High School Football : Orange Glen Wants to Be a Good Neighbor : But How Good? Football Rival San Pasqual Should Provide Answer

SAN DIEGO —  The Orange Glen High School football team will certainly find out quite a bit about 2-A San Pasqual, its friendly neighborhood rival, tonight in The Battle of Bear Valley Parkway. But Coach Dave Lay hopes to discover a few things about his own team.

The two schools, located 4 miles apart on Bear Valley Parkway in Escondido, will meet at San Pasqual at 7:30 p.m. Since fourth-ranked Orange Glen (2-0) is in the 3-A Palomar League and 10th-ranked San Pasqual (2-0) is in the 2-A Avocado League, the game is mostly for bragging rights--and for tuning up for the league schedules, which begin next week.

Tuning up is what interests Lay. He has a question: How good is Orange Glen?

In the season opener, the Patriots destroyed San Marcos, 49-0. But last week they had to work hard to get by Escondido, 21-14.

“We thought we’d have a pretty good team this year, and we do,” Lay said. “I’m just not sure how good. We played great in the first game. But we weren’t as crisp in the second game.”

Now, for the third consecutive week, Orange Glen will play an Avocado League school. And San Pasqual figures to present Orange Glen with its stiffest test yet.

“We’ve got to stop them,” Lay said of the Eagles’ offense. “In both games they’ve played, nobody’s come close to stopping them.”

San Pasqual has defeated Poway, 42-28, and Mt. Carmel, 27-21.

“They had a track meet against Poway,” Lay said.

Orange Glen likes to pass. But, Lay said, “We run the ball pretty well for a throwing team.” The Patriots line up with one back, and use lots of motion.

New quarterback Cree Morris is averaging 211 yards a game passing. Shane Copeland ran for 176 yards against San Marcos and then 114 against Mt. Carmel. Add to this the fact that running back Dennis Esposito, who gained 865 yards last year, returns this week after missing the first two games because of arthroscopic knee surgery.

But the unit that has powered the offense is the line.

“I’ve been real happy with the offensive line,” Lay said. “Going into the year, we were real young with three juniors who had never played offense.”

They are center Danny Lynds (5-11, 210), tackle Troy Martz (6-3, 220) and guard Eric Johnson (5-11, 220).

While Lay thinks Orange Glen’s play declined from the first to second week, San Pasqual Coach Mike Dolan said his team improved.

“Offensively, we’re ahead of where we thought we’d be,” Dolan said. “The kids worked hard over the summer.”

Aside from the fact that both teams are undefeated, there’s an added incentive. The rivalry.

“When we play them, it’s cousins against cousins, friends against friends, and sometimes families against families,” Lay said.

Said Dolan: “Even if the coaches tried to downplay it, we couldn’t. We’re going after it. It’s a big game for the kids, and it’s a real big game for the parents. Most of them know each other.”