Ford Plans to Stick With Strategy and Stick It to Laguna Hills : Prep football: Trabuco Hills’ linebacker and tight end looks forward to putting another big hit on one of his best friends in tonight’s game at Mission Viejo.

MISSION VIEJO —  When the Friday night lights shine on Julian Ford, he likes nothing more than knocking opponents on their rear ends.

“I love contact,” Ford says with a smile.

The Trabuco Hills High School linebacker and tight end will enjoy each tackle and hit a little more than usual tonight when the Mustangs play Pacific Coast League rival Laguna Hills at Mission Viejo High School.

“I really don’t like them very much,” Ford said.

In fact, Ford recalls with pleasure a tackle he made on Marwan Saba, the Hawks’ bulldozer of a running back, in Trabuco Hills’ 41-3 victory last season.

Ford ranks that hit as one of his best.

“Marwan was coming through the middle, and I got him good,” Ford said. “Everyone thought he was the strongest back, and he couldn’t be stopped, but I met him head-on.

“I had a lot of one-on-ones with Marwan last year. I figure if I could stop him last year, I can stop him this year.”

Fine way to treat a friend, eh?

Ford, Saba and Trabuco Hills running back/defensive back Ben Rooker have been pals since junior high. But tonight, as in the past, they’ll be less than friendly for a couple of hours.

“Ben and Marwan were talking on the phone a couple of weeks ago, and Marwan told him that he knew we (the defense) wanted him again,” Ford said.

But Laguna Hills offers a new offensive threat this year. Senior Casey Sullivan, a transfer from St. Monica High School, has completed 38 of 74 passes for six touchdowns.

Ford knows of Sullivan . . . and says he’s ready.

“The guy I want to hit is Sullivan,” Ford said. “Sullivan has talked to some of my friends, and he told them that Ben and I couldn’t run and we would never catch him.”

Sullivan might want to guess again.

Ford, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds, isn’t someone you’d want chasing you. He stands 6 feet 3, weighs 210 pounds, and looks as though he were carved from a block of marble.

Ford’s size and talent have attracted interest from Colorado, USC and San Diego State. He averages five tackles and one sack per game.

Trabuco Hills Coach Jim Barnett said Ford has potential “that’s close to unlimited.”

“I would rank Julian right (up there) with some of the best I’ve coached,” Barnett said. “He’s better than Mark Carrier was when he played for me at (Long Beach) Poly.”

Carrier went on to USC and now plays safety for the Chicago Bears.

Ford hopes to follow a similar path.

“I really want to go to USC,” he said. “They’re recruiting me as a linebacker.

But Barnett said Ford’s future is on offense.

“It’s not that he can’t play defense,” Barnett said. “It’s just that you have to be so big anymore to play linebacker. He’ll make a good tight end in college.”

To get to college, Ford must have the grades. He said he has a 2.3 grade-point average and just took the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Barnett said Ford could do better in school.

“He has always been an underachiever as far as the classroom,” Barnett said. “He’s really bright, but he’s just lazy. If he has the SAT score, he can definitely play Division I.

“He’s good-natured and really his only poor quality is a lack of study habits. In terms of football, he’s great. He never misses a play.”

He isn’t a typical block-and-run tight end. Barnett regularly runs sweep plays with Ford, who has rushed for 168 yards in 30 carries this season.

Ford also moved to running back for two games this season while Rooker recovered from an ankle injury.

“Julian’s a natural runner with the ball,” Barnett said. “It helps the whole offense that we can move him around. When it comes crunch time, we go to Julian.”

Ford said he owes much of his improvement to Mustang assistant Dan Collins, who played tight end for the Raiders.

“He has worked with me a lot on not just my blocking, but my running, too,” Ford said.

Ford is a favorite target of quarterbacks Pat Barnes and Shane Weintraut, having caught 16 passes for 222 yards.

A couple of weeks ago, Ford outjumped Villa Park defensive back Sean McCully for a pass, reaching behind McCully’s head to pull in the ball for a 26-yard gain.

Ford had six catches for 82 yards, but Trabuco Hills lost, 28-10. Losing is something Ford has had to get used to this season.

He scored a combined 17 touchdowns as a sophomore and junior as the Mustangs won consecutive league and Southern Section Division VIII titles.

But this year, Ford has only two touchdowns, and the Mustangs (2-3-1, 1-0 in league play) have struggled. They lost two one-point games but have outgained every opponent.

“It really hurts,” Ford said. “We’re not used to losing after winning back-to-back championships. All the ex-players come to our games, but they can’t even watch. They feel just as bad as this year’s players do.

“A lot of people expected us to do better this year. But now everyone thinks, ‘Oh, Trabuco finally has a bad team.’ Now that we’re into the league season, we’re coming on stronger than ever.”

Barnett said Ford is a big part of Trabuco Hills’ playoff hopes. A victory over Laguna Hills (4-1-1, 1-0) would put the Mustangs in position to win their third consecutive league title.

“We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of Julian,” Barnett said. “Hopefully we can get a little more out of him before he goes off to college.”