A Star Is Unleashed at El Modena

They’re part of the Century League’s well-to-do class, at least for this season.

Santa Ana Foothill’s Mike Liti and Orange El Modena’s Daniel Dixon, two of the region’s leading junior running backs, will meet Friday in a key football game at El Modena High.

Liti has rushed for 1,344 yards and scored 23 touchdowns, leading the Knights to a 7-0 start, 2-0 in league. Dixon has played one less game with the Vanguards (5-1, 2-0), but has 1,417 yards and 17 touchdowns.

With Foothill being moved to the Sea View League next fall after realignment, the game will end a league rivalry between the schools dating to 1976, when the Knights joined the Century League.

Foothill defeated El Modena in triple overtime, 35-28, in 1981 to win the Southern Conference championship. Two years later, the Vanguards avenged the loss with a 10-7 victory over the Knights in the title game.

“Foothill is going to be a big game,” Dixon said after watching game films on campus Saturday. “This season is going to be made right here.”

Liti’s numbers aren’t as surprising as those of Dixon, who started at free safety last season but played behind Adam Lancisero, the league’s co-most valuable player, in the Vanguards’ offensive backfield. Dixon played well enough to earn second-team all-league honors at running back. Meanwhile, Liti was piling up 1,256 yards and 13 touchdowns en route to first-team all-league honors as a sophomore.

But this fall Dixon has been a step ahead of Liti from the start. Dixon has rushed for more than 200 yards in four games, including 259 in the season opener against Los Alamitos, No. 8 in The Times’ preseason rankings. Dixon rushed for a school-record 371 yards and five touchdowns against Anaheim Canyon, and Friday night added 235 yards against Santa Ana Valley.

“Things have gone better than I expected,” Dixon said. “I didn’t expect the offensive line to be as good as it is. I knew we could beat some teams, but not as badly as we’ve been doing lately.”

There have been signs of impending success at El Modena. While the varsity was stumbling through a 1-9 season two years ago, Dixon’s freshman team went 9-1, its only loss to the Liti-led Knights in the season finale. Last season, the Vanguards finished 8-3 and 4-1 in league, advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 1997.

El Modena is off to an even better start this season, and Dixon’s totals nearly equal what Lancisero accomplished in 10 games a year ago.

“What’s best is he’s only a junior,” said El Modena Coach Jason Hitchens. “Adam was a blue collar-type running back, but Daniel has another gear. He has really good vision. He can slash but is strong enough to run through tackles.”

Hitchens said Dixon is one of six players on the team who can bench press at least 300 pounds. He’s a good student, well liked by his teammates and very coachable.

About the only cloud in Dixon’s future is his size: 5 feet 8, 180 pounds.

But Hitchens also knows there’s no limit to how far hard work and determination can take a player.

When Hitchens was an assistant coach at Santa Margarita from 1992-96, running back Billy Newman showed similar skills with a similar body type as Dixon’s.

“Washington State looked at his size and thought he was put together good enough to help them out,” Hitches said. “Now, he’s their starting strong safety.”