Justin-Siena High School defensive coordinator Steve Vargus makes it sound a lot easier than it is to virtually shut down opposing offenses week after week.

“They’re playing well,” he said of the Braves defenders as they prepare to host San Marin Friday in Marin County Athletic League play. “It’s just good execution of a simple plan.”

The Braves, 1-0 in the MCAL and 3-1 overall, have given up just 13.2 points per game. Take away three kickoffs returned for touchdowns against special teams, and the defensive unit is actually holding teams under 10 points per contest.

“Everybody has a job and reads and reacts. It’s a total team defense,” Vargus said. “We try to be prepared mentally and physically. We respect every opponent. We’ve got great leaders on defense. The kids are smart. They watch film, work hard and get along really well. It’s everything you could want. You don’t get this every year.”

As Justin prepared for a winless San Marin team that has scored just 29 points in three games, defensive end Justin Clayton explained that the Braves’ success comes from a blend of Vargus schemes and exceptional raw talent.

“I think it’s probably half and half,” Clayton said of the importance between scheme and skill.

“We’ve got good athletes who know their roles and play hard, but it wouldn’t do us as much good if we weren’t doing exactly what the coach says.”

Clayton is a 6-foot-3, 245-pound senior who will attend Washington State University on a football scholarship in 2009. His presence, and abilities, gives Vargus a lot more to work with than he’s had with some Braves defenses.

“We move Justin around,” Vargus said of lining Clayton up at tackle as well as at end. “We know teams are going to run away from him, so we do some stunts and ... I don’t want to give away too many secrets about what we do with him. Now and then we do things and teams focus on Justin and that opens things up for us somewhere else.”

Clayton agreed that, whatever Vargus is doing, it’s not making it impossible for opposing teams to find him and try to stop him with more than one blocker.

“I like moving around,” he said. “I don’t have a big head or anything, I’m just doing my best ... but, if the other team keys on me and that gets us a linebacker open to make a tackle, that’s great. I don’t care if I make any tackles, as long as we’re playing well.”

Defensive end Guido Murnig, a 6-foot, 200-pound senior, actually credited the attention Redwood of Larkspur paid to Clayton for his teammates slamming the door on the Giants last Saturday, 28-13.

“It wasn’t what I did,” the unselfish Murnig said. “It’s a team effort. They’d double-team Justin and that would get me an opening to make a tackle. Or, we’d blitz a linebacker and that opened somebody else up to make a play. It’s a team thing, not what any one guy does.”

Vargus said free safety Craig Cybulski and linebacker Daniel Pardini, who missed action with a shoulder injury, are other senior keys to the defense.

“They lead by example,” the defensive coordinator said. “They don’t talk a lot, but they work hard and they understand what they need to do.”

Cybulski doubles as a wide receiver. Clayton joins senior Casey Tompkins to play on the offensive line. The double-duty doesn’t really have much negative impact on the Justin defense.

“It’s not that we miss a block, then turn around and catch ourselves thinking about it and then miss a tackle on defense,” Clayton said. “It’s just that we don’t get that chance to stop much and think about what happened to make us miss the block. There’s no chance to rest, but that’s why we’ve been conditioning all year.”

Tompkins explained in detail after the Braves beat Redwood on an afternoon when temperatures hovered near 90 degrees.

“That’s why we do so much conditioning,” he said. “We condition so that we can respond well in adverse conditions.”

Vargus said the Braves have actually been forced to play more players both offense and defense than they have in most years.

“We’ve had some injuries,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of not having guys play both ways. As we get more healthy, we’ll have fewer guys playing both sides of the ball.”

Senior linebackers Quin Stanier

(6-foot-2, 220) and Kevin Haugen (5-foot-10, 180) have played important roles as the Braves have yielded a minimum of time-consuming scoring drives. The Braves have been victimized by the big pass play — especially in a 29-13 loss to Menlo Prep.

“Minus the Menlo game, it’s been close to a perfect defensive season,” Clayton said. “We do want to give up fewer yards passing, some teams have gone over the top of us ... that happens. We’re really happy with the run defense. We’re really close to our goals defensively.”

Clayton could be forgiven if he was preoccupied in his final high school season by thinking about making his collegiate debut in the Pac-10 Conference next fall.

But the senior is absolutely focused on the task at hand.

“I want a ring. I want to win. I wouldn’t be happy going to play in college with a 6-5 record in my final year in high school,” he said. “High school’s a once in a lifetime thing. I’m not thinking about anything but winning.”