Southern Section Football Championships : Eagles Dare to Rewrite History

Among many other things, a history lesson was administered Friday night before several thousand high school students at Anaheim Stadium.

Topic of the day:

Eisenhower in the ‘50s.

Fifty-six, to be exact.

Fifty-six to three.

Memories apparently die hard in Rialto, home of the Dwight D. Eisenhower High School Running-It-Up Eagles. Memories apparently fester and burn in the pit of the stomach there--memories of Mater Dei High knocking off the Eagles in the playoffs of ’90 and ‘91, when Eisenhower had the No. 1-ranked prep football team in the country.

Twice, the Monarchs had been giant-killers--first in the quarterfinals of ‘90, then, most strikingly, in the Division I final of ‘91, a 35-14 rout that was witnessed by 33,204 at Anaheim Stadium.

The football coaches at Eisenhower considered this public humiliation, making sure their players would not forget.

Retribution would be theirs, and has been, ever since. Mater Dei and Eisenhower now meet on the football field as often as USC and UCLA do--once per year--since their paths invariably cross in the postseason. Eisenhower won Round 3, 19-3, in the ’92 quarterfinals, but that was relative small potatoes. Eagles Coach Tom Hoak hungered for the whole meal--all five courses plus dessert plus aperitif plus after-dinner cigar plus midnight raid on the leftovers.

It came Friday night, on a silver platter, and the Eagles gorged themselves.

For the first time, Eisenhower won a Southern Section football championship.

For the first time, 56 points were scored by the winning team in a Southern Section major division football championship game.

In three quarters, just 36 minutes, Eisenhower eclipsed the previous record--55, by Edison in 1979. That was the Kerwin Bell-Frank Seuer Edison juggernaut, perhaps the greatest high school team to ever play in Orange County, and it pounded Redlands, 55-0, in the most lopsided final in section history.

Friday’s 53-point spread tied for runner-up (San Diego beat Monrovia, 53-0, in 1959), though Hoak can’t be faulted for trying.

At 41-3, he had his team passing for a two-point conversion.

At 50-3, he had his quarterback, Glenn Thompkins, throwing a 48-yard touchdown bomb to wide receiver Julius McChristian.

At 56-3, with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, he still had his first-string offense on the field, and with 8:17 to go, he had his team go for the first down on fourth-and-one from the Eisenhower 30.

Thompkins kept the ball and tried to skirt right end, but was dragged down from behind for a one-yard loss. For Mater Dei, it may have been the play of the night.

With 5 1/2 minutes to go, McChristian and tailback Marlon Farlow, who rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns, were boogieing on the Eagles sideline, gleefully soaking it in, within full view of the Monarchs and their booster section.

Eisenhower seemed to be brandishing a hammer on behalf of every school that had ever been pummeled by Mater Dei, on grass or on hardwood, and cracking it down hard, again and again and again.

“This is revenge,” Farlow said. “This is too much revenge.”

Hoak insisted that his team “in no way intended to run it up.” No, Hoak claimed, he merely wanted to make sure all his senior stars were taken care of, with jaunts to the end zone and jubilation fit for home-taping, with this game being televised live locally by Channel 13.

“Julius McChristian has been a starter for us for two years and he didn’t have a big play,” Hoak said, explaining the reasoning behind a 48-yard scoring lob with a 47-point lead. “Marlon had big plays, Glenn had big plays. All we wanted to do is get a big play for Julius.

“At that point, our players came first, I’m sorry if Mater Dei took it the wrong way.”

Eisenhower finishes its season at 14-0 and, for the moment, the No. 2 ranking in the nation. Pending is tonight’s outcome of Cleveland St. Ignatius-Cincinnati Moeller Ohio state showdown. St. Ignatius is No. 1 in the country, Moeller No. 6, and a St. Ignatius defeat, or tie, or lackluster victory, perhaps, could vault Eisenhower to the top.

Twice denied by Mater Dei, with a senior-heavy roster and a 3,200-student body about to be split between Eisenhower and new Rialto High, this could the Eagles’ last stab at glory for a while. So they took their moment and ran with it . . . and kept running . . . and kept passing, long after the Monarchs were flat on their backs, gasping for breath.

This was the best high school football the Southern Section can offer, no questions asked.

But it was hardly high school football at its best.

Big Night for Eisenhower

Biggest margins of victory in Southern Section football championship games (all conferences and divisions, 11-man only):

55 Edison 55, Redlands 0, 1979

53 Rialto Eisenhower 56, Mater Dei 3, 1993

53 San Diego 53, Monrovia 0, 1959

50 Pasadena 50, Whittier 0, 1915

49 Santa Monica 49, L.A. Poly 0, 1920

Source: Southern Section