Ron Kantowski is buoyed by victory as Clark High, which used to be a sports powerhouse, finally wins after 42 losses

Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 | 7:35 a.m.

Last year, after I wrote a column about Clark High's 34-game football losing streak, I received a nice note from a Chargers fan named Marie Passante, whose son, Chris Luscombe , was a senior on the team.

I promised her I would do a follow-up when Clark finally won. I honestly thought it would be last year, because in the two games I watched Clark block and tackle, it seemed to be getting better at it.

But then a gust of wind would blow a kick out of bounds. Somebody would fumble, drop a pass, throw an interception, miss an assignment. No matter how hard the Chargers tried, Lucy always pulled the ball away, and Charlie Brown always wound up on his keister.

Good grief! The losing streak reached 35 36 37 38 39 40 games. Then, in the last game of the season, Clark was beating Bonanza in the fourth quarter. It couldn't hang on. The Bengals celebrated as if they had just aced their algebra final.

41.

Last season ended as the last three had. The Chargers were still winless.

Clark opened 2007 against Rancho's Rams, which had been practicing at a city park and began the season with 17 consecutive losses of their own. The Chargers fumbled nine times, losing eight. Rancho won 31-0.

42.

Last Friday, Clark fell behind Legacy, which is playing its first 4A season, 18-7. But then Jupiter aligned with Mars. Pigs flew. The devil went shopping for a parka.

Maybe hell wasn't freezing over, but at least the wind did not blow when Clark was trying to punt. Moreover, the Chargers didn't fumble, drop passes, throw interceptions, miss assignments.

They mounted a rally. They scored 21 consecutive points to beat Legacy 28-18. They finally won a football game.

That's the winning streak Clark will take into tonight's game against Arbor View.

Last year, Chris Luscombe, Marie Passante's son, told me some of his classmates, God bless 'em, were still supportive of the football team.

And the others?

"They just think we suck," he said.

Last Friday, Chris Luscombe was one of eight seniors from last year's team who celebrated with this year's on a night Clark most definitely did not suck.

By now, you may know the story, that a generation ago Clark was a powerhouse, winning state championships left and right and down the middle. Nick Bell, who starred for Iowa and the Los Angeles Raiders, is a Clark kid. So is Brian Dallimore, who played for Stanford and the San Francisco Giants. And Ron Riley, who went on to become the leading basketball scorer in Arizona State history. Robert Gamez is still hitting greens in regulation on the PGA Tour.

But every time somebody put a shovel in the ground to start a new high school, Clark lost another good athlete. Or two or three or four.

In 1992 Clark won six state championships. But as Roger Schumann, the school's longtime athletic director , said, "Then Durango opened in 1993, and the next year, our starting point guard is playing up there."

Don Willis, Clark's second-year coach, wasn't around in those days. His players are too young to remember them.

That's why it wasn't until late in the fourth quarter last Friday that Willis permitted himself to think about a Gatorade shower.

"Actually, I thought at halftime that we could win," he said. "But I didn't know if we would or not."

After Clark took the lead, Tyson Carter, an offensive and defensive end, looked at the clock and saw there were still two minutes to play. He didn't look again. It must have been like being Jim Craig between the pipes at Lake Placid, with the Russians steaming across the blue line.

"Play your game," coach Herb Brooks kept telling the USA players in 1980.

"Play every down," Carter kept telling his teammates last Friday night.

Dimarko Shoulders, who had rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns, made an interception that sealed the victory.

Do you believe in miracles? Freddie Banales, a linebacker and offensive lineman , reprised goalie Craig's role. He looked into the aluminum bleachers for his father. He didn't see him, but there was a reason for it.

"My dad rushed the field with the rest of our fans," said Banales, who like his close pal Carter is one of the Chargers' captains. "It was a very proud moment. "

Banales and the Chargers were still walking tall on Monday when they arrived at school and were greeted by a giant banner in the cafeteria commemorating the victory.

"It seemed like everybody hated us," Carter said. "This week, it seemed like everybody had school spirit."

I was standing in a shady spot alongside the bleachers at Collis Stadium, Clark's home field, when the Chargers trudged onto the practice field. I started to say it was a steady procession, but in that only about two dozen kids in shoulder pads shuffled by - "We roll with what we got," Cody Duguay, another of the senior captains, called back to me - it's hard to imagine Clark's winning streak lasting with so few numbers.

But that's not going to stop the Chargers from trying. It never has.

"It's like I told our kids Friday night, enjoy this, but when we come back Monday we've got work to do," Willis said. "Let's not let this be our one shining moment."

Minutes later these two dozen winners who call themselves Chargers were stretching hamstrings and rotating neck muscles on the 30-yard line, the bright afternoon sun glaring like mad off their helmets.