University City Keeps the Pace Fast, the Harmony Perfect : High school football: The squabbles of '91 behind them, the Centurions are 4-0.

By DANA HADDAD

Oct. 8, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO — Paul Turner, the fastest player in the county, sometimes stops in the middle of football practice and looks to the sky. He hears a jet. But the speedy craft is gone before his squinting eyes can locate it.

Earth-shaking flybys occur most everyday at University City High, as F-14 Tomcat fighters from Miramar Naval Air Station streak low overhead, often in formation.

The powerful engines of the Navy planes are a kind of inspiration for Turner, a running back who ran a hand-timed 10.5 in the 100 meters at the Mt. SAC Relays last spring, and the Centurions, a team that has destroyed four opponents with deadly speed.

“By the time I look up,” Turner said, “they’re gone.”

Many a would-be tackler has said the same of the UC offense, led by Turner, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound senior who was fifth in the 100 at the state track and field meet.

Turner has scored eight touchdowns in four games, averages eight yards per carry and 35 yards per pass reception.

By the time opposing defenses recognize him, it’s too late.

Turner burst onto the scene last season with dazzling runs from scrimmage and spectacular punt returns in what was a mediocre season for the Centurions, who were 5-5 and 1-3 in the City Western League.

This season has brought a dramatic turnaround.

The Centurions are 4-0 without yielding a point yet this season. After throttling Hoover, Serra and Madison, 49-0, 48-0 and 20-0, in its first three games, UC hit a milestone Friday by beating Mira Mesa for the first time in nine attempts, 21-0.

The Centurions have scored 138 points, allowed none. Average score of games: 35-0.

Never has a UC team appeared so strong. The Centurions have made several playoff appearances, but have never won a playoff game in the school’s 11 years.

Coach Steve Vukojevich said they had the talent to do so last year, but any hope of success was doused by dissension. Distracted by personal goals, the Centurions chose to go to war with themselves. But a change has occurred. As much as they were apart 1991, the players now are together.

The result has been startling. UC suddenly appears to be more than a playoff team.

“My older brother (Adrian Johnson) played for Lincoln; he went to the stadium,” said Ed Miller, the team’s leading rusher with 277 yards and one of several players bused from the city. “But I think we’re going to the stadium this year at UC High.”

Last year, the deafening roar of the fighter jets could not muffle angry voices of bickering players. Too many stars had invaded the campus east of La Jolla, and their conflicts spilled over into games.

“It was a shock to me, because all we did in Pop Warner was win,” said linebacker Ken Williams. “Everybody was (saying), ‘I want to go to college. It’s all about me, and I want to get my stats.’

“When we got down last year, we couldn’t get back. Once something went wrong, (players) just stepped away from the blame.”

Sometimes, fights broke out in the middle of practice. Vukojevich, 52, the only head coach UC has had, acknowledged he didn’t know how to deal with it. He’d never seen players attack each other during sprints.

“One kid said to another, ‘Hey, I’m tired of running. Why don’t you hustle?’ ” Vukojevich recounted. “The other kid said, ‘Don’t you yell at me . . .’ And then they came at each other.

“It just drove me crazy. We just had all kinds of problems that I’d never run into before. No way do I know everything about X’s and O’s. . . . I thought I was a pretty good motivator.

“I found out real quick, once you start thinking you got all the answers to everything, there are no answers.”

Vukojevich can pinpoint no one reason for the Centurions’ 180-degree turnaround this fall. One thing appears clear: The players vowed to change after the team’s 50-21 loss to San Pasqual in the first round of the 2-A playoffs.

In Friday’s shutout of Mira Mesa, a perennial 3-A playoff team, the offense, led by 5-7 senior quarterback Daranzol Sheppard, gained nearly 400 yards while the defense held off its first real challenge. The Marauders, who had first down at the UC 10-yard line, could gain only one yard on three running plays, then overthrew a covered receiver in the end zone.

UC is a team that lacks size, but compensates with quickness and blinding speed. Turner, Miller and receiver Greg Russell ran together on UC’s 4 x 100 relay team, which took 12th in the state meet. Thus far, this is what they’ve produced:

Turner has 273 yards rushing and 210 receiving (on six receptions) to go with his team-high eight touchdowns. Miller has 277 rushing yards and a 6.0 per-carry average. Russell has eight receptions for 136 yards (17.0 avg.) and has rushed for 92 yards (5.7 avg.). Throw in Sheppard’s 98 yards rushing, and this foursome averages 185 yards per game on the ground.

Along with depth at the skill positions, Sheppard has emerged as a passer with impressive numbers thus far: 48 attempts, 31 completions, 521 yards (16.8 per completion), eight touchdowns and no interceptions.

Sheppard said his talents were overlooked much of last season, perhaps because of his small stature, but he claims he can throw the ball 50 yards and his passes are usually sharp and on target. He is also aware of each receivers’ tendencies.

“We’re all close,” Sheppard said. “We’ve known each other for a long time. You just put the ball where you know they can get it.”

Said Turner, “It’s fun now, because it’s our last year and we’re winning. Our defense has a goal, and our offense is going to get way better.”

The defense is another story.

“I was amazed. I shouldn’t be, but I was,” Vukojevich said of the Mira Mesa shutout. “We were so aggressive, just constantly. Relentless. We hadn’t had that in the past.”

Many would be inclined to credit defensive coordinator Chris Miller, who both played and coached at San Diego State and played briefly for Don Coryell as a strike player with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974. But Miller, who came to UC in 1991, credits Vukojevich.

“It’s Coach Vukojevich’s defense,” Miller said. “I’m just fortunate that he lets me call the plays. But people tell me I’m intense. I’m not a calm personality. I hope my defense has adopted that.”

For the University City community, football success has been a long time coming. The Centurions were projected as a power when their school opened in fall 1980, cutting into the enrollment of then-Western League kingpin Clairemont. But Allan LaMotte, offensive coordinator and athletic director, said the demographics at UC have always fluctuated.

This year, about 50% of its students do not live in the community.

Still, had he expected to win a playoff game by now? “Oh, sure,” LaMotte said. Should UC finally do so this year? “We should.”

Sheppard, Turner and a legion that includes Russell, Miller, defensive backs Peter Uriarte, Chris Williams, Nino Davis and Travon Brown will try to make good on LaMotte’s assumption.

They played together in Skyline and South Bay Pop Warner--and won. They decided they would stay together through high school--in University City. They planned to keep winning, but somehow personal agendas got in the way.

“I’m glad I came here,” said Russell, “because if I had gone to Morse I would have gotten into a gang. It’s hard where I live; you get involved with stuff. And I was starting to get involved.

“But here, we were fighting among each other. We weren’t really a team.”

It was easy to break off into cliques. Some guys have tattoos, others wear rings. Some walk home from practice, a few blocks. Others wait to be bused roughly 20 miles back to the city.

There are still are occasional weak links in the chain of togetherness. Last week, two starting linemen skipped practice to attend a concert. They were benched for Friday’s game. But such instances have become rare.

“One guy ditched practice to get his hair done last year,” said tackle Ian Ferguson, a 6-foot, 205-pound head-butting free spirit, who, teammates say, had 10 sacks in the first three games. “Seems like everybody’s got a clearer head this year.”

On Tuesday, Ferguson, who had grown a goatee, showed up to practice clean shaven, and his 18-inch long blond hair was cropped. His supervisor at work, Penguin’s Yogurt in La Jolla, did not care for the old look.

Ferguson’s teammates have taken a liking to him.

“He’s like one of those Bob Golic guys,” said Williams of Ferguson, who moved to University City from Chandler, Ariz., two years ago. His teammates call Ferguson “Zonie.”

Williams, 5-11, 206 pounds, is UC’s other hard-hitting menace on defense who fancied himself a marquee name at Morse but chose UC for its academics. Williams and Ferguson are both into biology.

Williams, like everybody else, would like to forget about 1991 but concedes that it has become a source of motivation. But his historical perspective runs deeper.

Williams’ brother, Curtis, played at UC in 1986 with eventual Division I players Matt Brock (Oregon), Darrin Wagner (SDSU), Paul MacRenato (Colorado State) and Greg Cleveland (Army). But when it came to the playoffs, something was missing.

The last time UC won a league championship was 1988, with a team that had 100 meters champion Jeff Jordan, Darnes Taylor (Central State of Ohio), Eric Taylor (Arizona) and Anthony Hill (Colorado State). It lost to El Camino, 42-6, in the first round of the playoffs.

“It’s cool to have stats and go to college; I just want to win,” said Williams. “But people have started to realize not everybody can play college, and you gotta go for what is now.”

Ultimately, UC’s girls’ basketball team might have left a lasting impression on the football players last year. They certainly did for their somewhat-glum coach, Vukojevich, taking him to the section championship game.

“I met 11 of the greatest girls . . . the epitome of a team,” he said. “Those 11 girls just turned my head around. I told (my football players) I met 11 girls that wanted to be a team. And they got us to the arena.

“So far, this team has been just like that. I hope it holds.”