing video from the previous night and breaking down everything they can obtain on their next opponent.

All of which goes toward the goal Logan stresses, the one the coach has written above each game listed on his team’s monthly schedule:

“Kick Butt!”

And, he might add, do it quickly.

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mark.medina@latimes.com

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Stepping up

Corona Centennial High started playing football in 1989, and in 1994 produced its first player who earned a college scholarship. The total now is about 60 -- with nine more from this season ready to join the list. They are:

Verbally committed

Taylor Martinez, QB: Nebraska

Ricky Marvray, WR: UCLA

Vontaze Burfict, LB: USC

KJ Vaifale, DB: Southern Methodist

Also receiving offers

Arthur Burns, running back

Gavin Pascarella, right guard

Will Sutton, defensive tackle

Anthony Whitlow, linebacker

Ben Letcher, linebacker