Prep football: Ready to roll

Barry Faulkner

ANAHEIM - Having spent two seasons as inexperienced underlings, the

senior leaders of the Estancia High football team are ready to take their

turn as big brother.

Magnolia, with less impressive expectations, figures to fall under the

Eagles’ collective wing tonight, when the two teams open the first season

of the new millennium with a 7 o’clock nonleague game at La Palma Park.

Magnolia first-year coach Bill Backstrom, who won three league titles

as head man at El Modena, has said attitude, not talent, was his team’s

most glaring preseason question mark.

Estancia Coach Dave Perkins has no such worries for this team, which

could be the best the school has produced in more than a decade.

“It’s been a long three weeks (of practice) and we want to play a

game,” Perkins said. “We’re ready to roll.”

The Eagles, 6-4 a year ago, rolled over the Sentinels, 35-0, in the

1999 season opener. It was the Eagles’ only shutout in their last 39

games and triggered a modest 2-8 campaign for Magnolia, which has not

played a CIF playoff game since 1982.

It could also be a prelude to even greater carnage tonight, as the

perennial Orange League doormat lost all five of its all-league players

to graduation.

Magnolia, which does have some size and experience in the trenches,

has no proven skill performers. This is hardly uplifting news for an

offense that produced the fourth-fewest points in Orange County last fall

(93), including five shutouts.

Estancia, on the other hand, returns five all-league performers and 11

combined starters from a team which contended for the Pacific Coast

League title.

In addition to the All-PCL honors collected last fall by current

seniors Andy Romo, Fahad Jahid, Robert Aguilera, David Rodriguez and

Cesar Romero, senior quarterback Kenny Valbuena gets his first start

since earning second-team all-league recognition as a sophomore.

Valbuena, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior, has thrown for 1,347 career

yards and eight touchdowns. He came off the bench last fall, but has

established himself as the strong-armed trigger man of Perkins’ wing T.

Jahid (6-2, 235) is the leading returning rusher at fullback. He

picked up 203 yards and three TDs on 55 carries last fall.

Senior Jeremy Valdes, last year’s starting quarterback, shifts to

tailback, where he will share rushing chores with wingback Shane McGuire,

Romo, Raymond Romua and Rodriguez.

Romo, who starts at receiver and in the secondary, is the leading

receiver returning with a mere four catches for 39 yards.

The Eagles, led by explosive tailback and 2000 graduate Marshall

Hendricks, produced nearly 84% of their offensive yards on the ground in

1999.

Perkins expects this to change this season, though the Eagles may be

in a position to preserve their passing package against the Sentinels.

The offensive line, with returning starters Romero, Aguilera and

senior Tim Valdez, should hold its own against Magnolia’s size up front.

The Eagles, after all, average 262 pounds from tackle-to-tackle.

Defensively, Estancia is keyed by Rodriguez and Romero at ends, as

well as Jahid at linebacker.

Perkins said he knows nothing about Magnolia’s game plan, since

Backstrom elected not to scrimmage anyone.

The Eagles garnered even more confidence from last week’s scrimmage

against Edison, ranked No. 2 in Orange County.

Estancia is looking to even the school’s record in openers (17-18).

The Eagles have also won four of their last five debuts and are 8-3

all-time against Magnolia.