Juanita Winner Built From Rebel Rubble -- Winners Of Only Five Games The Past Three Seasons, The Juanita Rebels Are Experiencing A Football Revival. Their Kingco Showdown With Woodinville Friday Is The Team's Biggest Game In Years.

KIRKLAND - Two.

Half of four. The second loneliest number.

Doesn't sound like much. But if you're talking victories and Juanita High School football lately, that's a season.

The Rebels from Kirkland take their 2-0 record on the road to play seventh-ranked Woodinville (2-0) Friday in a game with playoff implications.

That's right, p-l-a-y-o-f-f implications.

"It's the biggest game I've ever played," said Jeff Martin, senior nose guard. "Basically, the loser, in our minds, is out of it. Not mathematically, but it would be hard to come back. If we win this game, we feel we'll be in the driver's seat.

"It's really weird. I've never had that feeling at all."

A third-year varsity football player, Martin never has had a winning season. Or anything close to it.

Juanita was the state's team of the '80s that got creamed in the '90s.

After winning eight straight Crown Division titles through 1990, the Rebels have won five games since.

After Chuck Tarbox quit after 1990, several frontline players seeped out of the program, too, until the administration finally hired a replacement, Mike Thomas, only a month before fall practice began.

One of the players who left, Ty Curley, went on to become the Kingbowl Player of the Day for that season's Class AAA champion, Cascade of Everett.

Meanwhile, Thomas faced rubble where a dynasty once stood.

Two victories each in 1991 and '92 followed, then a 1-8 season last year. Even first-year Eastlake beat Juanita in '93 - the only KingCo Conference win for the 2-7 Wolves.

But look at the Rebels now.

The defense has allowed only a field goal in two games. The offense scored 30 points last week.

"It feels good to be known as one of the teams to beat instead of one of the doormats," senior linebacker Jeff Hill said.

"To the team, it's not a surprise. But if you go to the fans in school, it's a big surprise," Martin said. "People are starting to say, `So, you guys going to win this week?' instead of `How bad you going to lose?' "

The turnaround came during the summer, when more regulars started showing up at the weight room and Steve Bennett, the new defensive coordinator showed up from California.

Martin figures about 30 Rebels lifted regularly this summer compared to about 10 his first two years in the program.

Bennett moved to the Eastside this summer and was reunited with Juanita's Thomas after three years apart.

Bennett was Thomas' defensive coordinator for six seasons at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., before Thomas took the Juanita job in 1991.

"He's taught me a lot," Hill said. "He brings out a lot of intensity in us. And makes us do things right without getting on us."

Perhaps Bennett's main contribution to KingCo's top scoring defense - which has allowed only 160 total yards in two games - is to simplify assignments.

"I think the last couple years maybe we tried to do too much and maybe overloaded the kids with things that maybe restricted their performance," Thomas said.

So far, simple has looked primal in Juanita's ferocious application of Bennett's 5-2 scheme.

"I try not to give them too many things to think about," Bennett said. "They seem to have adapted pretty well."

Cover your position. Fill your gap. Do the routine well and let the spectacular take care of itself.

Simple.

"It's all real self-explanatory," Hill said.

And, finally, it's starting to become fulfilling.

"It just makes it easier to go out there each day and work when you're seeing some results and success of your labor," Thomas said. "Our staff puts in a lot of hours. It's a heck of a lot easier to go in there Saturday and start looking at film and getting ready for next week after a win than after a loss."

Very little looks easy in preparation for this week's game. Woodinville has the defense that looks like a match for Juanita - having allowed only one touchdown and 170 total yards in two games. The Falcons' offense has scored only 10 points in each of its first two games. But Woodinville has KingCo's fastest back in Coby Dilling, perhaps the league's top all-around quarterback in Ryan Lentz and one of the league's top kickers in Brian Bettis (34- and 39-yard field goals).

Last year, Juanita outplayed a playoff-bound Woodinville team most of the game before the Falcons won 20-17 in overtime.

"I've been at this 23 years," Thomas said. "I've been at the top, and I've been at the bottom. This is just another game we've got to prepare for."

But so unlike any from the past three seasons. So important. So weird.

"Having a chance to win KingCo, that's interesting," Martin said. "That's fun."

------------------------------------------------------. . Juanita awakening. .

The Juanita High football team is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since Chuck Tarbox's last season as head coach, 1990 - the last of eight straight division titles and state playoff appearances. Juanita football since the '70s: . . Year League Season Postseason. . 1980 1-7 2-7 no playoffs. . 1981 8-0 9-1 lost state opener. . 1982 2-6 3-6 no playoffs. . 1983 7-2 7-3 lost state opener. . 1984 9-0 13-0 AAA state champion. . 1985 8-0 13-0 AAA state champion. . 1986 7-1 11-2 lost state title game. . 1987 7-1 7-2 lost state opener. . 1988 7-1 7-2 lost state opener. . 1989 5-0 9-2 lost in state quarterfinals. . 1990 5-0 8-2 lost state opener. . 1991 1-4 2-7 no playoffs. . 1992 1-4 2-7 no playoffs. . 1993 1-5 1-8 no playoffs. . 1994 1-0 2-0 Rebel return?. . .

Note: The 1990 team lost one of its first two games when late in an otherwise unbeaten season, the team was forced to forfeit a game in which it used an illegal player.