PREP EXTRA : Notebook : Cherrington Making the Biggest Plays

So, who is the big-play guy this season? So far, it’s Dwayne Cherrington of Santa Ana Valley. He has scored six touchdowns this season, and the average length of each has been 51.3 yards.

Cherrington’s average is slightly better than Savanna’s Daven King, whose four touchdowns have covered an average of 51 yards.

Among county players with four scores or more, the leaders include Corona del Mar’s Brian Hogan (four touchdowns, 44.24 yards), Westminster’s Leonard Ibarra (four, 39.25), Costa Mesa’s DeWayne Crenshaw (five, 38.0), Laguna Hills’ Brendan McGraw (seven, 33.1), Los Amigos’ Greg Fausto (seven, 33.0) and Esperanza’s Brian Forth (four, 33.0).

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Dana Hills’ football team takes in a team movie and meal together before its games and invites along its male and female teacher of the week. And the Dolphins are eating well--at the Chart House in Dana Point and Beach Cities Pizza.

“I’m trying to implement the family philosophy that ties into not only what we do here, but also the family,” first-year Coach Trace Deneke said. “The football team can be a branch of their own family unit.

“It defuses so many situations. When people break bread together, it has a bonding effect; it breaks down barriers.”

Deneke also said there are selfish reasons, too.

“We want a real football program, “ he said. “We want something to draw kids, that tells them we do special things together.”

One of those is the team movie, but they’re on a strict time schedule. Before its season opener against Aliso Niguel, Dolphin players watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “True Lies.” But they had to leave just as Jaime Lee Curtis was doing her striptease for Arnold.

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Sam Peek never wore a Dana Hills football jersey in a game, but he was issued a number by coaches to wear during his freshman season. Now, all three programs, including varsity, will wear his number--89--on their helmets. Peek died Sept. 7 in a storage yard fire one day before the team’s first game.

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Inflation? Fans of Santa Margarita’s football team could deserve a rebate. The Eagles opened the season at Trabuco Hills and faced a discrepancy at the concession stands.

On one side of the field, soft drinks cost $1. On the other side, they were $1.50. Guess which side was charged the extra 50 cents?

“Apparently someone grabbed a sign from last year,” Trabuco Hills Activities Director Sharon Farris said. “It was a mistake. I think we corrected it before the game ended. We’ll definitely have it correct in the future.”

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Nonverbal communication note of the week, meaning that actions speak louder than words, belongs to Estancia, which ended its nine-game losing streak with a 31-0 victory over La Quinta. With the Aztecs at the 13-yard line, poised to score their only touchdown, Estancia put its starters in for the final play.

La Quinta quarterback Jason Gondringer was sacked, and didn’t get up for about a minute.

“The shutout wasn’t that important--what was important was the win,” Estancia Coach John Liebengood said.

“The defensive coordinator (Ben Carpenter) wanted to get the shutout, so we got some better people in there.”

Evidently, the shutout was important, and Carpenter didn’t have enough faith in his reserves to stop La Quinta for one play from 13 yards.

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Los Alamitos quarterback Kevin Feterik’s injury in Week 1 wasn’t lost on the team’s defense in the second half of its 24-14 victory over Kennedy.

“We had to step it up,” defensive linemen Dax Houston said afterward. “We have a tradition here at Los Alamitos and we did what we expect ourselves to do.”

The defense helped the Griffins stretch its unbeaten streak to 37 Friday with a 38-7 victory over L.A. Washington. The defense, and replacement quarterback Sean Stein, should get a stiff challenge Thursday against Carson.

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John Halagan, Woodbridge basketball coach, was at the Warriors’ football opener, but he didn’t rest easy. Not with his junior point guard, Ricky Jenkins, starting both ways.

“I’m on pins and needles all night,” Halagan said. “I just hope he plays as well on the hardwood as he does on the grass.”

Friday night in Woodbridge’s second game, Jenkins broke his collarbone on the game’s third play.

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Jenkins was the replacement quarterback for the Warriors, who lost starter Casey Harris on the second play of their 14-7 victory over eighth-ranked Foothill. Harris sprained his knee on the game’s second play.

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The girls’ tennis showdown between No. 1 Laguna Beach and No. 2 Newport Harbor never materialized Friday because of a scheduling conflict--the Artists were also supposed to play El Toro. The match against the Sailors will go off Sept. 27 at Newport Harbor.

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Bob McAllister, a Westminster High assistant in the 1980s, has Carlsbad off to its best start in four years after its 17-14 victory Friday at San Clemente. The Lancers (2-0) are ranked fifth in San Diego County by the San Diego Union, their first top-five ranking in more than five years.

“We’re all really pleased with the efforts of Bob McAllister,” Carlsbad Athletic Director Mark Nelson said. “It’s fun to watch what’s going on here.”

Carlsbad began the season unranked but upset third-ranked Vista, 32-7, in its opener. McAllister had been an assistant at Vista for five years before he took the Carlsbad job. The Lancers had not finished better than .500 in the previous eight seasons.

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Myron Miller has decided to accept the boys’ athletic director position again at Costa Mesa High. He stepped down last year, citing overload from coaching football and wrestling, and teaching. The school has since hired Ralph Stansbury to coach wrestling. Stansbury coached at Newport Harbor from 1974 to 1980 and since then has been a wrestling official.

Now Miller is back.

Chris Foster, Dave McKibben, Melanie Neff, Mike Terry and Don Turnbull contributed to this story.