Recalling upset for the ages

ROGER CARLSON

Well, it didn’t happen. It usually doesn’t.

Despite the preparation, the motivation and a stable of

thoroughbreds, Newport Harbor High’s football team saw its 2003

campaign close out Friday night as top-seeded and undefeated Los

Altos prevailed with a convincing 28-0 victory in the first round of

the CIF Southern Section Division VI playoffs.

There are two things you always hope to avoid when the end comes.

(1) Don’t go out with a blowout loss, and (2) don’t go out with a

goat in a very close decision. To that extent, there was success. A

kickoff return and 78 yards of offense hardly equates to a 20-0

halftime lead. But there’s no denying Los Altos’ credentials.

There’s a reason Los Altos has that No. 1 label in the Division VI

playoffs, and it brings to mind another No. 1, which found a band of

Sailors up against it.

Friday’s loss at Los Altos marked the 25th anniversary of one of

the greatest games ever played by the Sailors, the night the

undefeated Swordsmen of St. Paul, ranked No. 1 in Southern

California, seeded No. 1 in the CIF Big Five Conference, met their

waterloo on their own home field.

It was a quarter of a century to the night when Bill Pizzica’s

unheralded Sailors swept into Santa Fe Springs and recorded one of

the great upsets of Southern California prep football history.

“We were kind of an afterthought (as the pairings were released),”

said Pizzica, the Sailors’ coach from 1974-78.

Harbor had finished third in the Sunset League and entered the

playoffs with an overall record of 5-4. Even the at-large team was

given more respect as the top-ranked St. Paul juggernaut, under the

coaching of Marijon Ancich, and assisted by Dick Bruich, was given

the Sailors as first-round fodder in its anticipated title march.

Absolutely no one, outside of the Newport Harbor inner circle,

gave the Sailors a chance for an upset at St. Paul, where the

Swordsmen had racked up something like a 50-game winning streak at

home.

Not only did St. Paul (9-0) have a tremendous program, there was

an intimidation factor on that fabled St. Paul gridiron which was

second to none.

No one but Pizzica, who had seen his team give Edison all it could

handle before succumbing, 13-10, in Sunset League play. And, the

Sailors hadn’t really felt the intimidation factor for several years.

“We went up there,” recalled Pizzica, “and lo and behold, my

two-way radio equipment got lost. The rules were such that they had

to offer equal equipment to what they had, and they couldn’t, so they

couldn’t use their radios. So that set them off right away.”

Such “loss” of equipment was usually a parochial school trick,

forcing an opponent to often forego its usual mode of operation,

although Pizzica admits no such trickery.

The Sailors struck for a touchdown early in the game and, in the

second half, broke a 7-7 deadlock with a field goal. They hung on to

post an incredible, 10-7 shocker, leaving a scar on that field that

has never healed.

“Our kids were in the bus to come back and their fans were still

sitting there in the stands in shock. They didn’t move,” said

Pizzica. Pizzica’s wife, Betty, drove the Sailors home in that

delirious bus and it carried over into a 10-7 victory over Redlands

the next week before eventual CIF Big Five Conference champion

Fountain Valley was able to top the Sailors, 14-9, in the semifinal.

“We had some tough kids,” recalled Pizzica. “It was really a

storybook year for us. The kids really got down to business.”

The game was billed as “No. 16 vs. No. 1” and Pizzica, who loved

to use the bulletin board to his advantage, played the snub to the

hilt.

“St. Paul really did have a great team and was overlooking us,”

said Pizzica. “I know in the late stages of the game, I was doing a

lot of praying.”

This was a team which scored 13 points or fewer in all but a 21-6

win over Westminster. Surely it must be a record for a CIF (major

schools) semifinalist to score fewer than 11 points per game (10.8)

over a course of 12 starts.

It was one of those night-of-nights at the Pilot when sportswriter

Howard L. Handy returned and went to the chalkboard, inserting a 10

alongside Newport Harbor, and then, turning toward us with a wry

grin, a 7 by St. Paul.

The knee-jerk reaction was an explosion in the office, but I don’t

think any of us really believed Howard until his story was being set

in type.

Handy’s story revolved around the exploits of Mike Johnson and

Brian Ward in the running game, and at quarterback was Dave Hitzel

and a junior named Alan Gaddis.

Up front, the Sailors were anchored by Joe Carnahan (6-foot-5, 255

pounds), along with Brett L’Ecluse, Brett Smith, Ryan Abbate, Brad

Sell, Steve Kraemer and Neil Ross.

Dave DeRuff and Scott Benjamin were tight ends and Chris Cates was

a wideout.

Dave Thompson was Harbor’s hammer at middle ‘backer and Hitzel,

Abbate, Benjamin, Fernando Castorena, Jay Volzke and Ward were all

very big on the defensive side.

Scott Giem was another in a long line of sterling kickers.

Pizzica’s assistants were the late Larry Doyle, Hank Cochrane and

Tim Parsel, the latter Estancia High’s current athletic director.

In Pizzica’s reign, the Sailors were 35-19 in the toughest of

circles, were CIF semifinalists three times and defeated Corona del

Mar all five years. He capped his career as athletic director, hiring

football coach Jeff Brinkley and current athletic director Eric

Tweit. A native of Ohio, he arrived at Harbor in 1967 as an assistant

to Wade Watts and closed out a 22-year career with a 10-year run as

athletic director. A great Sailor in the Long Gray Line.

Pizzica, a resident of Hemet, saw all of Harbor’s games this year,

as is his custom, including Friday night’s duel with No. 1 Los Altos

in Hacienda Heights.

Hey! See you next Sunday!

ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot. His

column appears on Sundays. He can be reached by e-mail at

rogeranddorothea@msn.com